I still use nvAlt (formerly Notational Velocity) for note taking. It is synced to a Dropbox folder. I can use the native Dropbox app to search, view, and edit the files. What I really like is the speed of note taking and searching in the nvAlt app. All my notes have a title in a loose format such as "project_name keyword ... keyword". It takes a second to find the note I need. Therefore, nvAlt serves as a bookmark manager as well. Obsidian feels clunky and slow, and I couldn't get it to switch to the .txt file extension (which is possible to edit via Dropbox on an iPhone).

the thing with such a system is keeping it up to date

you have to spend SO MUCH time writing notes... and since you might put in everything you've thought to do, in there, you also have to go back and read it again, to find it?

seems like a very time consuming process

i personally write down details for a few topics, in my notes, and then i tend to forget the small details, and use my brain to remember the big scope(s). then i can return to my notes for tiny details later, if needed.

most of the time though, i tend to never return.

and so i ended up just not writing notes anymore. it ends up being too much to look through, or too much to be worth the time.

gotta find that sweet spot i guess, but thats not easy either.

I don't take long-term notes at all, only quick notes on paper of thing I need to do. I tried to collect all thoughts, notes etc. but I would never read them again. Most of it would be outdated anyways. So I understand that these kind of notes might feel like ballast and might be a reason to not be able to close with things.

Everything that is worth keeping is on my website as properliy written posts which I enjoy to re-read from time to time. You could also look at it this way: anything that doesn't make it onto the website - i.e. is published - isn't worth saving either.

i like this. complexity bad, delete it! Most pkm, tools for thought, second brain apps confuse me. I drank the coolade with roam research but it drove me kinda nuts I've spent almost 3 years making my own tool. I mostly use it as a paste-bin, todos, lists -- and for the only thing i would never delete, voice notes on funny sayings or interactions with my 3 y/o daughter. my project is over at https://grugnotes.com if anyone else fits the anti note app vibe i'm kinda leaning into.

,.............the ancient greeks, correctly identified nostalgia as a disease.That said ,deap personal memories do serve a central place is familial and tribal/cultural knowledge, but the ......."insignificant bits (and bobs)" are poison this is something that I have experienced on a number of occasions when knowledge keepers have......inserted, very short statements that serve to turn a great deal of other myth and trivia into a cohearant whole containing actionable instructions. a list can never,ever, serve this function

I remember reading the compendium of human-interface writings Apple put together in the 1990s. There was an exploration of ways to show age in software. They were changing the color and adding other aging effects to old files in the Finder.

I think part of that thought has stuck with me. I like storing things in directories by year. It is a structural reminder that a lot of the value of what I'm doing is tied to this moment in time. I can search back through "over the years" to find things, and it addresses this question of guilt.

There’s something freeing about admitting that you won’t capture everything. I still write stuff down, but I stopped trying to build the “perfect” system. Life’s messy. Notes can be, too.

I've been sober for over 19 years, the first few years are the most difficult transition if I remember. I think the author is overreacting.

You can't really deny the past, it's part of you.

I did the same thing recently, excluding quotes from books. Every other note, How To, and To Do gone. It provided tremendous relief. The vast majority of the stuff may as well have been written by a complete stranger. But, again, I kept my book quotes and notes as that is something I reference regularly. I guess the main thing was the realization that I literally don’t access 90% of my notes and they were of no value other than making me feel something about myself.