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Carl Linnaeus's note-taking innovations

Carl Linnaeus's note-taking innovations

4 comments

·March 23, 2025
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kkfx

I think we can find similar systems across many ages, ZettelKasten is one popular now, mostly thank to How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens, LYT is another, I do not remember the name of another historical from a monk with cards like ZK, the Mundaneum from the early '30s etc.

The main point is that we need to store and retrieve small bits of information, mostly textual, then managing them to craft something out of such small bits. Computer do that with extreme ease and org-mode is probably the best solution we have, but still today 99% of the people are tied to classic files+folders model and completely ignore the power of notes. Even those who try some "note app" generally fails to generalize the concept mostly because the app itself is by far too limited because it's own programmers have not much a vision on the power of notes.

It's a pity because at least anyone with a high school diploma should know that concept and practice it regularly for life.

cyberge99

I use Upnote and combine it with command line tools. When I cd in to a directory, .cdmsg displays an x-callback to a GUI note about the project. I’ve developed a hybrid system that uses cli, gui apps, and x-callbacks to do some pretty neat integration, but sadly it’s very user specific.

swah

What kind of happy surprises are you getting with those?

swah

Still when we ask power org-mode users (I'm a former emacs user so kinda familiar with the space) it seems there's nothing that magical about it, or that we can't replicate easily on Obsidian...

Maybe its more about discipline to fix your bad notes.