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Ask HN: How did you build up your personal knowledge base?

324 pointsby smartis2812over 5 years ago
I'm looking for a good solution to build a personal knowledge Base. What are your experiences? Which Tool you are using? How long is it in use?

60 comments

nikiviover 5 years ago
I probably have the biggest personal public wiki at this point. Over 720 files and 13,000+ lines across all the files.<p>All files: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nikitavoloboev&#x2F;knowledge&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;SUMMARY.md" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nikitavoloboev&#x2F;knowledge&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;SUMM...</a><p>The way I did it was by treating the wiki as extension of my brain and having a perfect workflow for editing it at a speed of thought. In my case it&#x27;s Sublime Text + Alfred + some macros.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz&#x2F;other&#x2F;wiki-workflow" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz&#x2F;other&#x2F;wiki-workflow</a><p>In fact I recently started to use my wiki to host article drafts I am writing.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz&#x2F;fragments" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz&#x2F;fragments</a><p>The best thing about having a wiki is the &#x27;in progress&#x27; nature of it. Soon I plan to extend my Alfred workflow to access any link inside any of the files in seconds too.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nikitavoloboev&#x2F;alfred-my-mind" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nikitavoloboev&#x2F;alfred-my-mind</a>
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bengotowover 5 years ago
I realize this may not be the place for this comment, but a few of these comments got me thinking.<p>Human memory is squishy, and that&#x27;s great. You retain facts + feelings that help you make future decisions and everything else is integrated into smaller and smaller summaries until it fades away entirely. I spent years clinging to every experience wanting not to forget anything, and being horrified when I couldn&#x27;t remember. I documented everything. I wanted my memory to work more like infinite dropbox storage and less like a tool, evolved over millions of years, to keep me safe and making good choices.<p>These days, my personal knowledge base is whatever I&#x27;ve bothered to remember. Usually I don&#x27;t know I&#x27;ve kept something tucked away until I&#x27;m in the middle of a conversation and realize it&#x27;s still there. My memory of events shifts and degrades over time, and I&#x27;m fine with that.<p>If you don&#x27;t use a tool to document every page you visit and every thing you read or learn, that&#x27;s completely fine too. It all fades away eventually, and if it remains relevant enough you&#x27;ll hold on to the important bits.<p>The real power-up isn&#x27;t keeping it all, it&#x27;s being able to change and grow, with just enough focus on the past to make good choices.
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ColinWrightover 5 years ago
You might also be interested in these discussions:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8270759" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8270759</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17892731" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17892731</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19095849" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19095849</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19294799" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19294799</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19847258" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19847258</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21108527" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21108527</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21310030" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21310030</a>
stockkidover 5 years ago
I have been building and using an open source solution called Dnote [0] for the past two years. Maybe it could help you and others in search for a solution.<p>I used to write down information in note-taking apps but doing so didn&#x27;t help me retain more knowledge. The reasons were: (a) no spaced repetition, because I never went back to my old notes once I wrote them. (b) environment switch due to having to launch external apps every time to write a note. Environment switch was especially painful when I was immersed in a complex coding problem.<p>I solved those two pain points by sending myself an automated digest of my notes every week (spaced repetition on autopilot) and building CLI, browser extensions, and IDE plug-ins to talk to my personal knowledge base so that I don&#x27;t have to switch environment to put stuff in the knowledge base.<p>My experience is positive. It has helped me advance my foreign language skills, learn new vocabulary, and retain various technical micro-lessons that I come across during programming.<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dnote&#x2F;dnote" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dnote&#x2F;dnote</a>
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msluyterover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve used Anki for a while, but never very consistently or effectively until recently. Over the past year, I&#x27;ve started doing the following:<p>1. Stopped trying to categorize cards and just create them all in a single deck (with tags in lieu of separate decks).<p>2. Whenever I find myself googling something or looking it up on StackOverflow (that&#x27;s not wildly specific or related to domains I don&#x27;t really care about), I add a new card for it.<p>3. Review cards for a few minutes in the morning.<p>The above has worked rather well. I mostly focus on topics I&#x27;m interested in diving deeper into (python, for example) and has helped fill various lacunae in my knowledge.<p>For broader sorts of knowledge acquisition, I use Boostnote to keep track of interesting notes&#x2F;articles, but I have to confess I&#x27;m not that great at keeping it updated&#x2F;relevant.
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metalliqazover 5 years ago
This is an area that I&#x27;m keenly interested in. I desperately want to capture more information about my life both for posterity but also as a power-assist tool for my normal work&#x2F;life.<p>I have noticed that many of the solutions here do not really translate well into cell phone use. Most of my life is not spent in front of my own computer. Even though I spend a lot of time at a work computer, it is heavily restricted (defense industry) and thus can&#x27;t be used for personal projects. Anything I use has to work with my cellphone as a 1st class capture interface.<p>In my case, I recently decided that I since I am a heavy user of wikipedia, I should just use mediawiki. I&#x27;m used to it and it is well supported. The syntax isn&#x27;t great but it has great API support. They have a decent cell phone interface, though I find that it isn&#x27;t fast enough for taking notes. So I take quick notes in Evernote and move them into the wiki when I&#x27;m at my home PC.<p>It&#x27;s working okay so far. I need to put more effort into my workflow. I want to have an automated infrastructure for capturing my various data from social networks, email, calendars, things like that.<p>Side note: I can&#x27;t believe we are coasting into the year 2020 and copy&#x2F;paste is still so friggin bad on my cell phone. Android has had copy&#x2F;paste from text entry fields for a long time, but I still can&#x27;t copy text out of most apps. WHY??? Case in point: YouTube descriptions and comments.
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allochthonover 5 years ago
I&#x27;m developing this app, which I&#x27;m currently using for a personal knowledge base, but whose ambitions are quite a bit larger:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digraph.app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digraph.app</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digraph.app&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;topics&#x2F;39b38b69-1c22-4e98-bb79-661b882384c1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digraph.app&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;topics&#x2F;39b38b69-1c22-4e98-bb79-661b...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.digraph.app&#x2F;2019-07-06-ten-thousands-links.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.digraph.app&#x2F;2019-07-06-ten-thousands-links.html</a><p>This is a new app, although it&#x27;s an iteration on one that I made more than ten years ago.
ColinWrightover 5 years ago
I use Zim Wiki and have done for a few years now. Simple formatting, files in plain text, easy interlinking, decent search, and I&#x27;ve written some external scripts to work on the plain text files to be able to extract collated documents.<p>Backed up as part of my usual backup procedures, but only (easily) accessible with the GUI on my laptop. It would be trivial to sync it between devices and use it from multiple locations, but I don&#x27;t need to.
digitalsanctumover 5 years ago
I learn by:<p>Reading books and taking notes.<p>Watching videos and taking notes.<p>Attending meetups and taking notes.<p>Doing. Specifically, by applying what I learned to small projects.<p>I collect all the notes and projects in GitHub. It&#x27;s simple (markdown), searchable, versioned and all in one place.<p>Oh, and free, portable and highly available while hosted by someone else.
shubhamharnalover 5 years ago
Building a PKM ( Personal Knowledge Management ) system is what <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buildingasecondbrain.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buildingasecondbrain.com&#x2F;</a> is all about.<p>I benefited immensely from taking the course. I have no personal benefit or stake in the program.<p>The author&#x2F;program does use evernote primarily as the tool but the technique&#x2F;process&#x2F;workflow is independent of tool ( I think they do address notion and onenote as well if that&#x27;s what works for you ).<p>A brief high-level summary: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SjZSy8s2VEE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SjZSy8s2VEE</a>
masnickover 5 years ago
I wrote more about my Hugo-based personal knowledge base here recently: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21311156" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21311156</a><p>You can see it at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maxmasnick.com&#x2F;kb" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maxmasnick.com&#x2F;kb</a><p>Essentially it is a folder of Markdown files with some YAML metadata at the top to define categories. Hugo takes care of rendering the HTML, which is automatically deployed every time I push updates to the ‘master’ branch on GitHub via the GitHub Actions beta. It works pretty well, and allows me to edit on iOS via Working Copy.
h0p3over 5 years ago
Tiddlywiki: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;philosopher.life&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;philosopher.life&#x2F;</a><p>About 3 years, and I use it every day. The experiences with the tool are documented in the tool.
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knzhouover 5 years ago
I use a few giant PDF files that total up to 1500 pages and 600000 words. They are made with plain LaTeX and no special tools. [0]<p>To me the main choice you make for a knowledge base is the linking structure: do you want just an unorganized pile, a web, something hierarchical, or something linear? In general CS&#x2F;programming people prefer less structured forms like webs (as can be seen in these comments), while physics&#x2F;math people prefer the opposite. For example, the Stacks and Kerodon projects are huge collaborative knowledge bases for certain subfields, but they&#x27;re organized like a standard textbook.<p>This is partly because physics&#x2F;math people prefer more stable software, since they don&#x27;t have time to keep up with or build the latest thing. LaTeX has been stable for decades. Furthermore, the material in physics and math really <i>is</i> more ordered and hierarchical, while CS seems to have a broader, more organic structure from its youth.<p>I love the linear format, and I&#x27;d encourage you to try it too. It requires no special software. It forces you to think about what is most foundational, and how certain insights lead directionally to others -- issues which you can ignore if you give yourself the freedom of a web. And as you move forward to more advanced things, spaced repetition of the more foundational things will happen automatically.<p>0: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knzhou.github.io&#x2F;#lectures" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knzhou.github.io&#x2F;#lectures</a>
monkinover 5 years ago
A year ago, I found a perfect solution for myself. I&#x27;m using <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;vimwiki&#x2F;vimwiki" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;vimwiki&#x2F;vimwiki</a>, writing there everything I find useful. From articles and quotes to lose ideas, notes, project information, or todos. It has support for markdown and export to HTML, which I can style however needed.
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bigred100over 5 years ago
Read books everyday. Whatever sticks sticks.
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pkkmover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve been using a git repository of org-mode files for 5 years. It&#x27;s currently over 600 thousand words, some of this written by me, some copy-pasted from e-books and webpages. I like this format because it has a multitude of useful features like intra-document links, project planning, tables with formulas, embedded LaTeX, and code than can be run directly inside the document, while being plain-text and very readable even without editor support. To make note-taking as frictionless as possible, I&#x27;ve also added a global keyboard shortcut which commits all changes with an autogenerated message, then executes pull --rebase and push.
gitgudover 5 years ago
Wasn&#x27;t this just asked yesterday?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21310030" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21310030</a>
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8bitsruleover 5 years ago
By way of warning: I was burned several times by relying on proprietary &#x27;solutions&#x27; that disappeared (Hypercard, for one). It was clear that I needed a customizable, long-lasting &#x27;free&#x27; solution.<p>For my needs text files were that solution. Indexed entries, with or without HTML, that I can custom-search and display in a web browser. Adding links to great online resources takes little time. Adding &#x27;features&#x27; is the other dangerous fun.
nickjjover 5 years ago
I have been using plain text documents since 2001.<p>I just make a new file with a YYYY-MM format and dump everything in there, and on the next month I start a new file. I keep them all in 1 folder.<p>It&#x27;s really simple to use and very searchable with grep. I like it because it&#x27;s all offline and doesn&#x27;t get in the way.<p>It becomes a brain dump of interesting links, notes about certain things I&#x27;m doing or whatever else I feel is worth jotting down at the time.
mockingbirdyover 5 years ago
I split it up into two phases:<p>1. I use Omni Notes (simple note-taking app) and Bear [1] to write down thoughts and longer texts. And a simple voice recording app [2] for bigger ideas that need more words.<p>2. After this, I evaluate them and add them to my personal wiki. I’m using BookStack [3] which is the best open-source wiki I’ve found. Every aspect of my life gets its own book with chapters and pages. It’s a pretty straight-forward structure.<p>I&#x27;m using this process for a year and it served me well (understanding life goals, writing down business ideas, structuring knowledge). Next step is bookmark management, I&#x27;ll probably try out Shiori [4] (was once featured in a Show HN).<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bear.app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bear.app</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dkim0419&#x2F;SoundRecorder" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dkim0419&#x2F;SoundRecorder</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bookstackapp.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bookstackapp.com</a><p>[4]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;go-shiori&#x2F;shiori" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;go-shiori&#x2F;shiori</a>
3zraover 5 years ago
I&#x27;m surprised VoodooPad [1] does not get mentioned more often when this question gets asked.<p>It is by far the most straightforward wiki I have used. The two features I rely on most are (i) creating new pages that link back to a piece of text simply by highlighting the text and entering a shortcut and (ii) adding aliases to pages, so that each time either the page name or its aliases are mentioned anywhere in the wiki, a link is automatically created back to the page.<p>Using these two workflows, pages can fulfil a similar function tags do: If a concept appears again and again across many different pages, I simply create a page which is named after the concept or has the concept as one of its aliases. When I open this new page, I can see all pages that link to it in a panel that lists all back-links. I then go on to edit the page, going into more detail.<p>This has turned out to be the most organic way for me to write a wiki where editing, linking, and exploring works almost frictionlessly.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.voodoopad.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.voodoopad.com&#x2F;</a>
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breckover 5 years ago
I made TreeBase. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jtree.treenotation.org&#x2F;treeBase&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jtree.treenotation.org&#x2F;treeBase&#x2F;</a>. Plain text files with strong typing and no syntax and uses Git for history. Been using it for years. Great for collaboration thanks to git. Have lots of new features in the pipeline.
cr0shover 5 years ago
Most of the stuff I learn, I try to keep it in my mind. Not perfect, but it has worked for people for a very long time, it&#x27;s fairly portable, has low power usage, but retention isn&#x27;t great, and i&#x2F;o bandwidth is poor to say the least...<p>Ok - well, other than that it&#x27;s a hodgepodge of text files on my phone and main workstation, some of which get moved to my small home NAS.<p>And a few notebooks. And some stickies. And scraps of paper.<p>Not a great system - well, let&#x27;s face it, it stinks.<p>At one time I had a website&#x2F;blog I had built, but my vhosting provider updated PHP and it broke my stuff; not so much I couldn&#x27;t fix it, but I got lazy and never fixed it, and now I&#x27;ve been mulling over for a while how to do everything as a github supported static page website instead, since I am pretty tired of my crufty PHP junk.<p>I&#x27;m going to eagerly read everyone&#x27;s thoughts here, though, as I think maybe they could help me become more organized in what I am doing and such.
zzzmarcusover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve been using TheBrain (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thebrain.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thebrain.com</a>) for ~10 years now and haven&#x27;t found anything that comes close to it in terms of flexibility. If you haven&#x27;t looked at it in awhile, it&#x27;s worth checking out again. They have a new desktop app, much better mobile apps, and even after all these years, development continues steadily.<p>I&#x27;ve got 16,399 thoughts in mine and add more just about every day. Anything I think I may want to know later goes there. More ephemeral notes go in Apple Notes (I used Evernote for a long time but became annoyed with their business model and haven&#x27;t missed it). Everything else goes in The Brain.<p>Search great, the ability to link notes as parent&#x2F;children&#x2F;siblings is extremely powerful once you get the hang of it.<p>It&#x27;s not free, but it is, in my opinion, easily worth the cost.
djhworldover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve jumped around all over the place, I can never settle on a tool and it&#x27;s really frustrating<p>I&#x27;ve been through<p>* evernote - slow and buggy UX, properietary format<p>* emacs org mode - good but you need buy in to org format, user experience across devices e.g. mobile not so good)<p>* quiver - pretty good, markdown format, but lacking android support<p>* git + markdown files - ok, but a bit finicky, again annoying across devices<p>* joplin - pretty good, has mobile support, has markdown etc<p>* nVault - lightning fast, no mobile support<p>I saw a thread on HN recently talking about a similar topic and someone mentioned TiddlyWiki which seems promising, I&#x27;ll investigate it soon, although I suspect I&#x27;ll probably jump when the next thing comes along.<p>Luckily most of my &#x27;wiki&#x27; is in markdown format so it&#x27;s fairly portable, I just want something that<p>* is easily accessible across devices<p>* supports markdown (+ rendering)<p>* supports inline LaTeX (e.g. $$x = 5 + y$$)<p>* renderer should support inline images<p>* good search capability
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cpbothaover 5 years ago
My whole system, minus the Apple Pencil bits, is described here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cpbotha.net&#x2F;2019&#x2F;09&#x2F;21&#x2F;note-taking-strategy-2019&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cpbotha.net&#x2F;2019&#x2F;09&#x2F;21&#x2F;note-taking-strategy-2019&#x2F;</a><p>In short:<p>- Emacs OrgMode with a specific setup as the core of everything.<p>- I store interesting web-pages as PDFs on my local drive, currently synced using Dropbox.<p>- Academic articles go in Zotero, with PDFs on local drive, synced using Dropbox.<p>- On mobile, I use the Dropbox app to create and edit markdown files (I wish they would just treat .org files as normal text files!), and to save any web page to PDF.<p>- I sometimes draw flow charts, architecture diagrams and UI using an Apple Pencil and the Notability app on a 2018 entry-level iPad, which syncs these sketches as searchable PDFs to ... Dropbox.
lnalxover 5 years ago
I organize all my life with Notion [0], there is a lot of template to start with if you don&#x27;t have inspirations or ideas. Also you can share your pages as a website !<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.notion.so&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.notion.so&#x2F;</a>
grumpy-cowboyover 5 years ago
All my personal knowledge&#x2F;information&#x2F;research are structured using the File System Infobase Manager method as described by Douglas Barone : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dougist.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;08&#x2F;file-system-infobase-manager&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dougist.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;08&#x2F;file-system-infobase-manager&#x2F;</a><p>It&#x27;s future proof and require no special tool. Another philosophy that drive this way of managing my data : The Lo-Fi Manifesto <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kairos.technorhetoric.net&#x2F;20.2&#x2F;inventio&#x2F;stolley&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kairos.technorhetoric.net&#x2F;20.2&#x2F;inventio&#x2F;stolley&#x2F;</a>
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npsimonsover 5 years ago
org-mode. Sync with git over SSH. Been using it for over a decade.<p>Not exclusive to personal knowledge base, but I keep a lot of notes in there because it&#x27;s my default catch-all, including on the phone since I have Termux installed. It&#x27;s easily greppable.
temikusover 5 years ago
I’ve been using Tomboy, then Evernote, then plain Markdown flies and now I have migrated everything to Notion (notion.so). I think I’ll stick with the latter for a while as their organisation system resonates with me quite well.
sh87over 5 years ago
TLDR; [ email + git(markdown + wiki) + google calendar ]<p>Tried and failed :<p>* emacs(org-mode)<p>* plain text files<p>* markdown files<p>* tiddlywiki&#x2F; mediawiki&#x2F;bunch of other wikis<p>* google keep<p>* one note<p>* notational velocity<p>* anki<p>* evernote<p>What &quot;works for me (TM)&quot;:<p>I use a separate email just for this. Every new thought, todo, bookmarks, quotes, images of doodles, event, information about people becomes a new email.<p>Updates are email replies on last email on that subject. Todos are right there in my inbox reminding me each time I open up my email (many times a day). Once&#x2F;twice a month I go though my email history. Any email with enough content or insight to a &quot;WIP&quot; wiki page in my git repo.<p>Whenever I find time or feel like the need to research some concept that I left mid way, I go through my queue (my WIP page) of pending items.<p>If there’s enough content&#x2F;files&#x2F;code, it gets its own markdown file and&#x2F;or directory. Common patterns, get linked via their respective wiki pages. Related topics are back linked and cross referenced.<p>This setup has worked well for me for almost a year now.<p>I do not worry about email &#x2F; git becoming obsolete. Or how I would move my email&#x2F;git data when I need to switch vendors. I can access it via any device I own or use someone else’s with just a browser. There are backups of my git repo in almost every laptop&#x2F;desktop I have access to. There&#x27;s no shortage of client applications for any of these to choose from. And above all... like I said, this system &quot;works for me (TM)&quot;.<p>Something that was not obvious at the start but I do now, is to keep my wiki relatively small. Because the purpose of the wiki is to supplement and complement my brain and its finite resources. I try to keep the gist in mind and offload details and references to this non-degradable store for when I need it. I&#x27;ve deleted&#x2F;merged more content than I have added. I routinely see stuff added to my queue and deleted because its a rehash of a concept camouflaged as something new. No other system I used did this for me.<p>I&#x27;ve posted this comment before [1] reposting as I still find it relevant.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20007108" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20007108</a>
ivolimmenover 5 years ago
I personally have a set of documents in Google docs that contain snippits and short command line fragments. Because most of what I like to retain are bookmarks I build my own bookmark application. I have something like 3000 to 4000 bookmarks in there. The application is open source and located on github. I imported all my Firefox and Chrome bookmarks into it and all github stars, I am planning to add more import abilities at some point... when I have more time...
chrisbroover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve been kicking around an idea of creating a site dedicated to in-depth writeups of the workflows that professionals use these days to stay organized - I&#x27;ve always had the problem of having too big of a toolbox (note-taking app, todo app, documentation app) but no cohesive way to combine all of them into something resembling organization. Would love to hear the details of how others do it.
manjanaover 5 years ago
Toolwise, I use Notion. It&#x27;s neat, simple and elegant.<p>www.notion.so
jlduggerover 5 years ago
Multiple tools, I guess.<p>I&#x27;ve used Tomboy for 8 years now to:<p>- brief note usage - blog drafts - turning those moments of inspiration and excitement into lasting documents<p>In the past year I&#x27;ve adopted Anki for committing knowledge to memory. Topics include:<p>- family birthdates - UNIX core utilities - python builtin functions - multiplication up to 20x20 (still a WIP) - US bill of rights - AI&#x2F;ML terminology - Puppet concepts &#x2F; idioms
Aardappelover 5 years ago
I used mind-mappers, until I got frustrated with their scalability, density, and performance. Then I wrote my own: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;strlen.com&#x2F;treesheets&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;strlen.com&#x2F;treesheets&#x2F;</a> (which is more of a &quot;hierarchical spreadsheet&quot; than a mind-mapper, but was designed specifically for my personal knowledge base :)
ThrowMeAwayOkayover 5 years ago
I just use my Google Drive. Lots of docs, searchable. Access by my phone when I remember to add something. It&#x27;s all I need.
Havocover 5 years ago
Text files in a google filestream with daily incremental encrypted backups 2x onsite 1x cloud<p>I’ve gone down the special note taking software and formatting route before (OneNote first, OpenOffice later). What a mess.<p>Tempted to try a self hosted wiki though. Definitely never touching a commercial solution again though. Evernote and co. Might replace filestream with nextcloud though
zn0rkelover 5 years ago
I use a markdown editor, currently Typora, since it has a side pane with folder structure. I keep folders for personal notes, study notes, project plans, compsci “knowledge” where I have massive notes for each subject. All of it is backed up and synced between devices using Nextcloud. Works fine, is free and doesn’t need paid subscriptions.
bobbydreamerover 5 years ago
2yrs back, i had designed a website to stash information. stash.bobbydreamer.com<p>Data is stored in firebase and authentication is handled by firebase as well. Just a site to stash notes, links. Purely javascript.<p>I am planning on upgrading the site to support markdown. So notes can look like article. Some can be private, some can be public.
ocdtrekkieover 5 years ago
I recently started using DokuWiki. The reason I like it is that it is actually storing the current copies of pages as .txt files, so I don&#x27;t have to worry about databases failing or migrating out of the platform or anything like that. It just puts kinda a clean browsing and editing experience on top.
mackrevinackover 5 years ago
if you dont need in-line images then i cant recommend an outliner like Dynalist enough. its similar to a mind-map in a way with the main difference being that its actually useable for a large amount of information<p>heres is a basic example Propædia in Dynalist: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;talk.dynalist.io&#x2F;t&#x2F;propaedia-an-outline-of-all-possible-human-knowledge&#x2F;124" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;talk.dynalist.io&#x2F;t&#x2F;propaedia-an-outline-of-all-possi...</a><p>if youve never used dynalist before, hover over the bullet points, then click to expand or collapse the list. click the magnifying glass icon to the left of the bullet point to zoom in and focus on a certain point, then use the breadcrumb trail at the top to go back. since every bullet point has its own url you can also use the browser back button
eirannejadover 5 years ago
I&#x27;m using Notion.so It&#x27;s not a self-hosted platform and not personal in that sense but it has export to markdown capability so I feel safe storing my knowledgebase there knowing that I can download the data, files, images and everything else I have uploaded in a non-propriatry format
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LeonBover 5 years ago
I use gitbook and publish to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;til.secretGeek.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;til.secretGeek.net</a><p>Each technology gets its own folder. I add a new markdown file whenever I learn something new. Then I push to git and it is published live shortly after.
nikisweetingover 5 years ago
I use Bear Notes on macOS + CodiMD for nice markdown + code notes that can be directly published as blog posts. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.sweeting.me&#x2F;s&#x2F;blog" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.sweeting.me&#x2F;s&#x2F;blog</a>
_5659over 5 years ago
Keep it stupid, keep it simple.<p>I use Markdown + KaTeX to render math and code. I keep everything in files.
kerrybright3000over 5 years ago
I used Google Docs and Anki for a while but found it hard to keep individual notes organized.<p>I moved to Bookmark OS which has been great <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bookmarkos.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bookmarkos.com</a>
verumnoslibover 5 years ago
For building a personal knowledge base based on simplicity and having the ability to write notes in markdown format, I choose <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wreeto.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wreeto.com</a>
nubelaover 5 years ago
I built [giki](<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;giki.wiki" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;giki.wiki</a>) for myself. It is a wiki to be popualted in markdown. Every page is a new &quot;wiki&quot; page.
aiyodevover 5 years ago
I&#x27;m surprised nobody has mentioned Trilium Notes in here so I will:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;zadam&#x2F;trilium" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;zadam&#x2F;trilium</a>
SkyMarshalover 5 years ago
Zotero is good for saving papers (PDF, ps, etc) you want to stash for future reference.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;zotero.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;zotero.org</a>
dawg-over 5 years ago
I use a very haphazard combo of evernote, google drive, and an ever-growing collection of physical books. It works for me.
kylehotchkissover 5 years ago
I made a dropmark.com account and use it like a private pinterest board. Applies more to my non-web interests though.
mooredsover 5 years ago
I use a blog, personally. It doesn&#x27;t capture everything, but I do try to capture the big things.
crazypythonover 5 years ago
I use DEVONThink. It has powerful features for automatically classifying documents you put into it.
swirl38over 5 years ago
i use a personal phpBB board for that. each area gets its subforum.
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TiddlyTweeterover 5 years ago
The OP is &quot;How do you build a personal knowledge base?&quot; I have used over years many tools. For me I need a tool that can handle: (a) &quot;easy, unstructured data entry&quot;; (b)&quot;help find emergent pattern in data entered at (a).&quot;<p>TiddlyWiki (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlywiki.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlywiki.com&#x2F;</a>) is a very interesting and useful tool that matches my two criteria above very well.<p>Its usable immediately. Just click to create a &quot;Tiddler&quot; and type. Later you can manipulate&#x2F;present the &quot;Tiddlers&quot; you created in numerous ways.<p>The basic version is a single HTML file that self-modifies (for interested programmers its a rare example of a pure &quot;Quine&quot;). It works in any browser.<p>Browser extensions are available for it so that it can overwrite save, rather than download save.<p>It will work with the cloud if you need that. Interfaces with Google Docs. Free publishing from local TiddlyWiki to online publishing is built-in for <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlyspot.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlyspot.com</a>. And more I can&#x27;t list. See main site for info.<p>It has its own scripting language that includes string matching, maths and complex filters. In particular its &quot;filter&quot; mechanisms, that are largely list oreientated, allow complex interrogation and presentation of content.<p>It supports JavaScript modules allowing full integration of good existing tools.<p>There are libraries of plugins--both official (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlywiki.com&#x2F;#%24%3A%2Fcore%2Fui%2FControlPanel%2FPlugins" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tiddlywiki.com&#x2F;#%24%3A%2Fcore%2Fui%2FControlPanel%2F...</a>) and unofficial (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dynalist.io&#x2F;d&#x2F;zUP-nIWu2FFoXH-oM7L7d9DM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dynalist.io&#x2F;d&#x2F;zUP-nIWu2FFoXH-oM7L7d9DM</a> -- hundreds) that extend function in many ways.<p>There are also other versions of TW that are node based. Of the more interesting branches are &quot;Bob&quot; (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;OokTech&#x2F;TW5-Bob" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;OokTech&#x2F;TW5-Bob</a>) that provides all of TW&#x27;s base functionality plus interaction with the OS on all major desktop platforms. Another is TiddlyServer (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Arlen22&#x2F;TiddlyServer" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Arlen22&#x2F;TiddlyServer</a>).<p>IMO its a very sophisticated and very effective tool for recording unstructured data in any form.<p>The real plus in it is that you can then, if you need, begin to structure that data in innumerable ways.<p>An upside is you can learn the basics very quickly. A downside is that it can take some time to fully understand all you can do in it and how to do it.<p>For developers its Github gives insight into how it works and current developoments (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Jermolene&#x2F;TiddlyWiki5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Jermolene&#x2F;TiddlyWiki5</a>).<p>It has a useful, friendly, discussion group (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.google.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;#!forum&#x2F;tiddlywiki" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.google.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;#!forum&#x2F;tiddlywiki</a>).<p>Its a kind of &quot;Swiss Army Knife&quot; of information tools.
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jhymnover 5 years ago
Readwise for storing highlights and excerpts from books, articles etc. Lots of customization under the hood.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;readwise.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;readwise.io&#x2F;</a>
ycombonatorover 5 years ago
Notes on Mac OS and iOS works great for me. They sync and I organize them into folders.
chimichanggaover 5 years ago
i email documents, links, files, etc. to myself