Every day it seems I open up several links on HN that are relevant to my work and interests. I then go from background tab to background tab reading the posts and comments. However, once I'm finished I can't help but feel like I've spent a good chunk of the hour in motion, not in action[1], because everything I've read--no matter how interesting--fades into the background when I switch contexts back to whatever work I was supposed to be doing in the first place.<p>I doubt this pattern is unique to me, and I'm wondering how others manage to make the most out of browsing through blogs and articles on interesting but disparate topics presented in 15 minute chunks one after the other. This approach, while it tickles the part of my brain that wants to feel like it's learning, doesn't allow for any real digestion or integration of the information presented.<p>Often I think about keeping a journal to jot notes in as I read through the day's interesting links, but that feels a little unorganized, and as the journal grows I'm not sure how I'd be able to find any specific topic. I also have a bookmark tool that allows me to add tags to links, but this feels too in the background and despite adding many links to it, I never revisit them.<p>Which leaves me here, curious about methods others have developed to make the most of their Hacker News habit. If you have any tools or habits that have enabled you to feel like discovery of topics here have led to real learning beyond the immediate "Oh, that's neat!" as you read a blog post, I'd love to hear about it.<p>And for what it's worth, any interesting responses to this will be committed to paper in a tech-topic journal. That at least feels like a good place to start!<p>1. https://jamesclear.com/taking-action
I am using the Favorites function of HN: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=fsflover" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=fsflover</a>. Then sometimes I return there and clean them up keeping what stays relevant and interesting.
I keep a tumblelog with mostly links to HN articles I consider interesting: <a href="https://plurrrr.com/" rel="nofollow">https://plurrrr.com/</a> If I remember that something is on my blog I can either search in the markdown file that I use to generate [0] said blog or use Google.<p>[0] Using <a href="https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog/</a>