From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with RemNote

Hatched by Kazuki
Aug 20, 2023
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From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with RemNote
The goal of any knowledge-management system should be long-term focused. As human beings, we have the unique ability to manipulate and understand complex symbolic information. We leverage these capabilities to write, speak, draw diagrams, connect ideas, and more. In order to collectively become better and more creative problem solvers, we need to build tools that enable individuals to individually optimize their own thinking and learning. This can be achieved by giving access to other people's learning and making it searchable.
David Deutsch once said that all evils are caused by insufficient knowledge. Many individuals, including myself, have experienced frustration with how hard it is to keep thoughts, research, and projects organized. It becomes crucial to streamline thinking, connect ideas, and optimize learning for the long term. This is where RemNote comes in. RemNote is different in both philosophy and focus. Every aspect of the tool is designed to support learning and long-term knowledge growth. The aim is to make it easy for users to learn something once and then remember and leverage it forever.
One of the key features of RemNote is its concept-driven knowledge structure. It enables users to break down and organize ideas, keeping notes organized and automatically finding insights as knowledge grows. In RemNote, everything is a node in a graph, also known as a "Rem". This allows users to break ideas into "mind-sized bites" that can be linked back together.
Spaced repetition is another powerful learning technique that RemNote offers. By learning something and then applying spaced repetition, individuals can reliably remember and apply what they've learned. The key concept behind spaced repetition is the information retrieval process in one's brain.
Another useful feature of RemNote is aliasing. Aliasing a Rem allows it to act as if it had multiple names. For example, if you alias "Active Recall" to "Retrieval Practice", both names would appear in the search as if the Rem actually had two names. This concept of aliasing provides easy access and organization of information.
RemNote also allows users to open PDFs directly in the tool and extract text and area highlights from them. This feature enhances the ability to organize and connect information from various sources.
When it comes to the user base, RemNote attracts people who are excited about learning and who want easier ways to engage with their growing knowledge. The user base can be informally categorized into students, researchers, and professionals. Students can use RemNote to build mastery and reference material. Researchers and creators can utilize RemNote as an idea-generation platform, organizing research notes, writing Zettelkasten notes, organizing PDFs, and more. Professionals, on the other hand, use the tool in a variety of ways such as organizing todos, brainstorming, taking notes on calls, personal journaling, CRM, and more.
Knowledge gardening is a recursive process that involves capturing, organizing, and synthesizing or connecting ideas. It is a system for generating self-organizing ideas. However, knowledge gardening cannot happen without some kind of feedback loop. In order to construct a creative flywheel that generates finished works almost by accident, it is essential to carefully close the right feedback loops.
One interesting question to consider is whether knowledge gardening can lead to the construction of a creative flywheel through a stream-of-consciousness process. By closing the feedback loops and creating a system that allows individuals to stumble back over their notes and recurse over them, knowledge gardening becomes possible. This is in contrast to broken feedback loops where everything is feed-forward and there are no opportunities to return back to previous notes.
The core game mechanic of Zettelkasten, a note-taking method, is to file notes in a way that allows individuals to stumble over them again. This search-or-create mechanic closes the feedback loop and enables users to recurse over old ideas while entering new ones. Often, individuals find themselves editing or refactoring old notes instead of creating new ones. These microinteractions add up over time, generating knowledge from the bottom-up.
In conclusion, RemNote is a powerful tool that enables individuals to go beyond knowledge-management and enter the realm of knowledge-creation. By providing features such as concept-driven knowledge structure, spaced repetition, aliasing, and seamless integration with PDFs, RemNote empowers users to optimize their learning and thinking for the long term. Three actionable advice to make the most of RemNote are:
- 1. Break down and organize ideas using the concept-driven knowledge structure. This will help keep your notes organized and facilitate automatic insights as your knowledge grows.
- 2. Utilize spaced repetition to enhance your learning. By learning something and then applying spaced repetition, you can improve memory retention and application of knowledge.
- 3. Explore the feature of aliasing in RemNote. By aliasing Rems, you can access and organize information more effectively.
Overall, RemNote is a valuable tool for individuals who are passionate about learning and want easier ways to engage with their growing knowledge. Whether you are a student, researcher, or professional, RemNote offers a range of features that can enhance your learning, knowledge organization, and creative ideation processes.
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