Taking notes only helps us build up knowledge. But this knowledge is not worth much if we don’t use it. In addition to building knowledge, we should also build up experience through practice and play.

The actual work happens when you start playing and tinkering with your notes. The actual work happens if you start building experience.

Actively thinking and playing with your notes will strengthen your understanding. It might reveal gaps in your understanding. It might spark new curiosities and new questions.

we should find a balance between taking notes and using notes. A balance between building knowledge and experience. Only through this balance do we start learning.

Bottom-up note-taking starts with taking notes and connecting notes at “the bottom”. You keep taking notes and connecting them until clusters of notes emerge.

Top-down note-taking works in the opposite way to the bottom-up method. You start at the top with a certain topic, idea, or flexible goal in mind. It might be vague at the moment but maybe something worth pursuing further.