atlas sardines

Notes

Since starting university in 2016 I have gone through many note taking frameworks and tools - my strategy have evolved many times over the years. Now I have found something that works for me and would like to explain my process rather than advertise the end result.

Use

You have to play around for a month and figure out exactly what you use the tool for. I use it to find I know are there but I need to go deeper into the materials Work on draft of projects - have ideas and want to expand on them - after having gone through a first paper draft Store pdfs and images

Pen and paper - the first draft of anything from meeting notes to brainstorming to working out problems go on paper. Nothing beats it.

Some of those paper information you want to be able to retrieve later on and expand on to a proper document.

Why not emacs? I have tried emacs and org-mode and I love it. It was by far the slickest interface when writting out paper and similar informations. However even if it was a great tool for writting out notes, it was not a great tool for thinking

I have tried many note taking tools, from Evernote to Notion, from OneNote to Google Keep. I have also tried many frameworks, from Markdown to Org-mode, from LaTeX to HTML. I have tried many organization strategies, from a single file to a folder hierarchy, from a single file per class to a single file per lecture.

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid - in all the years I kept adding features until I had tried more or less all of them. I now know the features I use and the tool I need. We'll expand on each of these points in the following sections.

end-to-end encrypted
offline
handles images
handles pdf
easy search
desktop and mobile support
seamless sync
can handle large quantity of files

I don't need collaborating features nor do I need graphs linking my knowledge together.

Red Flags

No end-to-end encryption - I don't want to trust a third party with my notes. Although you still have to keep in mind whatever you write might end up at the front page of the NYT one day. Eliminated: Evernote, Notion, OneNote, Google Keep

No offline support - I want to be able to take notes on my phone or laptop without having to worry about internet connection. Eliminated: Notion, Google Keep

Mobile application Eliminated: Org-mode, LaTeX, Markdown

In the end the answer ends up being Apple notes. It is not perfect but it is the best I have found so far.