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igiveup | 8 months ago

I don't get this. I have a megabyte or two of plain-text notes, and going through them and maintaining them and extending them is fun (apologize to the person who doesn't like threes). There are notes for a novel, ideas for future personal projects (way too many to do in my remaining lifetime), attempts at capturing my understanding of great scientific and philosophical problems, weird things I invented in my dreams, various ideas which didn't fit anywhere else. Guess what, the novel will probably never get written, projects will never get done, I will not make a philosophical breakthrough. So what?

Some ideas on how am I supposed to start hating my notes:

* They grow to 100MB, then it starts to be a burden

* I switch from notepad.exe to a dedicated application which somehow exploits my hobby of writing notes

* I develop OCD or something else

None of this seems very relatable. At this point, I might be writing a new note with these ideas, updating it when I get more ideas or when the one, most plausible explanation jumps out at me. Then I would read it years later and have something to think about before bed and have a good feeling that I didn't lose something and I am not left with thougths about the last episode of a TV show. Or is that supposed to be a bad feeling?

discuss

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latexr|8 months ago

> I don't get this.

I’ll try to help.

> going through them and maintaining them and extending them is fun

It’s fun for you, not for everyone else. There, it’s as simple as that. All you need to understand is different people enjoy different things.

> Or is that supposed to be a bad feeling?

It’s not “supposed” to be anything. It will be good for some, bad for others, neutral for others still. There’s no objective right answer. If you enjoy something and it doesn’t harm anyone, do it. If you don’t enjoy it and it isn’t necessary, don’t do it. Other people will have different preferences.

igiveup|8 months ago

Oh, the OP pretty much told me that they didn't like taking notes. I am trying to understand why, what is the mechanism? Is it like burning out? Can it happen to me and my notes when I start doing something wrong? Why is "just do less of it" not a solution? Why is "just expect less from it" not a solution? Am I an exception? If so, why?

"All you need to understand" is for insects.