
Do you use a personal 'knowledge base'? - stakkur
Years ago, I had a local mediawiki installed, but didn&#x27;t seem to use it. Now, I store all my knowledge, ideas, etc. in markdown text files, manipulated with Emacs.<p>But, I&#x27;d like to have a more visually organized, full-text searchable system that&#x27;s (a) local&#x2F;private, and (b) accessible when away from home office.<p>How do you organize your knowledge&#x2F;notes&#x2F;learnings?
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stockkid
I used to use Evernote to organize what I learn, but I was never satisfied.
The reason was that:

1\. Once I wrote something down, I forgot about it and never looked back. (No
spaced repetition)

2\. I had to launch an external application and switch to it to take notes.
(constant context switching)

So I made an open source solution called dnote [0] that addresses both
problems by (a) automating spaced repetition via email digest, and (b)
minimizing environment switch by working as a CLI and a browser extension.
Been using it for the past two years.

\- [0] [https://github.com/dnote/dnote](https://github.com/dnote/dnote)

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brettkromkamp
Yes, I use my own topics map-based solution, Contextualise:
[https://brettkromkamp.com/projects/contextualise/](https://brettkromkamp.com/projects/contextualise/).
In simple terms, you create topics, attach resources (e.g., PDFs, markdown
text and notes, images, etc.) to those topics and establish semantically
meaningful relationships between the topics. The resulting map of topics can
be navigated by means of a visual network graph. Contextualise is a MIT-
licensed open source project.

~~~
digital_voodoo
THIS. OMG, if my lifelong quest would end here... Thank you!!! This idea of
central topic + attached resources in various formats is what I've been
looking for, for ages.

I might test it asap, and later see how to adapt my ecosystem (Android +
macOS) for quick/best access. Offline would be great.

~~~
brettkromkamp
At some point I will make the application publicly available. Let me know if
you need help installing it in the meantime.

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kirubakaran
I'm building [https://histre.com/](https://histre.com/) and I use it everyday.
Most apps like Evernote and Notion end up being dumping grounds for notes and
bookmarks. You put something there so you can relax that it is there if you
need it later, but you never look at that again. Histre on the other hand
helps you directly with the "collect -> filter -> decide" loop that we do all
the time.

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metalliqaz
I have started using a personal mediawiki instance with Cargo for semantic
data. I realized that I wanted to have full control of my data, so I didn't
like the idea of going all-in with Notion or something similar. I'm a heavy
user of wikipedia so mediawiki just "feels" natural. Installing it is a huge
pain.

I am finding that the system works well enough, once you get VisualEditor
working. However the main problem is the habit of capturing my thoughts and
work products. It's a tough habit to get in to.

Ultimately I want the wiki to be just one piece of a larger system that
automatically organizes all my articles, files, mail, posts, etc. The idea
being that I can work with whatever tool is easiest for any particular
situation, and still be able to cross-reference all the information in a way
that is useful and easy to search. We'll see if I ever get there.

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kratom_sandwich
This is a question that comes up semi-regularly and a search of HN might yield
threads that are interesting to you.

On thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far is an idea of mine which might
be useless but I want to share it anyway: Maybe you should think in bigger
terms and not consider a single application (or a set of applications) your
knowledge base, but an entire computer set aside for this purpose. The
advantage would be superior flexibility when dealing with a large number of
different files and file types; plus you can use operating system features
such as tagging on Mac OS X.

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m3tr0s
I use Bear, which is a note app for iOS/macOS. It uses Markdown, it has all
the features I need, and it is fast with sync. Because it has a really clean,
minimalistic UI, I don't get distracted. This is my main tool know, but as
most of the people who are even thinking about this, I'm not fully satisified.
Separation of personal/work stuff is questionable, sometimes I feel I need
better visualization (like mindmaps), and I regularly use it for todos too
which is not the best if you also use a standalone todos app (TickTick).

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psv1
I don't keep a general knowledge repo but recently I realised that I've gone
through a bunch of books on math, statistics and machine learning that
approach the same topics in different ways. I started a "knowledge repository"
just as a way to solidify what I already know. I throw in a bunch of
definitions, theorems, formulas, algorithm explanations - from easy and
obvious stuff to more advanced concepts. I use Jupyter for this because the
markdown is simple but still supports MathJax/LaTeX equations.

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mkott
I have been using Notion and Evernote for this purpose. However, I am not
really satisfied. Unfortunately, there is no solution that does exactly what I
want and need.

Therefore, I am building my own system.

~~~
kirubakaran
Can you please explain what you find to be missing from Notion and Evernote?

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srijanshetty
I use Anki at the moment. Anki makes it easy to search, recall and recollect
all the details.

I've toyed with GitHub, Evernote and markdown files but the greatest issues
with all these topics is lack of active recall and that fact that I never came
back to them. With Anki, I've been spending time daily so it's hard to forget
these topics. If I do forget something, I can always look it up in my notes or
just go to the internet again.

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rman666
I use (Apple) Notes on my iPhone and MacBook. They are always in sync. The
notes don’t use MarkDown, but they are plenty of styles and features. I highly
recommend checking (Apple) Notes out. I’ve used MS OneNote, which is also very
good and available and syncable on/across several platforms. For me, (Apple)
Notes has a slightly better UI. If you just want a cross platform syncable to-
do list, and the above are too heavy, you might look into MS ToDo 2.0.

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tomTheBom
I have thought about this idea of a personal "knowledge base". There are so
many important bits of knowledge that are scattered among things like Evernote
(and its like), browser bookmarks, emails, blog posts, articles from
newspapers, periodicals, etc. I don't know of any solution to this "knowledge
hurricane", as least not yet.

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TheGrumpyBrit
I created a Hugo site to keep everything in. It allows me to keep the speed of
quick, simple capture in VS Code, but also presents the content nicely and
makes it permanently available wherever I am.

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shifto
I run a wiki at home with basically all kinds of specific configurations and
settings. Little tutorials you get the idea. I like it although I don't always
keep it up-to-date.

