
Ask HN: How do you document your knowhow, past projects and lessons? - selmat
Previously, I did use gmail drafts, but now I use private installation of doku-wiki for documentation of my design, schemes, know-how, created source code (git module), lesson learned.<p>Wondering what use HN community, if there is better way or tools for that.
======
vijucat
OneNote. The hierarchical breakdown of Notebook, Section, and Pages is quite
useful. I use one page as a linear, chronological "Plan for today" journal,
with links to subject matter on other Pages that naturally get organized into
Sections (ML learning, Coursera - Scala, Health, Attitude / Thinking, etc;).

Evernote's Search is much better than OneNote's (Windows' Search), searching
seamlessly even inside attachments, but I absolutely hate the look of Evernote
pages; just a personal thing. Could be something as simple as Tahoma vs.
Calibri, but I think it's more than that...OneNote really looks good to my
subjective eye. Plus I like the keyboard shortcuts.

For PDFs, get really good at whatever Reader you use w.r.t. annotation tools.
I love PDF-Xchange Viewer for annotation (a Windows product).

~~~
shoover
This topic comes up occasionally and we see lots of answers involving plain
text and wikis. It seems like there is still room for some perfect solution to
the OP's problem with just the right feature set. Something with the stellar
web and mobile ease-of-use and performance of Trello but document-based and at
the same time free-form.

OneNote is probably the closest thing that exists.

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xemoka
Using markdown, in a SublimeText project, with MarkdownExtended, Markdown
Preview, project search (using ripgrep), imagePaste (to paste from clipboard
to a file in a ./.images directory along with the image markdown syntax), and
a folder hierarchy that organises notes into general topics and filenames with
project/contents descriptors.

I also write all my lectures this way and output to slides using backslide
(remark.js).

I have two text files always open, `_inbox.md` (all unorganized incoming
notes) and `_work.md` (tasks list and dates).

I've tried a bunch of different things and this is the only thing I seem to
stick to. I sync it to multiple machines with BoxSync and keep it all in a git
repo (for when I care about tracking changes, usually my commits are weekly,
with useless commit messages).

------
agentultra
For my own work:

A Leuchtterm1917 dotted notebook + mechanical pencil + ink/gel hybrid pen.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ENUIKC/ref=s9_acsd_hps...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ENUIKC/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_5_w)

For work I do under employment I tend to use org-mode and publish to whatever
format suits them best. Often one of PDF, HTML, or Markdown.

I have been experimenting with using an org-mode based publishing system that
syncs with my ReMarkable... it is taking over _some_ of my note-taking. But
I'm a chronic journal-keeper and have over a decade of notes and experience
with my system.

~~~
nerdponx
How do you organize your paper notes?

I take a lot of "scratch" notes on paper, but often end up copying them into
the computer at the end of the workweek. Usually they are quite a mess, and
preserving them as-is makes for a challenge when using them in the future.

The other nice thing about notes on the computer is that they are easy to move
around, tag, edit, etc. I can also integrate a tool like Zotero into my
workflow, using pandoc-citeproc to keep a true bibliography and reference
list.

I'm not saying you need all of those things, obviously. But I find them really
helpful, and I would like to know how your system obviates the need for things
like that. Do you write URLs by hand?

~~~
agentultra
> _How do you organize your paper notes?_

Meticulously.

For each subject I keep notes on (projects, mathematics, reading, etc) I use a
series of journals and different styles.

For my projects I use a system somewhat similar to bullet journal[0]. The
Leuchtterm journals are a great fit (and I'm glad I discovered them) because
the pages are numbered and come with an index. I use the pocket at the back
for reference cards.

I like taking notes using my personal notation and being able to think in a
quiet room without a glowing screen, notifications, or the temptation to check
HN is valuable. It helps me get in the flow and solve the real problems. When
I get back to my work at the computer it's usually pretty rote.

For mathematics I use a dotted-pad with a system I developed for myself. I use
smaller, lined books for my reading and diary.

And they all stay in my office in my home indexed by shelf. And it looks quite
handsome I think. I don't know whether it will be a boon or a burden to those
I leave behind when I'm gone some day but I enjoy having a hard reference copy
of my development and ideas.

[0] [http://bulletjournal.com/](http://bulletjournal.com/)

------
timrichard
Markdown to Evernote, but I'm also keen on embedding little screencasts in my
notes. It's sometimes a great memory jog to have an old terminal session
reanimated and popping up in response to your keyword search results.

It's also been useful for a 'show rather than tell' approach to technical
Confluence documentation.

I've previously used LICEcap and Screenflow, but SnagIt also has some nice
video capture options, with an option to convert to animated GIF. Also
becoming a bit of a fan of Camtasia, but the output is regular video.

------
alienreborn
Used to use Quiver ([http://happenapps.com/](http://happenapps.com/)) but now
switched to Bear Notes ([http://www.bear-writer.com/](http://www.bear-
writer.com/)).

Both support Markdown and Syntax Highlighting. Quiver is lot more full
featured programmer's notebook but I like Bear because its light and I prefer
tag system.

~~~
wilkystyle
Another happy Bear user here. Markdown, syncing, and tags all work really
well.

The downside is that it's Apple-only at the moment. It's not a problem for me
right now since I'm deep in the Apple ecosystem, but I'm keeping my eyes open
for alternatives that are as polished as Bear, but are cross-platform.

Worst-case scenario, Bear can dump out to markdown files on disk (images too)
if I ever need to migrate to something else.

------
michael-ax
I used google-drafts, wikis, all sorts of combos involving folders & files &
hardcopies before discovering org-mode 4..5 years ago.

Since then I've been able to forge 20 years of references, scans, pdfs,
application-code!, shell scripts, photos, glyphs, graphs, fonts into an exo-
brain (a nice word from the cool kids) that not only includes journals, time &
billing, ledgers, feeds, project and resource planning, play-books &
checklists for my own debriefing

into something version controlled that boots from a chroot and can transfer to
android devices. i can now find, use and profit from clusters of notes,
generate html and latex, read, write and code, interface with and even capture
just about anything that life has thrown at me since i started re-tooling
myself.

I've got a reminder/drill mechanism which picks high-level topics things for
me to review and i just go with that to remember and refine old stuff as i go.
Its a seething mess of useful.

In essence .. i tag, sort, sift, condense and categorize like everyone else.
In under a gig of ram, and, as it happens, at the speed of thought via a
consistent user-interface.

And yeah, of course i use a browser. I can capture/convert html to plain text
& drag images into files knowing that everything will always be hyperlinked by
not-too-obnoxious uuids.

For some reason I had to hold my nose delving into emacs after ignoring it for
20 years. It seemed so weird. Now that I've gotten used to working with
software that enables general purpose computing, I'm experiencing Ataraxia.

Anyhow, to the OP, check your net-present-value figures. Are you expecting to
be a knowledge worker for a while? Have you ever chosen a slightly harder path
to make things easier?

If so, just take this note as a hint for what's possible when you're seriously
looking to answer your own question :)

------
jryan49
I'm testing out tiddlywiki
([https://tiddlywiki.com/](https://tiddlywiki.com/)) as of right now. I really
like it so far. Used to use org-mode, then plain old google docs. Right now
for me it's between onenote and tiddlywiki.

~~~
swah
That project must be really old, because I remember being excited about it at
the same time I was excited about Emacs.

~~~
jryan49
The main developer has rewritten the whole thing in version 5 in NodeJS and
HTML5, it's pretty slick now. I have it running in a docker container on GCE.

------
fiveFeet
I use vim <[http://www.vim.org/>](http://www.vim.org/>) and zim <[http://zim-
wiki.org>](http://zim-wiki.org>) to maintain my collection of notes which are
primarily text. Both tools work well on Linux and Windows.

Zim is great if you need some type of markup (ex:- hyper links, bullet points
etc.,). Vim is great for plain text.

If the notes are private but need to be shared across multiple machines, I
create a private gitlab project.

If the notes are public, I either create a github project or put them on a
public wiki where only I can edit. For the public wiki, I am using an account
on shoutwiki <[http://www.shoutwiki.com>](http://www.shoutwiki.com>) .

------
zimablue
I've spend a long time trying different methods of doing this.

I briefly investigated tiddlywiki, used OneNote heavily for a while.

Currently I'm migrating to using JupyterLab notebooks on an ec2 instance with
IP whitelisting.

It works pretty well, I have a kind of dream to connect it to a Datomic server
instead of using filesystem notebooks and have relational notes.

~~~
billconan
does your note contain runnable sourcecode? why Jupyter?

What's the benefit of datomic vs. filesystem?

~~~
zimablue
Yeah some runnable code, not much at the moment but hopefully more as time
goes on.

Most of my notes are to do with data or programming, and a lot are just script
fragments on how to do something, I want to run them.

In theory I could hack jupyter and datomic to enable me to define
relatinoships and query for notes instead of having either a text search or a
single hierarchy navigation

------
j_s
I am interested in personal experiences/anecdata documenting what happens to
these collections when the collector dies. So much effort invested!

I plan to make sure organizational time pays off in the short term, and need
to work up a 'site map' for my various digital collections (in the off chance
anyone cares after I'm gone). Sharing as much as possible starts to make sense
in the long term, so classifying what "must be private" must be done as part
of the process. (A tiny bit of this aspect is reflected in how useful my own
StackOverflow contributions have been across jobs!)

In this light, tools encouraging sharing useful specific technical info semi-
privately within a small group of very close professional friendships start to
make a lot of sense.

~~~
sudouser
i've seen free blogs used such as blogspot or wordpress, i might go that
route.

Also GitHub gists have been of great help.

------
csbartus
Using a Wordpress theme for it with all post formats supported (link, quote,
aside, etc)

[https://mothemes.baby](https://mothemes.baby)

If you want to try (in test mode now) send me an email to the address from my
profile

------
shoover
That is an interesting use of gmail drafts. I'm sure you stretched the
usability to the limit and found pros and cons going to a wiki.

I use orgmode, starting with a buffer with a few headings, URLs, and
paragraphs on a topic. The buffer may be killed the same day or turn into 100k
words spread over a few files a few years later, still easily searchable with
org-agenda or grep and automatically exported to HTML for viewing on mobile. I
don't bother with images or mobile editing due to complications--those are the
main drawbacks.

------
juliansamarjiev
While building my company, we just drop all our experiences, lessons learned
and failures down in our blog. It helps us document the process, be able to
look back at it, as well as hopefully provide a valuable blueprint for other
people building a business.

We've been doing it from day 1 and realise how valuable is and will be, going
forward.
[https://weardulo.com/blogs/origins](https://weardulo.com/blogs/origins)

------
chasely
I write things down and then transfer what is useful to digital with org-mode.

Depending on the "officialness," I write things down on either a legal pad or
in a lab notebook dedicated to a project. Then the most important bits of this
gets put into an org-mode "notebook."

I prefer writing things down first, I find that it sharpens my thinking around
whatever I'm recording.

Though there are some other interesting ideas in here that I may try and
steal.

------
rubidium
Relevant from 73 days ago: "Ask HN: How does your team handle knowledge
documentation?"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15637194](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15637194)

My answer is the same. The tools don't matter much at all when it comes to
documenting knowledge. Whatever gets used is best. Searchable is a plus.

------
nikivi
I use GitBook and GitHub.

I have a repository with many markdown files
([https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge))
and I render it all with GitBook here
([https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz)).

------
VladimirGolovin
Diaries in Workflowy, per project. Top-level "folders" for years, second level
for months, third level for days.

------
nerdponx
At the moment it's a collection of Markdown files in a Git repo. I'm thinking
about moving to a wiki solution but I haven't settled on one yet.

Has anyone used multiple wikis and can comment on the pros and cons? There are
so many out there. The only one I know I don't like is Tiddlywiki.

~~~
stephenr
Gollum is a wiki UI for what you're already using (markdown in git)

[https://github.com/gollum/gollum](https://github.com/gollum/gollum)

------
CameronBanga
nvALT is growing on me as of late. Very quick and easy way to build a library
of markdown notes.

------
dahx4Eev
Boostnote ([https://boostnote.io](https://boostnote.io)). Writing markdown in
vim mode, annually rotated, version controlled with SparkleShare.

------
lolive
What's your opinion about online Markdown editors backuped by Github Pages?
Something like [http://prose.io/](http://prose.io/)

------
cg94301
Using Python Sphinx. Compiles markdown to html. Searchable, TOC, index.
[http://www.sphinx-doc.org/](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/).

------
jamespo
emacs org mode self hosted mediawiki

------
jlu
A Dropbox folder full of markdown files with some custom syntax for quick
jotting down ideas and knowledge, worked great for the past couple of years.

------
m_ransing
I use CherryTree. I use it as simple editor application (not code editing
though) and also use its' hierarchical structuring of the notes.

------
vaughan
I use IntelliJ/WebStorm. I open a Google Drive folder which contains a
markdown file for each day.

------
quantum_nerd
Github Gist, Bear Note taking app(hashtags, hierarchical ordering, etc) and
sometimes jrnl cli tool

------
billconan
GitHub gist， google drive（why Gmail drafts?), mediawiki

------
dvaita99
Markdown. Synced to github and Gitlab.

------
Darkstack
a .plan file for my todo list, and some Markdown files synced on github.

------
peterbraden
Simplenote / github

