
What kind of information will you save in Personal Knowledge Base? - hanhongli
Do you use or want to any personal knowledge base tools? if yes, what kind of information you will save to the PKB?
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PenguinCoder
I use Confluence for various topics in my PKB. I have sections (spaces) for
Recipes I've found or made, Technical internals (network map and connectivity,
what did I do to make that Raspberry pi project?, How do I add a new VLAN to
this damn router, What's the process for restoring my paperless document
server, one off scripts / oneliners I find useful, etc), meat space stuff
(hardware/powertools/appliance serial numbers, part numbers, maint schedule,
where to buy parts), and my own tracking of college course syllabus (or cert
exams) for studying and tracking. Adding my own notes and processes with
sources that I obtained the information has been great.

Setting up the PKB has been one of the most useful projects I have; now if I
can just remember to keep it updated often!

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hanhongli
agree

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stockkid
I normally save things such as new vocabulary I come across, in English and
other languages, steps to solve pesky linux issues, snippets, solutions from
StackOverflow, etc. I documented my method and outcomes in the following
articles:

* [https://www.getdnote.com/blog/how-i-built-personal-knowledge...](https://www.getdnote.com/blog/how-i-built-personal-knowledge-base-for-myself/)

* [https://www.getdnote.com/blog/writing-everything-i-learn-cod...](https://www.getdnote.com/blog/writing-everything-i-learn-coding-for-a-month/)

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lijogdfljk
Disclaimer: I don't currently save anything, because I'm building my own tool
to manage this. My tool is partially designed around human retention of
information and relationship between pieces of information, ala mind-
mapping/etc - this influences what I plan on saving.

In the past, I've used most of the software out there to lots of varying types
of data. From birthdays, to work notes, goals, thoughts, plans and more. In
the end I've found that the more dynamic pieces of information like notes,
todos, plans and such are so flexible and hastily created that inserting them
into some robust tooling felt unneeded. Furthermore, when trying to jot down
ideas or software design plans I wanted something more free flying. A single
input box didn't feel as open as a piece of paper. So for these pieces of data
I've taken to writing into a dotted journal, and enjoy it quite a bit.

My plans for the longer lasting PKB data are focused on retaining conclusions
I create in life, the context of the time, and the sources that went into this
conclusion. Politics, science, relationships and life. I realized that the
information I build my identity around is, at least for me, all too easily
forgotten. I decide that X political candidate is unqualified, but not _why_
they were, and especially not what sources of information I got that from.
Furthermore, I fear manipulation, and I want to keep track of facts, not
simply be swayed by the masses of opinions on the internet.

My primary goal for a PKB is to help me navigate the world of over
information. Keeping track of sources, to help me back trace information if
it's subject to question. I want to be able to back up things I "believe" with
the facts that led me to that conclusion. My PKB is, I guess, a sort of
version control for the mutable state of my mind. At least, that is what I am
attempting.

As an aside, this software is being designed around information sharing as
well. I want the effort people put into research to be easily digestible,
trackable, searchable and sharable. I've made a whole host of decisions and
concessions around these goals for this software, and I hope one day it helps
people, more than just myself.

.. quite the long post. sorry :)

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hanhongli
what is the name of the tool you are developing? would be happy to try it out.

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lijogdfljk
Still too early for that unfortunately. I'm hoping to have the UX dogfooded in
the next month or two, but I wouldn't go near it for another 6 months at
least. I want to be able to destroy data should the need arise. Hope you
understand :)

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wh-uws
I use a Trello board as a personal knowledge base.

There are lists of cards in no particular order that cover also sorts of
random things like.

\- the research I did while buying a suitcase

\- random supplements I take

\- Buying an air purifier

\- how to hit the Philips hue API directly when their app doesn't work

Basically any random thing I want to remember that doesn't fit neatly into one
of my larger Trello boards

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hanhongli
that is interesting information to save. basically it is a note that is hard
to put into any category.

do you save information such as your friends' birthday, favorite color etc. or
information related to your colleagues, such spouse name etc.

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wh-uws
For birthdays I use Google contacts / calendar.

For stuff related to people I use Google contacts and if the information gets
long enough I move it to Trello. Haven't really had the need though...

But come to think of it I think you could probably put together a pretty solid
crm with Trello custom fields

