[interroboink]

> I would recommend if you want to write notes or create an external mind to improve your thinking just write.

Agreed. Personally, I still use paper + pencil for a lot of things. Even if I never rustle through my stacks of notes to find it again, I already got a big chunk of the value from just writing it.

Aside: I find rustling through my notes to be useful in itself, even though it's inefficient on the surface. Electronic systems are so good at finding exactly what you want as quickly as possible that the "browse around and see what you bump into" experience can get lost.

Sometimes I'll just happen to see diagram X next to diagram Y and come up with a new insight, where if I only ever saw what I was specifically looking for, I'd lose that. Though I do waste a lot of time, too (:

[samsquire]

I reread my journal to try come up with new ideas. I think explaining your problem can reveal solutions. Rubber ducking.

My stack of paper drawings and diagrams and notes was thrown away by accident. So I only have my digital notes left.

As it was for Richard Feynman, writing is thinking itself.