Minimalist note taking

 

Steve: I would like to learn to create notes more efficient.

Benjamin: That's great, and i can tell you how.

Steve: Are you working with the Luhmann system?

Benjamin: Not exactly, I'm using my own principle

Steve: Tell me more about it.

Benjamin: It is hard to explain, but you can take a look. Here is a shoebox.

Steve: I see, there are hundreds of index cards in the box. How do you find something in the box?

Benjamin: I don't.

Steve: But, isn't it the idea of a note taking system that older information can be retrieved?

Benjamin: In the Luhmann system this is the case, but my shoebox is working the other way around.

Steve: Ok, let us make an example, which notes do you have about the LaTeX typesetting language.

Benjamin: LaTeX has at it's first letter an L. Unfortunately, i have no index ...

Steve: Luhmann was using in addition a thematic tree which is working with alphanumberical numbers. So perhaps we search in the cmputer section?

Benjamin: Ops, i have no sections and no IDs. There is no section about computers.

Steve: What?

Benjamin: Sorry, but the notes have no order at all, but i know there are some information about the TeX software in the box, but i doesn't know where exactly.

Steve: And how do you find it?

Benjamin: I will take the note number one from the box, scan the content and put it on a stack. Then i will take the next note from the box scan it and so on.

Steve: This will take endless amount of time.

Benjamin. No problem there is no need to hurry up. And perhaps we will find something else which looks interesting.

Steve: Thanks for the explanation.

Benjamin: See you later.