notes

A Brief History of Lab Notebooks

, ,

Lab notebooks, a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of scientific research, offer a glimpse into the messy and iterative process of discovery. Originating from Renaissance commonplace books, these notebooks evolved alongside the Scientific Revolution, becoming essential tools for recording and sharing empirical data. While published research papers present a polished narrative, lab notebooks reveal the true nature of scientific inquiry, with its dead ends, false trails, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge.

https://www.asimov.press/p/lab-notebooks

The Append-and-Review Note

, ,

Andrej Karpathy describes his “append-and-review note” approach to note-taking, where he maintains a single, continuously appended text note in Apple Notes to capture ideas, todos, and thoughts without organizing them into folders or tags, except for minimal categorization for ease of search. Periodically, he reviews the note by skimming and elevating important items back to the top, finding this simple system effective for managing day-to-day notes while allowing old ideas to resurface or fade naturally.

https://karpathy.bearblog.dev/the-append-and-review-note/

Take Better Notes, By Hand

, ,

Brian Schrader discusses his four-part system for taking and organizing research notes, emphasizing the effectiveness of traditional paper notebooks despite their limitations. He outlines practical techniques such as dating every page, numbering pages, maintaining an index, and writing only on the right-hand pages while using the left for follow-up thoughts, which together enhance recall, engagement, and the ability to find notes later.

https://brianschrader.com/archive/take-better-notes-by-hand/

Scroll to Top