Ask HN: How to take notes and learn from them?
So I've been trying to actually take notes with obsidian and I can't figure out how. let's say I am a newcomer to astronomy and I begin to look into the topic through popscience videos or short articles, every time I come across a new thing to learn I make a note as such: The zenith is the center of the night sky and it is used for orienting.. so on and so forth Maybe even throw in a couple of links to other notes for good mesure. As I assemble more and more info, what differentiates my vault from a local-copy of wikipedia? I mean sure it's not a word for word copy ( I always try to use my own words as much as possible) but is it any better? And if being similar to wikipedia isn't a problem, then what constitutes as learning? having a copy of wikipedia on-hand definitely is not learning. so do I take a look at these notes every couple of days and call it a day, or take a test on the subject as if it was a college course? This happens for me with other subjects too, for example a couple of weeks ago I wanted to get really knowledgable about greek mythology so I picked up mythos by Stephan Fry (great book btw) and again I was unsure about how to take notes on it. my intuition said to briefly explain in the form of short bullet points the plot point of each sub story in the book as well as detailing the relationships between different gods mentioned in the book. I guess that's better that not taking notes at all, but is my written relationship guide really better then the 10s of graphical ones available online? I used to know how to take notes for school because I got used to the structure of exams in different subjects thanks to the decade+ being a student but when it comes to free-form learning where there isn't a test or any tangible way to mesure progress I lose sight of how to take notes/learn 4 comments on Hacker News.
So I've been trying to actually take notes with obsidian and I can't figure out how. let's say I am a newcomer to astronomy and I begin to look into the topic through popscience videos or short articles, every time I come across a new thing to learn I make a note as such: The zenith is the center of the night sky and it is used for orienting.. so on and so forth Maybe even throw in a couple of links to other notes for good mesure. As I assemble more and more info, what differentiates my vault from a local-copy of wikipedia? I mean sure it's not a word for word copy ( I always try to use my own words as much as possible) but is it any better? And if being similar to wikipedia isn't a problem, then what constitutes as learning? having a copy of wikipedia on-hand definitely is not learning. so do I take a look at these notes every couple of days and call it a day, or take a test on the subject as if it was a college course? This happens for me with other subjects too, for example a couple of weeks ago I wanted to get really knowledgable about greek mythology so I picked up mythos by Stephan Fry (great book btw) and again I was unsure about how to take notes on it. my intuition said to briefly explain in the form of short bullet points the plot point of each sub story in the book as well as detailing the relationships between different gods mentioned in the book. I guess that's better that not taking notes at all, but is my written relationship guide really better then the 10s of graphical ones available online? I used to know how to take notes for school because I got used to the structure of exams in different subjects thanks to the decade+ being a student but when it comes to free-form learning where there isn't a test or any tangible way to mesure progress I lose sight of how to take notes/learn
So I've been trying to actually take notes with obsidian and I can't figure out how. let's say I am a newcomer to astronomy and I begin to look into the topic through popscience videos or short articles, every time I come across a new thing to learn I make a note as such: The zenith is the center of the night sky and it is used for orienting.. so on and so forth Maybe even throw in a couple of links to other notes for good mesure. As I assemble more and more info, what differentiates my vault from a local-copy of wikipedia? I mean sure it's not a word for word copy ( I always try to use my own words as much as possible) but is it any better? And if being similar to wikipedia isn't a problem, then what constitutes as learning? having a copy of wikipedia on-hand definitely is not learning. so do I take a look at these notes every couple of days and call it a day, or take a test on the subject as if it was a college course? This happens for me with other subjects too, for example a couple of weeks ago I wanted to get really knowledgable about greek mythology so I picked up mythos by Stephan Fry (great book btw) and again I was unsure about how to take notes on it. my intuition said to briefly explain in the form of short bullet points the plot point of each sub story in the book as well as detailing the relationships between different gods mentioned in the book. I guess that's better that not taking notes at all, but is my written relationship guide really better then the 10s of graphical ones available online? I used to know how to take notes for school because I got used to the structure of exams in different subjects thanks to the decade+ being a student but when it comes to free-form learning where there isn't a test or any tangible way to mesure progress I lose sight of how to take notes/learn 4 comments on Hacker News.
So I've been trying to actually take notes with obsidian and I can't figure out how. let's say I am a newcomer to astronomy and I begin to look into the topic through popscience videos or short articles, every time I come across a new thing to learn I make a note as such: The zenith is the center of the night sky and it is used for orienting.. so on and so forth Maybe even throw in a couple of links to other notes for good mesure. As I assemble more and more info, what differentiates my vault from a local-copy of wikipedia? I mean sure it's not a word for word copy ( I always try to use my own words as much as possible) but is it any better? And if being similar to wikipedia isn't a problem, then what constitutes as learning? having a copy of wikipedia on-hand definitely is not learning. so do I take a look at these notes every couple of days and call it a day, or take a test on the subject as if it was a college course? This happens for me with other subjects too, for example a couple of weeks ago I wanted to get really knowledgable about greek mythology so I picked up mythos by Stephan Fry (great book btw) and again I was unsure about how to take notes on it. my intuition said to briefly explain in the form of short bullet points the plot point of each sub story in the book as well as detailing the relationships between different gods mentioned in the book. I guess that's better that not taking notes at all, but is my written relationship guide really better then the 10s of graphical ones available online? I used to know how to take notes for school because I got used to the structure of exams in different subjects thanks to the decade+ being a student but when it comes to free-form learning where there isn't a test or any tangible way to mesure progress I lose sight of how to take notes/learn
Hacker News story: Ask HN: How to take notes and learn from them?
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September 08, 2025
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