How to manage your personal knowledge?

So I guess I hit my capacity to manually manage my acquired knowledge... and I need some software to streamline things before I smash my head against a wall.

Specifically I have amassed about 500GBs of assorted personal notes in various forms from plain text to multi-media notes.

Is anybody using any software out there they've found useful?

141,056 views 24 replies
Reply #1 Top

I've found the delete button to be very useful in these cases. Useful acquired knowledge stays in the brain while the rest is just useless knowledge.

Reply #2 Top

Quoting WebGizmos, reply 1
I've found the delete button to be very useful in these cases.

And going outside and discovering REAL LIFE [tm] ....;p

Reply #3 Top

Yes very helpful... ;) Thanks...

So after spending all this time looking into Personal Knowledge Management software and technique... I have to say most of these people are F'ing stupid.

As a person whose ideas have been blatantly ripped off, and whose ideas have made people rich without any return (or even credit, because that is like an admission of guilt)... I am predicting people with "good ideas" that can be monetized are going to get rammed up the butthole by subscribing to any PKM philosophies out there.

Ideally my PKM software of choice will be a veritable fortress of anti-sharing. Encrypted, offline, yet accessible to my mobile devices.

I am finding the exact opposite is the norm for PKM software... :\

Really, if I want to audit/vet any ideas, I really don't have much work to do to get immediate feedback in this connected online world.

Reply #4 Top

So, your next idea should be to build that software. :D

I admit, I am also unhelpful.

ICE up your server!

Reply #5 Top

"Personal Knowledge Management "

It's called...... a brain.

If you can't remember the shit...chances are it's shit not worth remembering.

If you MUST have a program to replace your brain....google....[wait for it]...."Personal Brain"

It's exactly what you are after....;p

Me...in my lifetime I have forgotten more 'shit' than most people will ever learn.....

 

 

 

...or want to...;)

Reply #6 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 5
"Personal Knowledge Management "

It's called...... a brain.

If you can't remember the shit...chances are it's shit not worth remembering.

If you MUST have a program to replace your brain....google....[wait for it]...."Personal Brain"

It's exactly what you are after....

Me...in my lifetime I have forgotten more 'shit' than most people will ever learn.....

...or want to...

Yeah I looked at "TheBrain" software

Conceptualization/mind mapping is only a small part of knowledge management.

Also, you need to subscribe to their services to go online.

Basically the problems are

1) You are trusting them with your deepest personal info; In this day of peeping on anything in order to monetize someone else's information, that is the dumbest thing you can do.

2) Java based *snort*

3) I already can tell that the visual representation is not practical, but more of a gimmick to get people to use it.

But yeah, this is sort of on the right track... now only if it was an open source appliance I could manage myself. ;)

Reply #7 Top

Me...in my lifetime I have forgotten more 'shit' than most people will ever learn.....

Total waste...

This is exactly what I am trying to prevent... my bucket is pretty much full now, if I want to keep acquiring knowledge, and manage the knowledge I have already acquired I need to do something about it. (and I am)

Reply #8 Top

Quoting Jythier, reply 4
So, your next idea should be to build that software.

I admit, I am also unhelpful.

ICE up your server!

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind and it was pretty horrifying. :D

I need to acquire a career's worth of knowledge to build a system to manage my knowledge. *head explodes*

Reply #9 Top

As I recall there's also an offline version...where nothing is accessible by others.  It's been years since I looked at it....way back when the graphics/animation was 'wow'..... probably win95 days.

There's another 'free-form' info proggy...called info-something...can't remember as yet...but it dates back originally to dos....so it's been around forever....

...I'll think of it eventually....;p

Reply #10 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 9

There's another 'free-form' info proggy...called info-something...can't remember as yet...but it dates back originally to dos....so it's been around forever....

*Darth Vader voice* The irony is strong with this one.

Hehe

Reply #11 Top

Quoting LORD-ORION, reply 10
The irony is strong with this one.

/me smites Lord Orion with something hard, heavy and blunt....;p

Reply #12 Top

Or you could put all your personal data on a flash drive and lock it in a safe should you need it for some reason later. Of course, you must have a great safe like mine, if you enter the wrong combination it electrocutes you with 10,000 volts. Hmmmm, now what was that combination again?  Oh yeah! Hope it's right! \o/

Reply #13 Top

"infoselect"

There....I remembered it....;)

Reply #14 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 13
"infoselect"

There....I remembered it....

Awesome thanks...

Looks capable, but it is ugly and expensive (this is not to say I am dismissing it)... it has lead me to look at.

BasKet
Nevernote
RedNotebook
Tomboy <- edit: This is looking good

Starting to go in circles now.... :D

Reply #15 Top

Round and round...round and round. Eventually we'll get to the 'crux' of the matter. My suggestion.........I dunno. :w00t:

Reply #16 Top

What kind of knowledge are trying to organize and manage? 

If it's tasks and daily trivia then I agree with LORD-ORION's suggestion of using apps like Evernote, Catch, etc. 

If it's something more complex like files/documents I would suggest looking at Wiki Software. I've heard good things about DokuWiki.

Next step up would be 'knowledge base software' - this is if you run a website that generates content. I would look at Safeharbor Knowledge Solutions, Comm100, Zendesk, there is a whole bunch. 

Also, if I'm browsing the web I have Notepad Mini added in chrome so I can take down notes. 

Hope this helps,

Cheers

+1 Loading…
Reply #17 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 12

Quoting LORD-ORION, reply 10The irony is strong with this one.

Jafo smites Lord Orion with something hard, heavy and blunt....

 

I find your lack of faith, disturbing . . .

Reply #19 Top

My brain is a sponge full of knowledge'

In a bucket, it sits by the door.

If only I'd gone to college

It would overflow onto the floor.

  XD

 

Reply #20 Top


Lord Orion,

The scientific community by and large uses EndNote for this.  Though I've not done it personally (I just use it for references to published journal articles), I'm given to understand that you can store a range of media through it, and attach files to your references as well.  It is keyword searchable, which you create when you create the log for the referencable material.  I don't know if it will help you, but you might look at it.

Reply #21 Top

Quoting moshi, reply 18

Quoting LORD-ORION, reply 3 offline, yet accessible to my mobile devices.


about 500GBs

 

how will that work? are you planning to carry an external hd with your mobile phone? 

but as QwertyGhost suggested, use some Wiki software for that.

 

The main concern is to keep the information away from the internet, but still be accessible to my wireless network for mobile devices. So the 500GBs of data is being served up on request where ever I am in the house.

Reply #22 Top

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 19
My brain is a sponge full of knowledge'

In a bucket, it sits by the door.

If only I'd gone to college

It would overflow onto the floor.

Yeah watch, they'll invent a pill like in the movie Limitless, right after I decide on software and get it all setup. ;)

+1 Loading…
Reply #23 Top

I would look at Safeharbor Knowledge Solutions, Comm100, Zendesk, there is a whole bunch.

The scientific community by and large uses EndNote for this.

Thanks QwertyGhost and Winnihym, I'm still trying out software and haven't decided yet. The more options to think about and try out, the better the solution. :)