March 2, 2026
Brain vs. The Algorithm
How to Record and Retrieve Anything You've Ever Had to Look Up Twice
Readers feud over DIY notes, Google’s ‘forgetting’ machine, and auto-save for your brain
TLDR: The article urges everyone to document repeat tasks in simple notes so you never relearn them, then store them where you’ll actually find them. Comments explode into a showdown: DIY plain-text fans vs. automated-memory dreamers, with a spicy side of “Google wants you to keep forgetting” conspiracy—because time and attention matter.
An everyday story about forgetting how to watermark a PDF ignited a full-on culture war in the comments. The article says: build a simple personal knowledge base—write down steps as you do them, stash them in one place (text files, Notes, or Obsidian), and boom, no more relearning. Cue the crowd. The loudest chorus? Big Tech doesn’t want you to remember. One reader claims Google benefits when you keep searching, even griping that Chrome keeps bookmarks basic to keep you in the ad mine. Meanwhile, the old guard flexed: fans of Tomboy, Markor, and 20 years of Zim bragged that plain text plus search crushes forgetfulness. There’s also a wild opposite camp: the futurists who want automated memory—porting card-style “zettelkasten” note systems into experimental tools that auto-file your know‑how while you live your life. Others turned their notes into mini-blogs, posting fixes like dishwasher error F14 or how to strip vocals with AI—because future-you isn’t the only one who’ll need it. The mood swings between cozy DIY control and sci‑fi auto-capture, with jokes about “outsourcing your brain” and vows to document before doing the next step. The takeaway: write it down now, or prepare to rage‑search later—while the internet quietly counts your clicks.
Key Points
- •The author advocates creating a personal knowledge base to capture multi-step processes for future reuse.
- •Two documentation methods are recommended: write each step before moving on and narrate the process via an audio note.
- •The author stores instructions as Markdown text files in a single folder and accesses them using Obsidian.
- •Apple Notes is suggested as an alternative app; paper notes should include an index for retrieval.
- •Examples of recorded topics include PDF workflows, terminal screenshots, a Miele dishwasher error, Fastmail templates, Notion on iOS, and Shopify tax records.