Literature notes

My literature notes capture information I gain from my reading that are most relevant to my projects and thinking. These notes represent my best understanding of the ideas of other people on subjects I care about. Because of these, I separate my literature notes from my talas, which are notes that capture my own thinking. This separation reminds me that I should always aspire to write original thoughts.

They contain the following:

• raw highlights and annotations
• atomic central thoughts from the material
• retrieval prompts to help me remember the central thoughts
• bibliographic information

The extensiveness of my literature notes depend on the complexity of the text. However, I avoid being too exhaustive when writing these notes, mindful that these notes only support the original thinking I'm aiming for.

I've written about how to write literature notes and how to convert literature notes to evergreen notes.

References

Matuschak, A. (n.d.). Literature notes are secondary and separate. Andyʼs Working Notes. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Literature_notes_are_secondary_and_separate