Collection
Keep knowledge so you can find, trust and reuse it later
Design a lightweight personal knowledge system around future use: admission rules, realistic retrieval cues, preserved context and provenance, canonical notes, incremental deduplication, explicit stale states, decision bundles and maintenance triggered by real reuse.
15 elements · Explore in any order.
2 concepts · 3 principles · 9 protocols · 1 template
15 elements
Save information for a future job, not because it is interesting
Keeping has a cost, so give it a future need.
Read the idea ProtocolWrite one retrieval cue in the title
The future query may not resemble the source's headline.
Read the idea PrincipleStore why the item mattered when you saved it
The missing information is often your old context, not the page.
Read the idea ProtocolKeep source, locator and access date beside a material claim
A claim ages better when verification is one step away.
Read the idea PrincipleSeparate what the source says from what you infer
Your future self deserves to know which sentences came from evidence and which came from you.
Read the idea ProtocolGive changing knowledge an explicit state
A knowledge base needs state, not only storage.
Read the idea ProtocolSearch before creating a second canonical note
Duplicate knowledge creates maintenance forks.
Read the idea ProtocolUse aliases for names that change but the knowledge object does not
Names drift faster than the underlying need.
Read the idea ProtocolMerge duplicates when you encounter them, not in a heroic cleanup month
Maintenance works better when use creates the trigger.
Read the idea PrincipleArchive inactive knowledge out of the default view
Retention and prominence are separate decisions.
Read the idea ProtocolTreat a failed re-find as indexing feedback
The failed query is evidence about the mapping between need and information.
Read the idea ProtocolTest refindability with the words your future self is likely to have
Creation-time clarity can disappear at retrieval time.
Read the idea TemplateSave a decision bundle when the reasoning may matter later
The future question is often 'why did we choose this then?'
Read the idea ConceptDo not track personal data without a question or action
Data can create maintenance and cognitive burden without improving a decision.
Read the idea ProtocolUpdate durable knowledge when it is used and challenged
Use creates both value and the best opportunity to detect staleness.
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