memory_systemstools_for_thought
Scratch thoughts as the idea develops; still cleaning this note up for sharing with others.
A lot of what I love about Michael Nielsen and Andy Matuschak’s work on memory systems are the ideas around breaking memory systems out of the narrow and trivial contexts most users use them in. Memory systems can and should be used to help you live a better life (Spaced everything). I want memory systems to help me store my mistakes, expand on my knowledge, apply insights, and develop habits.
The key issue with modern memory systems is that there’s no way to ensure that the right prompt appears at the right time. You can just hope that thinking about it often enough due to the repetitions will eventually prime your brain to make the right decisions in the right times.
AI could help with that. I envision an AI collaborator that almost takes the form of journaling in that it provides suggestions based on what’s in your memory systems.
Something key to think about here is friction and how much of it there should be.
Concretely
More concretely, I think that this system would be takes my idea of creating an spaced repetition system at core that takes notetaking seriously from Notetaking for thinking even further by making it AI chat first. The use of notes is in writing down ideas (which is solved by spaced repetition) and in codifying information long-term, which is pointless without being used at the right time. I think the opening home page of this system would be a chatbox with an llm where you just kind of describe your new ideas or how your day went and what challenges you faced, solutions to those challenges, etc. For ideas and things like that, the AI would help provide constructive feedback, provide other resources to explore related ideas, and generally help you expand on the idea + help you quickly set all the scheduling stuff from Re-inventing the spaced repetition system for spaced everything. For journaling, it would be able to suggest ways to improve from previous knowledge and help you stick to your commitments and identity changes by asking you fluidly. Besides that, the rest of the spaced repetition logic would work the same and cards and notes would pop up based on whatever schedule you put them in. Of course, you could also view notes/spaced repetition cards separately.
Some People Working on Something Similar
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981802/software-applications-inc-workflow-shortcuts-apple-employees-startup https://new.computer/