Quotes found here: https://maggieappleton.com/tools-for-thought
In the words of several of the pioneers, tfts are:
“A context in which the user can have new kinds of thought, thoughts that were formerly impossible for them” - Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen
“A means of increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems.” - Doug Engelbart
“A truly new medium [where] the very use of it would change the thought patterns of an entire civilization” - Alan Kay
Doug Engelbart’s is particularly exciting because idt we have anything that can merge all of these effortlessly - yet. With the right practices someone could be using some form of Evergreen Notes to map out concept spaces and push their thought to a new problem, they might be gaining comprehension through note-taking and spaced repetition systems, and they might be deriving solutions to problems by writing through their ideas and stuff like that, but that takes master use.
Let’s break it down: a) approach a complex problem situation: I think there’s no other way to do this than serious Evergreen Notes and deep thinking (both of which should support each other; evergreen notes should fuel deeper thinking and deeper thinking should lead to new evergreen notes). Maybe there’s some kind of environment you can design that promotes better thinking in other ways as well? b) gain comprehension: There aren’t very good and established practices for when you should use what, but with a mixture of note-taking and spaced repetition systems I think that you can do this. Other things that could make it better: automatic skimmer that helps you focus on higher quality content, and Making Massive Input Better + learning how to Dealing with lots of good content. Basically, there should be support for both deep learning (enforced non-skimming, ai-generated flashcards that show up every few minutes and essentially transform any text into a mnemonic medium) and massive input. c) Derive solutions to problems: I don’t really know about this yet. Something that supports thinking and writing and understanding and creating new solutions. This would probably come down to design ideas and some kind of AI that can reason with you and push your thinking, like rubber duck but for thought?