AI has guided us into a new world of note-taking that we are only just beginning to explore.
Imagine having a digital assistant capable of completing any mental task on your behalf. Actually it completes the tasks better than you, because it doesn't make mistakes.
It can accurately and personally answers your emails, pays your taxes, and optimizes your investments. It's a therapist who knows everything about you and best possible way to help you. It's a co-pilot that compensates for your shortcomings.
Such an "assistant" would be invaluable. You could theoretically outsource most parts of day-to-day life you find unpleasant.
We are already witnessing the early stages of this. Every day, I use AI to transcribe my thoughts and chat with my notes. It's still fairly rudimentary, but it offers a glimpse into what will soon be possible.
Not everyone will be able to harness this superpower. AI will require access to your brain as a data source. Only those who have "exported" their knowledge into some kind of external brain will be able to grant such access.
The real challenge is that there is no way to simply download your entire brain instantly. It's not something you can decide to do when the technology becomes available. It must be done well in advance.
For one, extracting knowledge takes time. As I hinted at above, we can already use AI to extract thoughts via our voice. But you can only speak so fast, and typing is even slower. Moreover, the vast majority of information you have consumed has been lost from your memory. You couldn't capture it all even if you wanted to.
The only solution is to start extracting information as quickly as possible and to continue doing so religiously. Those who have extracted the most information from their minds will have the greatest advantage.
So how does one go about extracting their knowledge to use with AI technology that doesn't yet exist? Just focus on information capture.
The easiest "format" for this is some kind of daily note. A new note for each day acts as a home base where you can deposit all information. This removes the cognitive burden of deciding where to put something. Networked note-taking apps like Reflect already have this built-in.
Next, start trying to capture everything. Ideas, thoughts, feelings, concerns, to-do items, people you meet, places you go, what you do in a day... everything! Adopt an "append-only" approach to information capture. Don't overwrite information; only add to it.
What helps greatly here is setting up frictionless capture systems. Consider the various categories of information you'd like to capture, and devise the easiest way to get it into your notes.
Voice notes are also a massive help. It's simply the easiest way to transfer something from your head into your notes. Get into the habit of using these as quickly as possible.
In general, get accustomed to using AI as much as possible. Practice prompting, discover new workflows, etc. I write a weekly newsletter demonstrating new note-taking workflows.
Overall, it's hard to predict what this next evolution of AI will look like, but it's clear that data will be of immense importance. Our notes are the single best accessible data source on our brains.
At least until Neuralink can tap in directly.