Tools for Better Thinking

(untools.co)

1092 points | by mmoez 1400 days ago

33 comments

  • shahbaby 1400 days ago
    I've found that the most underrated problem solving tool is simply typing out my thought process.

    I used to be the type who asked a lot of questions until I realized that formulating the question was often more important than getting the answer.

    • typicalbender 1400 days ago
      It's amazing how much a technique like rubber ducking[1] helps to work through issues. The number of times I've felt like I have no idea how to solve a problem until the moment after I ask someone else is incredible. I think the act of thinking how to explain the problem to someone else really helps trigger the problem solving side of the brain. That and the number of times taking a 10 minute walk has been more productive than hours of debugging time is frankly mind boggling.

      [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

      • agustamir 1400 days ago
        I was stuck debugging a chip for a day until I finally decided to write to the FAE. I sit down, write my problem in the simplest possible language, list all the tricks I tried and asked for a solution. Then I'm reading my email to make sure everything is in order and voila - one last thing to try. and that step worked.
        • TheSpiceIsLife 1400 days ago
          What does FAE mean in this context?

          Or do you mean ‘fae’ as in fairies?

          Edit: speeling

          • agustamir 1400 days ago
            field application engineer (usually a customer facing engineer from semiconductor companies)
      • kiba 1399 days ago
        They call it the Einstellung effect[1]. It's a recommended strategy to take time away from the problem to let your brain subconsciously work on the problem.

        [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstellung_effect

        • lowdose 1399 days ago
          How is this different from the Innovators Dilemma?
      • sokoloff 1399 days ago
        The hours of debugging were still a critical part of the process. It “loosened the jar lid” so to speak. (It’s not like long-distance walkers are some of the best debuggers.)

        But once you’ve put in some substantial effort, taking a break and a walk (or a sleep) is often the critical last step.

      • daemoncoder 1399 days ago
        I've heard this concept called the cardboard colleague - you explain the problem to a cardboard cutout representing a colleague instead of an actual person. Of course it remains a concept, I don't think anyone would go so far as make one :-)
        • kwhitefoot 1399 days ago
          You can use an actual colleague.

          Many years ago when I was designing and programming embedded controllers (early '80s) I worked alongside, but not with, another engineer who was building devices using the same fundamental components (6520, PIA, etc.) In our tea breaks we would explain our problems to each other. Neither of us suggested any solutions to the other or responded with anything other than simple platitudes and sympathy for each other's troubles. It was remarkable how many problems had simply vanished by the end of the tea break.

        • dorfsmay 1399 days ago
      • tripu 1395 days ago
        Rubber duck debugging is extremely useful to unblock. I very rarely use an inanimate object, though — for me, the real help is the first or second (apparently very basic) question that the other person poses to me. That key question usually comes at what would seem the beginning of my explanation, but there lies the magic.

        Rubber ducks don't ask questions.

      • andrepd 1399 days ago
        >That and the number of times taking a 10 minute walk has been more productive than hours of debugging time is frankly mind boggling.

        I can't keep track how many times I has an idea that got me unstuck while peeing in the bathroom.

    • dathanb82 1400 days ago
      When asking for help solving a problem, I start writing a question to ask someone, and then as I start explaining what I've tried (to try to be respectful of their time and them not have to repeat anything I've done) more and more things to try occur to me. By the time I've tried all the things that occur to me while describing the problem, I've solved the problem. That's the way it works out more often than not.
      • beefield 1400 days ago
        Exactly this. What is really weird, though, is that I have occasionally tried to promote this approach to people that ask my help, simply by asking them to write the request to me instead of calling. Also, getting the help request in written helps me to think the case and open issues in my own pace uninterrupted by discussion.

        The weird part? I have a strong feeling that more and more often (luckily not too often yet) my request seems to be considered outright hostile and it causes significant irritation. I wonder if anyone else has noted the same or am I just getting old and grumpy...

        • vaughandroid 1400 days ago
          That sounds like a tricky message to deliver:

          1. It could easily come across as "my time is more important than yours". 2. Depending on what they are asking for and how urgently they are treating it, they might not want a lesson in solving their own problems. They just want help fixing the problem. 3. A lot of people are self-centred. Of course their problem should be your top priority and you should drop what you're doing! /s

          ...So yeah, I'd be surprised if it didn't get a bad reaction sometimes. Perhaps seek to promote this approach when their problem is resolved. I would imagine they would be more receptive then.

          • horstmeyer 1398 days ago
            > 1. It could easily come across as "my time is more important than yours".

            Well yes, if someone comes to me to ask for help, that means they weren't able to solve it by themselves, but expect me to have the skills, knowledge or experience to help them solve it. So my time working on this problem is obviously more valuable than theirs, because I'm expected to fix something they weren't able to.

            So I think it's fair to ask them invest the time to provide a proper description of the problem, before I invest time to help them.

          • focus2020 1399 days ago
            This happens all the time. This might sound cynical but it's impossible to change the attitude of some people. Any tips to avoid them without being quoted as "not a team player".
        • TheSpiceIsLife 1400 days ago
          Yep.

          I’ve asked people to not give me dimensions for a work request over the phone because it leads to potential for transcription errors and mis-hearing...

          If you type it out and send it to me, or write it down and send a photo / scan, and it’s wrong... that’s your fault.

          And they seem genuinely put out by me not wanting to be responsible for a mistake.

          • bredren 1400 days ago
            If them being put out causes you trouble, may be best to take them, then send the follow up email requiring the confirmation.

            Humans need handling.

          • SamuelAdams 1399 days ago
            One thing I've learned is that many coworkers really struggle with writing. They are amazing talkers - they work in sales most of the time. But they rarely write anything more than bullet points in a powerpoint deck.

            It's a bit sad, but understand that people have different backgrounds and education. Perhaps their schooling, back in the 1960's / 70's, did not prioritize writing skills? It's just really odd to me because every single job I've ever applied for always said "must be able to excel in written communication", so why should the standard for my colleagues be different?

            • TheSpiceIsLife 1399 days ago
              This raises an interesting point.

              Maybe excels at written communication is how everyone else is doing it (bullet points, spelling and grammar mistakes) and we are the aberration.

              • petra 1399 days ago
                I usually to write in short sentences instead of long paragraphs.

                I find that it improves clarity. It also seems the readers respond well to that.

                With that in mind, why are bullet points so bad ? they seem like a simple technique to simplify writing.

                • mallow 1398 days ago
                  I've written a bullet point message to a client once. He was pieved because it sounded like I was enumerating his failures instead of genuinely asking questions. I find that bullet points are only good if you enumerate what you've done, or something neutral. But nothing in regards to what somebody else needs. It's really aggressive.

                  I've found that bullet points come off as really aggressive in communication.

        • henrik_w 1399 days ago
          Maybe in some cases it is helpful (for both parties) if it is written down. However, in my experience, a conversation can often be very helpful as well - you can ask clarifying questions etc. It becomes more of a brainstorming together. Has helped me many times (on both sides of the conversation).
          • petra 1399 days ago
            I find the instant messaging is even better(for informational conversations).

            It gives you time to think, can decrease miscommunication and the psychological element of conversation(giving more clean space for the informational element) and increase the depth and details of a conversation.

            • henrik_w 1398 days ago
              Completely the opposite for me. What would be a couple of minutes of conversation is stretched out to an hour or more. And no point starting something different while waiting for the next message.
        • Takch 1400 days ago
          hab ich auch weilse sonst zu viel abgeben teilen ornen und wiedergutmachen müsseb denke ich. linke menschen muss man aufs Brot haben!
      • elric 1400 days ago
        What I do then is record that in my journal. Usually I never look at it again. But sometimes it's incredibly useful to be able to go back and revisit my thought process, especially in the face of a bug.
      • elbear 1400 days ago
        There's a name for that: rubber-duck debugging :)
    • doctoboggan 1400 days ago
      On more than one occasion I've started typing my question on stack overflow. I try to do my due diligence so I don't look like an idiot on the internet, and usually as I am anticipating responses I end up trying something that solves my problem.
      • pinouchon 1399 days ago
        Stackoverflow is the best rubber duck because the anticipation of that fear is quite real. And I know that on many occasions I will end up submitting that question
    • Pandabob 1400 days ago
      This. I've gotten a new appreciation for Stackoverflow in the past year or so.

      Half of the drafts I write do not end up as published questions, just because the writing process itself is often helpful in figuring out what ever problem I have with my code.

      • pinouchon 1399 days ago
        Sometimes I wonder how big a tragedy it is that many well-written questions are simply dismissed because the author found his solution in the process. I'm sure many of those questions are high quality and would get edits, upvotes and answers had the author just pressed the submit button.
        • lubonay 1398 days ago
          Actually it's acceptable to answer your own question, as long as it's a useful contribution, so it might be worth it to just post the question after all.
      • Takch 1400 days ago
        code?
    • cjsawyer 1400 days ago
      You can’t answer the question until it exits!
    • ivalm 1400 days ago
      I have this experience. If I am struggling with something and can’t find an answer on the web I will write down a stack overflow/cross validated/math question. More often than not simply formulating the question well will help resolve the problem. If I still can’t figure it out I post and come back in an hour. Again, even if no one answered rereading the question after making some space often helps answer the question to myself.
    • drcongo 1399 days ago
      Yes! I've lost count of the number of times I've started a ticket on GitHub and through the process of typing it all out solved my own problem without ever submitting the ticket.
    • izzle49 1400 days ago
      Yep I have been doing the same too, writting out and drawing out things to get it out of my head and onto paper seems to help quite a bit.
    • KrishMunot 1399 days ago
      The universe has all the answers, what matters is the questions you ask
    • hyperpallium 1400 days ago
      42
  • localhost 1400 days ago
    This is a really nice presentation of these ideas.

    However, I think that the Decision Matrix idea is too complicated: specifically the part where he advocates adding a weighting to each factor being considered to arrive at a numerical score.

    At Microsoft, some of us use a system that I like to call the "Abolade decision making framework." It's the same idea, but instead of assigning weights to factors, we simply rank them. Additionally, the factors are expressed as positive attributes and an option either has that factor or it doesn't. A factor could be "Has vibrant colors" or it could be "Less than $10" for example. The type of a factor is Boolean :)

    The goal is to generate a table with the options presented as columns and the factors presented as rows. You spend a lot of time as a group figuring out what the factors are, and then you spend a lot of time ranking them. Once you have agreement, you start working on the options. The winning option is one where you have the longest continuous line of check marks for each factor starting from the top.

    Smart people, of course will try to game this system to choose their preferred outcome ... you need to be vigilant about this :)

    • khimaros 1400 days ago
      Is there somewhere I could read further about the Abolade framework? I can't seem to find any good resources from a quick web search.
      • localhost 1400 days ago
        I don’t think there’s anything public about this. Not that there is anything particularly secret about this at all. It’s very straightforward and I’ve described its salient points above.
      • asdfgeoff 1397 days ago
        +1, I would love to read more about this, particularly around how it scales to multiple (possibly overlapping) options.

        > Additionally, the factors are expressed as positive attributes and an option either has that factor or it doesn't.

        This is very intuitive for binary decisions, where the "pros" of one option are the "cons" of the other. How do you scale it to multiple options though? (e.g. if I am deciding between internet providers, speed is clearly an important factor, but I may have 3 options with low/medium/high speed respectively)

  • inetsee 1400 days ago
    There is a book titled "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques". The last edition was published in 2006, so it's fairly dated by now. I found it very interesting back then, but it wouldn't have much about more recent tools or ideas.

    There is a summary of the book here https://www.ethos3.com/books/thinkertoys-a-handbook-of-creat...

    • chadcmulligan 1399 days ago
      This is a good one to - "The Thinker's Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving" by Morgan D. Jones, ( techniques as used by the CIA no less! :-) ).

      https://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-Toolkit-Powerful-Techniques-...

    • seesaw 1400 days ago
      +1. I found one in my local library few months back. It breaks down the process to solve a problem and lists different approaches. It is a good read.
  • playing_colours 1399 days ago
    TRIZ (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ) “theory of the resolution of invention-related tasks”. It was invented in Soviet Union. TRIZ is basically a toolset to analyse and solve engineering problems; it can help with “inventing“ tasks.

    The system is well developed and quite sophisticated with a variety of techniques and approaches. I found this book to be a good introduction: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/TRIZ+for+Engineers%3A+Enabling+I...

    • petra 1399 days ago
      Have you found it useful to non-mechanical problems?
  • diggan 1400 days ago
    Lovely idea and presentation! Will come very handy at times.

    Something I feel like is missing: Statecharts. Very powerful to be able to reason about state changes without having to deal with the explosion of states that state machines often ends up with. Sometimes also called hierarchical state machines.

  • OctopusSandwich 1400 days ago
    Do any of these tool actually help people in everyday life?

    Self-help is good but sometimes I wonder if people who yap about all these tools all the time even get anything substantial out of it.

    • doomjunky 1400 days ago
      The Inversion Methode:

      Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was a German mathematician famous for his maxim "Invert, always invert". He believed that the solution of many hard problems can be clarified by re-expressing them in inverse form. Inversion forces new ways of thinking and helps uncover hidden solutions.

      https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/114459774698642227...

      https://fs.blog/2013/10/inversion/

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_Jacob_Jacobi

    • Jakob 1400 days ago
      The tools on the linked website are very basic which are used on a daily basis:

      "Issue trees": Write your problem down "First principles": 5-whys, which you do e.g. in a post mortem "Second-order thinking": think of mid- and long-term consequences "Connection circles": side-effects

      You maybe think about mental models of which there are a lot (https://fs.blog/mental-models/) and there are some cargo cults and fancy words around them.

      They have their right to exist though, e.g. I really like to end a meeting early because of the law of diminishing returns. :)

    • kevindeasis 1400 days ago
      Like the pareto principle, there's a small amount of mental models that you'll find really useful in a recurring basis.

      some of them might be helpful in rare situations

  • Rochus 1400 days ago
    Outliners are definitely missing, such as https://github.com/rochus-keller/crossline/. You can structure your thoughts while you type, even while you're talking to other people. And you can make cross-references and make appear thoughts (or action items and such) in other places using translucent active links. Or copy/paste structured text from the web or aggregate links with notes, etc.
  • mrtrombone 1400 days ago
    Fantastic toolset. I found the posts by Leyla Acaroglu [1] an excellent introduction to systems thinking and many of these concepts

    [1]: https://medium.com/disruptive-design/search?q=tools%20for%20...

  • satoshikenzo 1399 days ago
    "An important aspect of learning about strategies is the conditional knowledge of when and why to use them appropriately" (Krathwohl et al.)

    I wanted to compile a similar list of strategies myself, however I couldn't quite understand when to apply them. After some research, my view is that to understand when to apply these general thinking/problem-solving strategies, one needs to know the goal of the task and the cognitive processes involved i.e. it requires conditional knowledge which is part of metacognition.

    Wonderful list though!

  • koolhead17 1400 days ago
    Reading autobiography of Benjamin Franklin makes me feel we don't need tools but willingness within. He had a notebook and pen with him.
    • adrianN 1400 days ago
      Just because some people can multiply large numbers in their head, that doesn't mean that other people won't benefit from a pocket calculator.
    • HourglassFR 1400 days ago
      To be fair, a notebook and a pen are fantastic thinking tools. You maybe could argue that the tools provided here are not that useful but thinking tools in general are a necessity, Daniel Dennet makes some compeling arguments for this.

      "You can't do much carpentry with your bare hands, and you can't do much thinking with your bare brain". — Bo Dahlbom

    • enchiridion 1400 days ago
      I think this speaks to the idea of rubber ducking.

      I think a fair amount of problem solving ability is at the boundary of the internal and external.

      Of course this is imprecise scientifically, but hopefully the idea is clear.

  • ggregoire 1400 days ago
    No direct relation but reminds me of https://datavizcatalogue.com/search.html (which is great btw!)
    • wintermutestwin 1399 days ago
      That link is incredibly helpful! Only slightly non-sequitur...
  • arcticfox 1400 days ago
    Ohh...I love this. I have a handful of these internal tools that I picked up over these years, but I never knew where to find more (or really, consciously thought to look for more). Now I have a bit of a roadmap.

    The ones I do have are so valuable that even if I get one more effective one off this list, it will be one of the best things I do this year.

  • alexashka 1400 days ago
    One important aspect of human thinking is the need to form narratives to make sense of the world.

    We don't live or think in abstract algebra or abstract heuristics. We live and think in a world-view in which problems arise and for each problem, we have a set of potential solutions, often unconscious.

    This website has good information - it just doesn't do a good job of organizing them into a coherent narrative.

    It's not enough to know what probability is, if you never think to use it to ask the question what are the chances one religion out of thousands that all claim they are the only true religion, is actually the true religion?

    One of the big issues of modern society is people being taught/given disconnected bits of information, without a guide on how to fit them into a coherent narrative. This isn't done by accident and a lot of people have given it a great deal of thought - some call it post-modernism.

  • cercatrova 1400 days ago
    I like the concept, I see many sites like these. However, who actually uses these in a day to day situation? It feels like these thinking models need to be internalized in more than just a superficial way to get any real use out of them, and I wonder if a book or course wouldn't integrate better with one's mind.
  • x32n23nr 1400 days ago
    Side note: Also, nice minimal site. Refreshing to see well-designed, clean sites this days.
    • raspyberr 1400 days ago
      You should get into the habit of actually checking the network requests. The site looks minimal but it's 1.1MB w/o Google analytics. It's what Maciej Cegłowski(https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm) would call Chickenshit Minimalism.
      • x32n23nr 1400 days ago
        You're right - spoiled by the internet connection. I guess I was referring more to the UI.
        • Enginerrrd 1400 days ago
          I'm just happy that the homepage mostly zooms the way it should.

          Nothing in the modern web pisses me off more than a developer trying to decide how my zoom behavior should work for me. Zoom is a very basic concept, I want to make the whole page larger or smaller. For some reason people insist on messing with that to make some menu, banner, or image popup appear the way they think I (or they) want it to when I try and zoom in or out, rather than just let me zoom as I please.

          This site still manages to fuck it up when I click on one of the images though.

      • putsjoe 1400 days ago
        Thanks for the link, a great talk
  • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
    does anyone know a simple app that allows hyperlinking within notes? I want to create a roam-style knowledge base, but most tools are too heavy for my purposes. I prefer to keep things cross-compatible and future proof with .txt or .rtf, but to my knowledge, neither allow hyperlinking to documents
    • jpitz 1400 days ago
      • diggan 1399 days ago
        Fair bit of warning: TiddlyWiki is the opposite of heavy, which means it's a bit shallow on the surface by allow custom data types/pages. I love this, makes you basically be able to build your own content systems on top of TiddlyWiki, but people expecting it's just "notes you can link together" might have to readjust their expectations.

        Another great thing about TiddlyWiki is that the content can be stored in barebones files that you can read/parse outside of TiddlyWiki, and you can also run the frontend client offline with just a single index.html, if you want to. So fits what M5x7wI3CmbEem10 pretty nicely.

        So thumbs up for TiddlyWiki but it can be a bit... Tiddly to fickle with sometimes.

    • cmehdy 1400 days ago
      Yesterday there was a Show HN about Obsidian[0] which you might be interested in.

      [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598

      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        you need an account for it though, right? meaning they have access to your stuff. and because they use unique formatting such as `![[filename]]`, it may not be easily cross-compatible
        • Hates_ 1400 days ago
          No account needed. It just works off local markdown files.
        • cgriswald 1400 days ago
          No account needed. They don't have access to your stuff—it works on local files—but appear to be working on a cloud option. They claim to support Commonmark and Github Flavored Markdown. [[filename]] is just a shortcut for [filename](filename), but in any case "Export to standard Markdown links" is on their short-term roadmap.

          You might also check out Zim.

        • nighthawk454 1400 days ago
          I believe in yesterdays thread there was mention of the app storing all files locally in a portable Markdown format
          • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
            Have you heard anything about Joplin? I believe it behaves similarly.
      • dunefox 1399 days ago
        Not that great since it lacks Latex support.
    • rukuu001 1400 days ago
      Hate to be that guy but... org-mode :)

      I use it as an outliner, to link to documents (using org-roam), and liberally sprinkle TODOs among the notes, which the agenda picks up.

      Took a while to get comfortable with it, but it's totally worth it.

      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1399 days ago
        I'm concerned because the emacs community is significantly smaller than the vi community. Do you happen to know anything about vim-org?
        • rukuu001 1398 days ago
          I tried vim-org previously (I’m a Vim user at heart) and didn’t have any success, but I hadn’t grokked org-mode at that point anyway. So definitely worth trying it out.
        • _alex_ 1398 days ago
          citation needed
    • mrshu 1399 days ago
      If you do not mind a bit of setup, I have found Vim in combination with VimWiki (https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki) a very good fit for this scenario.

      It supports markdown formatting, does hyperlinks pretty well (even jumping back and forth is quite nice), is as cross-compatible as Vim and stores the notes in future-proof .md files.

      I suggest you give it a shot.

    • marvinblum 1400 days ago
      Hm that's hard to accomplish with simple text files. You can checkout Emvi [1]. That's not exactly what you're looking for but you can link everything using the @ key and export to HTML and markdown.

      [1] https://emvi.com/

      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        it's unfortunate that just being able to link documents is difficult within text files
    • simantel 1400 days ago
    • codemac 1400 days ago
      org-mode allows linking within notes.
      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        still a bit too heavy for my purposes, but it looks like it may be the only option. I was trying not to resort to `.md` files, but that may be a more future-roof option to be honest.
        • _alex_ 1398 days ago
          org is as future proof as anything else
        • ImprobableTruth 1400 days ago
          if you do decide to check out emacs, look at org-roam. My experience with it has been amazing so far.
          • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1399 days ago
            how is it compared to org-zettelkasten or vim-org?
    • jxy 1400 days ago
      Use acme from plan9port. Every file is automatically a link.
    • flarg 1400 days ago
      zim desktop wiki
    • cryptonode 1400 days ago
      Take a look at https://www.notion.so
      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        notion is a proprietary format, unfortunately. I also want to keep things in local storage for security reasons
    • Enginerrrd 1400 days ago
      Depends what you mean by "heavy", and what platform you're looking for. Vimwiki maybe?
      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        I can keep things on local storage and preferably in `.txt` or `.rtf`
    • gexla 1400 days ago
      Why not Roam?
      • M5x7wI3CmbEem10 1400 days ago
        Roam is closed-beta and a proprietary format.
        • gexla 1400 days ago
          I get that. But I'm also skeptical of any product / service which attempts to bolt on Roam-like features.

          Note taking apps have been around for a long time, and now all of a sudden it's a hot new thing to add bio-directional links?

          The developers talked about starting out not knowing what they would end up with but that they would know when they saw it. That process took them two years (?) of exploration and development to get to what they have now. That's worth tipping them at least a few months subscription for anyone looking for a note taking app with Roam features. Throw these guys a bone for getting us past the stagnation.

          Also, anything Roam-like is still going to be half-assed. If they aren't furthering the thread, then they're just copying. If they're just copying, then they don't have the understanding of the problem that the Roam developers have. If I feel Roam brought value to the world, then I should follow those developers who delivered rather than the copy cats.

          Granted, Roam didn't create the idea of of linking notes. They didn't create the idea of the bullet blocks. They did create the interface which made it all work on a screen though.

          • ImprobableTruth 1400 days ago
            Hell, even if they had straight up invented backlinks I wouldn't be willing to deal with an application that costs $15 per month and gives me absolutely no control over my data. The possibility that an outage could cause me to lose work alone prevents me from ever giving it a shot.

            And the idea that even though the copycats deliver to me the superior product, I should still give what amounts to charity to Roam because they designed a nice interface just strikes me as absurd. I don't see the point in being overly concerned about supporting new research since we already have a mechanism for that: patents. If Roam truly believes their work is revolutionary, they should have just applied for a patent.

            • gexla 1399 days ago
              > The possibility that an outage could cause me to lose work alone prevents me from ever giving it a shot.

              They have an excellent data download option in the app. You can download in Markdown or JSON and then restore. The JSON format restores everything. The Markdown format restores syntax. I download both with every session.

              > And the idea that even though the copycats deliver to me the superior product, I should still give what amounts to charity to Roam because they designed a nice interface just strikes me as absurd.

              Where in my comment did I mention Roam being inferior? Right now it's the opposite. Copycats are offering bolt-on roam-like features which don't work the same. The developers don't have the same understanding of the problem that the Roam developers have.

              Why is Roam blowing up right now when it's just another note taking app? People are seeing something in it that they haven't seen in other apps. Bolting on copy-cat features isn't going to capture whatever magic Roam is doing. People are doing themselves a disservice by looking for a Roam alternative. If you tried Roam and believe it sucks, then you aren't looking for an alternative, you're just looking for something with links (Roam does way more than that though.)

              I have no personal stake in the app. I'm just amazed at the reviews that Roam has got. I have seen loads of people say that Roam has changed the way they take notes. Some even say it has been life changing. The service has been blowing up.

        • 2snakes 1399 days ago
          There is an export to markdown, and the developer has specifically said he is going to continue to allow that. There is a converter for tag/highlight/todo from Obsidian.md
    • Takch 1400 days ago
      jDownloader vielleicht ....
  • ddelt 1400 days ago
    I love reading about and visualizing about mental models. This site is great for quickly and concisely internalizing them! Thank you for making it!

    Another great resource for folks who like reading about these: https://fs.blog/mental-models/

    I've actually read the mental models series of books put out by the above author, and I also highly recommend those for a deeper dive.

  • rememberlenny 1400 days ago
    The tree-like mind maps from these are made in MindNode [1].

    [1]: https://mindnode.com/

    • Jestar342 1400 days ago
      Oh wow. Mac/iOS only. When was this a thing?
      • AdamGibbins 1400 days ago
        For as long as Mac's have existed? Some developers prefer to focus on one ecosystem, Omni Group for example.
      • Reelin 1400 days ago
        FreeMind is FOSS and cross platform (Java) although I haven't used it in years and it doesn't appear to have had a new release in quite some time. (Wikipedia says the fork Freeplane is active?)
  • pantulis 1400 days ago
    Sometimes it's been useful for me to use the tool used to state the problem as a guidance framework during the thought process.

    So you could try to state the problem in a very structured way (say, a spreadsheet) and at the same time in a visual way (say, a presentation slide deck). Of course some people are better using one type than the other but that's where the trick relies: forcing yourself to think in a way that is not your "natural" way of thinking.

  • _theory_ 1399 days ago
    If this sort of thing appeals to you, you might enjoy Poor Charlie's Almanack, which can be found on archive.org right now for the low, low price of free:

    https://archive.org/search.php?query=poor%20%20charlie%27s%2...

  • drewcoo 1400 days ago
    So an "iceberg model" is about trends and patterns over time? That's adding a dimension to the iceberg's ocean and I think the analogy breaks. Usually icebergs are to describe partial occlusion.

    Also alarming is that in the example for that model QA is something that happens post-release. If so, I expect quality to be a looming iceberg.

  • nickjj 1400 days ago
    Very cool idea but I was disappointed that Socratic Questioning wasn't included.

    Here's an example of how that can be applied to tech decisions: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/would-socrates-use-docker-tod...

  • blackrock 1399 days ago
    I use markdown.

    VSCode has a nice plugin for it. And so does a few other editors.

    It’s simple, and easy to use. Pure text, and allows you to do some formatting. Especially, the code preview.

    This allows me to brainstorm, and just type out random things at will. And I can reorganize it later.

    And when I want to read it, then I switch on the viewer, and all my text is nicely presented.

    • mosselman 1399 days ago
      Did you even look at the link?
  • imvetri 1399 days ago
    Just meditate, please do not load more pain to head. The article shares some good techniques, use the same techniques using pen and paper and it is healthier.

    P.S. Its a personal preference, I'm not trying to put down the tool, its great and can be used as a training material for better thinking.

  • Hoasi 1400 days ago
    Here is a trove of similar thinking tools to generate ideas, for those interested: http://creatingminds.org/tools/tools_ideation.htm
  • amjd 1399 days ago
    Similar website that was posted a few months ago, for those interested: https://www.mentalmodelsbox.com/

    I don't reckon it gets updated much, though.

  • awill88 1400 days ago
    This is great. I find I often do these things at work (such as second order thinking) but have never attempted to encapsulate it or differentiate from other ways of looking at things. Thank you for sharing.
  • paulorlando 1400 days ago
    Good list. You might also like this one focused on thinking about systems: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/
  • timhigins 1400 days ago
    Whenever I see something like this or other "mental model" tools, I just think: soon this will be obsolete, as the human who used to make decisions in a given job is replaced by AI.
  • uk_king 1400 days ago
    Looks fantastic! I like the Iceberg model.
  • modzu 1400 days ago
    the scientific method
  • foobar_ 1399 days ago
    Speed vs quality is a big one. You could even call it speed vs accuracy and add a third factor like cost. This is largest the difference between the biggest companies like Android vs Windows vs Apple and even programming languages like PHP vs Python.

    Most companies optimise for speed and a lower cost and wonder why their products are a pile of crap. Optimising for speed also means taking more ethical shortcuts and bad code in hope of rectifying them later and sacrificing everything for faster outcomes. Worse is better and let us just dump plastic everywhere while donating to social causes.

    On the flip side in deciding for quality you take longer time to release, more standards to full-fill and being overall more responsible for the product which might take more time to market. A better quality also implies more cost for the end product and might actually create a complex product. A bag which is environmentally safe might have complex incantations needed to clean it for the next use.

  • jiujitsunews 1398 days ago
    great!