![[atomic-notes.png]] Atomic notes are best thought of as conceptual units of thought. Unique ideas that are encapsulated well for future reference. When writing notes atomically, they are more easily remembered, more easily linked and more easily recomposed into other formats. I try to write titles in a way that summarises the content of the note. The title can be thought of as a “claim” with the note being the “proof” - whether that’s using data, references, stories or personal anecdote. The quotable title benefits easy linking to the note, but also allows their use as 'outlines' for articles, talks and other long form formats. I find that [[writing notes in public improves clarity]], especially for atomic notes. ## References - The best introductory resource on the web about the value of atomic (or evergreen) notes is [Andy Matuschak's notes](https://notes.andymatuschak.org/About_these_notes). He's a brilliant mind and software developer who worked on Khan Academy. - At times, I've attempted to keep a physical "slip box" of notes, inspired by Robert Pirsig's Lila. This has always been a terrible failure. It was only when reading about the academic [Niklas Luhmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann) who kept a slip box of 60,000 or more notes that he credited with his prolific output, combined with the evolution of better note-taking apps (I use [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/)) that I became more serious about note-taking.