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What note-taking app has *actually* helped you grow your thinking in unexpected ways?
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Posted by jaslar
Nov 13, 2023 at 05:50 PM
For me it was KAMAS, my first true outline processor. The simple ability to collapse and expand headings, to hoist, was transformational, teaching me to think of writing as a scaffold, allowing me to climb up a little faster and further. The book that came with KAMAS was also eye-opening. It taught me to look at the larger structure of longform writing, to seek to articulate balance and consistency of ideas.
For a while I really lived in that program, applying it to everything. These days, I mostly use Dynalist, but perhaps no longer have the rush of discovery from using something new. But it made writing my new book (On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US) a real pleasure, letting me seamlessly flip from open to close focus on my various sections. Outliners, rather than note-takers, had a truly defining influence on all of my thinking.