My brain is for capture and synthesis, not storage

It’s tempting to think that having knowledge means remembering every single thing I’ve learned. Remembering things is important, but it’s not practical and my brain isn’t as good at doing it as a hard drive. My brain can do two things that a hard drive can’t do: capture information and synthesize that information into new ideas.

To optimize my brain’s lifetime, I should focus on capturing information into notes that can be stored and making those notes relatively accessible and interactive. Then, I can focus on the work of thinking about what I’ve stored up and recognizing connections therein. This may inspire new directions of thought.