You & MindForger

Monday, 9:14 AM
[PDF] tulving-1966.pdf
[42] browser tabs
▶ lecture: memory, part 3
♫ podcast on focus
@ chat: "try spaced repetition!"
why do names slip
when I'm stressed?
BZZT! PING! DING!
you
I'll remember all this... right?

Knowledge hits you from everywhere - papers, lectures, podcasts, chats, a random thought while running. Most of it is gone by Friday. Unless you give it a home.

Step 1 · Capture
you
Every thought gets
a type!
fact idea question lesson task experience
FWOOSH!
privacy first thinking notebook MindForger 16 Note types
+ your own
solution weakness opportunity threat conclusion action

Each thought lands in MindForger as a typed Note - a fact, an idea, a question, a lesson, a task, an experience, a strength or a threat. The ontology ships with 16 Note types and you can add your own.

Step 2 · Write a Note
note
nameRetrieval failure typefact tagsbrain todo progress
  • Memory is **stored** - only the
  • cue to recall it is missing.
  •  
  • Read [Tulving, 1966](tulving.pdf)
you
Name, type, tags...
and plain Markdown.
TAP TAP TAP

A Note is the atom of your knowledge. MindForger keeps its name, type, tags and progress for you - you just write the text in Markdown with bold, links, images, math or diagrams when you need them.

Step 3 · Structure Notes to an Outline
outline
  • Memory
  • Working memory
  • Chunking
  • Retrieval failure
  • Tip-of-the-tongue
  • Attention
  • Focus
promotedemotemoveclone
genericspecific
you
From generic
to specific -
like a good book.
CLICK-CLACK!

Notes form an outline - a hierarchy that goes from generic topics to more specific ones. When your understanding changes, promote, demote, move or clone Notes and the structure follows your thinking.

Step 4 · Notebook
notebook Cognition
table of contents
  • Memory
  • Working memory
  • Retrieval failure
  • Attention
note
Retrieval failure

Memory is stored - only the cue to recall it is missing.

Read Tulving, 1966

=
your disk cognition.md ~/mindforger/memory/
you
A plain file. On MY disk.
Git, backup, encryption - my call.
no cloud · no account · no telemetry · no lock-in

A Notebook is a set of Notes whose outline serves as its table of contents. It is stored as one plain Markdown file on your disk - create it from scratch or from a stencil like the GROW model, then sync, back up and encrypt it with the tools you trust.

Step 5 · Notebook Shelves
notebook shelves
my research shelf
CognitionMemoryFocusSleepLearningHabitsEmotions
hobby shelf
RunningChessCookingTravelGuitarPhoto
you
Brain stuff up there.
Hobbies down here.
A place for everything.
THUNK!

Put Notebooks from the same domain on a notebook shelf - your research shelf, your hobby shelf, as many as you need - and browse each of them as your own custom tree of Notebooks.

Step 6 · Kanban
kanban

TODO

  • Retrieval failure
  • Sleep and memory
  • Exam prep
  • Memory palace

WIP

  • Focus
  • Learn Rust

DONE

  • Chunking
  • Working memory
  • Pomodoro
you
Moving a card
to WIP is my
favorite sport.
SWOOSH!

Tag Notebooks and Notes with todo, wip or done and a Kanban organizer lays them out as columns. Move them along as work progresses and see at a glance what is in flight.

Step 7 · Eisenhower Matrix
eisenhower matrix
urgent →
do soonLibrary book dueReply to tutor
do firstExam tomorrow
do sometimesChess openings
plan dedicated timeRetrieval failureLearn Rust
important →
you
Urgent is not
the same as important.
Mind. Blown.
PRIORITIZED!

Tag them important, urgent or both and the Eisenhower matrix sorts them into four quadrants - do first, do soon, plan dedicated time, do sometimes - so that you know what to do next.

Step 8 · Think with AI - privately
you
Wingman, summarize
this Note!
wingman
ollama @ localhost
  • summarize
  • 5 key points
  • generate tags
  • #memory #brain
  • fix grammar
  • 3 fixes
gpt-ossllamaglm
Done. And not a single byte left your machine.
100% LOCAL
remote OpenRouter / OpenAI only when you opt in

Wingman runs open-weight LLMs like gpt-oss, Llama or GLM on your own machine via ollama - summarize, explain, translate, rewrite, fix grammar, generate tags or find tasks.

Three weeks later...
3 WEEKS
you
What was that thing about...
memory cues?
HMMMM...

Weeks later you need that knowledge back - but all you remember is a fragment. This is the moment most notebooks fail.

Step 9 · Find
find by
cue
nametagsfull-textknowledge graphwingmanassociationstasks
  • Retrieval failure - the cue is missing
  • Tulving and Pearlstone - cued recall
  • Memory palace - places as cues
FOUND!
you
Found it in a second!

Recall knowledge by name, tag or full text (exact, ignore case or regular expression), walk the knowledge graph, ask Wingman or go through your tasks.

MindForger thinks as you read
reading Retrieval failure
  • * memory is stored,
  •   the cue is missing
  • * Memory palace ← autolink
associations
  • Tip-of-the-tongue82%
  • Memory palace64%
  • Spaced repetition51%
graph
you
Whoa - I forgot I even wrote that!
*SYNAPSE*

While you read or write, MindForger associates the Note with related knowledge you forgot you had. Autolinking turns names of Notes into links and the knowledge graph lets you walk it all.

The end... or your beginning
you
My thinking notebook.
Private. Free. Mine.
Get MindForger See the diagram

MindForger - privacy first thinking notebook. Capture, write, structure, organize, find and associate your knowledge. Free and open source for Linux, macOS and Windows.