Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter

Casey Newton argues that note-taking apps and productivity software will not make people smarter, because thinking happens in the brain and resists automation. He describes how his own use of Roam Research, Obsidian and Mem, with journaling and bidirectional links, failed to produce the insights he expected. He attributes much of the problem to constant digital distraction, citing Gloria Mark's finding that the average time on a single screen fell from 2.5 minutes to about 47 seconds. He expects that a chat interface over his Notion link database could help as a research assistant, though today's chatbots cannot yet meet a reporter's standard.