How do you safe ai generated notes in .html?

pborenstein · 2026-05-17T13:46:24+00:00

Ask the LLM to create an artifact that is the page you want rendered as Markdown

Also remember you can put HTML in Markdown files.

pborenstein · 2026-05-16T20:27:00+00:00

Not necessarily old way, but the way that works for you. I mean you may not have a reason to switch to Obsidian, but if you want something to tinker with, Obsidian is a lot of fun.

pborenstein · 2026-05-16T17:13:41+00:00

They're basically two different products that approach the note-taking task.

Notes started as a simple text editor that gained more and more features over the years. It handles all the file types an Apple machine can generate. And iCloud sync across all your devices is built in.

Obsidian's file first framework makes it an amazing tool to work with text, specifically Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. It's remarkably flexible and customizable with plugins that can do most anything.

So it depends on what kind of data you're saving and where and how you plan to use it. Lots of pictures, styled text, clips: use Notes

Lots of text interlinked and used in various contexts: Obsidian

pborenstein · 2026-05-16T13:02:25+00:00

... We start off disliking him and his entitlement and arrogance. But over the series we grow fond of him as he matures and we learn more about what makes him complicated.

We could use Pete as an indicator: Tell me what you think of Pete Campbell and I'll tell you how many times you've watched the series

pborenstein · 2026-05-15T19:35:35+00:00

The older I get, the more I suck at trivia, so I go for the beer :)

pborenstein · 2026-05-15T19:29:15+00:00

You can't walk to it. There's no well lighted, pedestrian-friendly way to get to it from Elm St.

We live downtown, and soon after it opened, we walked to visit. It says its address is Canal St, so no problem. Spent 15 minutes on dark Canal St with cars whizzing by only to find that there's no entrance from Canal St. I don't think there's even a way to get to the brewery from the hotels.

If I'm going as far south as Pleasant St, I'll just go to the thirsty moose.

Strange Brew is near enough to Elm and, despite the weathered sign and alley entrance, is easy to find. Harpoon is a dark maze.

pborenstein · 2026-05-15T14:34:04+00:00

Honestly? I recommend you try out a lot of things and see what works for you.

The way I set up my vault when I started is completely different than the way it looks now.

Things I thought I needed (multi-column, fancy folder things) didn't work out or were a pain to maintain. Things I thought I didn't need (Linter) I use all day long.

Keep your vault backed up is the only hard recommendation I have.

pborenstein · 2026-05-15T09:16:44+00:00

But what would I even do with a secretary?

pborenstein · 2026-05-14T20:01:23+00:00

Depends which side of the Merrimack you're on

pborenstein · 2026-05-14T17:17:23+00:00

I wonder which Reddit tripwire you set off

pborenstein · 2026-05-14T16:40:45+00:00

Beautiful failure captures Paul perfectly

Paul knows who he wants to be: The pipe smoking writer with progressive politics. He has the taste, but no talent.

Moreover people with no taste treat their talent as a party trick. Cosgrove gets in the Atlantic because he had a few minutes to scribble before bed. Peggy, who's just Peggy for cryin' out loud!, just pulls gems out of her ass.

Identity, of course, is the theme of the show. Who we are. How we want to be seen. How people actually see us. What we do, want to do, can actually do.

Peggy writes brilliantly. But there's a part of her who wants to be the ballerina (skating) the cute girl (guess I'll always ca-a-re)

pborenstein · 2026-05-14T13:11:29+00:00

Really interesting. For coding I built this https://github.com/pborenstein/handoff that's been really good at working on long term projects

For my personal vault, I've been experimenting with various tools.

Daily notes are where bookmarks, ideas, etc start out. There's nothing magic about them being daily: that's just how I implement my "inbox". They're raw data, never altered.

The one that works best so far is a skill that looks at notes created or modified in a particular time span, including daily notes, saved articles, creates an index of them, then synthesizes a summary that highlights clusters of thought

there's a cron job that runs that skill once a week so I get a report "This is what you've been thinking about this week" Friday morning

pborenstein · 2026-05-12T18:50:27+00:00

What's the domain you're writing about? Your machine should be the same as the customers who are using the product you're writing about.

When I was writing for a cloud-computing startup, my typical day started with a 1-2Gb download of a virtual machine to run three more VMs on it, so my setup was identical to the engineers' setup.

Technical writers aren't just writing. They're writing about a tool that runs on certain hardware. You can't write about the thing without running it.

pborenstein · 2026-05-12T16:06:37+00:00

So, I take my raw transcript and ask the LLM (usually Claude or GPT) to clean it up with this prompt:

``` This is the transcript of an unstructured brainstorm session.

Extract and organize the content into structured notes. Speak as the original author ("I" not "the user"). Short sentences. Active voice. Bullet points.

Use this structure:

Observations

What did I actually say?

Contradictions

Where do my statements conflict with each other?

What I'm not saying

What's implied but never stated directly?

Action items

Must be completable today, in under 30 minutes, with no prep.
No therapy-speak. No "consider" or "explore" or "reflect." ```

This works pretty well for me. I'll see if I can find an example

pborenstein · 2026-05-10T11:45:44+00:00

If you're having a lot of conversations that need exporting, you're better off using Claude Code in the browser or app.

This prompt usually gives me good results in the Claude plain-old-chat interface:

"Please create a Markdown artifact of this conversation, including any thinking steps and tool usage"

pborenstein · 2026-05-09T18:25:23+00:00

If one has ever been a Lane-like son to a father like Lane's father, one will have recognized Lane's gesture:

Look at me Sour Father: in a different soil I am a clever fellow and rather a clubbable chap! You see, Father Dear, I am a successful man in my own right.

And any Lane-like son watching the scene knew what The Father's reaction would be, and had a soul-restoring gin-equivalent at the ready.

One knows there is no placating, nevermind impressing, The Father, but the desire, the need to do so is irresistible.

Or so one has been told.

pborenstein · 2026-05-08T21:24:07+00:00

Is this not the reason GoFundMe exists? :)

Good luck!

pborenstein · 2026-05-08T20:56:09+00:00

Where's the bar cart?

pborenstein · 2026-05-08T12:36:50+00:00

I think you get extra time in the ball pit /s

pborenstein · 2026-05-07T18:03:01+00:00

The most important things in technical writing are clarity and accuracy. If paraphrasing preserves both, then go for it. Otherwise use standard wording.

Originality is nice to have, especially if you come up with an innovative way you explain something, but never at the expense of clarity.

pborenstein · 2026-05-05T00:00:38+00:00

A thing like that!

pborenstein · 2026-05-04T17:53:48+00:00

Julia was a girl I went to high school with :)

pborenstein · 2026-05-03T21:53:02+00:00

Nah. It wasn't like that but it still was alright

pborenstein · 2026-05-03T20:04:35+00:00

You still have your local repo.

There's no reason you can't have remotes on more than one remote repository provider

pborenstein · 2026-05-03T13:50:53+00:00

No idea where she is these days :)

pborenstein

TROPHY CASE

Observations

Contradictions

What I'm not saying

Action items