Ask HN: Do you use the stuff you save online? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you use the stuff you save online?

snaplinks.ai

Over the years I have saved thousands of links: articles, papers, tutorials. Bookmarks, open tabs, Notion, Raindrop, Pocket... I have tried them all.

The pattern is always the same: I collect with good intentions, but very little of it ever resurfaces when I need it. Even when I revisit something, I often forget what I got from it or why I saved it in the first place.

It feels like there is a gap between saving information and actually using it.

Curious how others handle this. Do you have a system? Weekly reviews? Tagging setups? Something custom? Or is the pile just inevitable?

I started building a small tool to explore this problem: a mix of a structured reading queue, bookmarks, and a searchable AI assistant. Still early, but testing it here: [https://snaplinks.ai](https://snaplinks.ai/)

Would love to hear how others think about this.

Is this a problem you have tried to solve?

I've solved it by not hoarding all these things in the first place.

You're not going to look at it ever again. And if (big if) you need or want to, a simple online search gives more than you ever had stored locally.

Fair point, but do you never find yourself remembering "I read something perfect for this exact problem" but can't reconstruct the search query that led you there originally? I think google is great for known unknowns, but terrible for forgotten knowns. How do you handle domain-specific knowledge where you know the insight exists but the search space is too noisy?

I don't really worry about it. If I could find it the first time, I'm bound to find something like it the second time. Besides, for me, the upside of finding something in my hoard is greatly outweighed by the mental drag of having, and maintaining, that hoard in the first place.

Thanks, fair take. I'm trying to find a middle ground: not hoarding everything, but making it easier to resurface the few things that are worth keeping. Thanks for sharing this.

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