I have written this article in Markdown, simply to prove a point, markdown is so easy, why bother with word, or almost any other text editor that saves to its own format, prevents sharing and most of all hinders search.
Here I take the original pencil note, the tanscription into txt, the use of Markdown and just one of the programs that makes use of it in ways that does not harm the original txt format, that can alway be read on ant computer, unlike Apple Pages, Word, Google Docs, the list goes on.
I have a link below to expand on an idea of the Free Flow of Ideas, as I was writing ths article, I suddenly thought of the ideas flowing, the way I often let the pencil direct the course of the ideas evolvement, its life so to speak. Computers just don’t allow that.
Although Markdown Dows easily let me start an article, and link to it, as I have here, so I have added the short piece at the bottom, in the Markdown, its a link.
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# Markdown for the Construction Researcher
#Pencils
#Notebook
#Rubber
#Knowledgebase
#Article
A new student, when entering a college or University, will be attending lectures of a subjects they know little about, you will be drawn into a world of standards, materials, design, detailing and drawings
Rule one at least take into every lecture a note pad a set of pencils and a rubber, do not at this stage sign up to any online storage system note taking app, or wizard helper. We will delve into this side of your Knowledge base later.
Your choice of pencils, may seem a little strange after all a pencil is a pencil, well no, you will soon see, your choice of pencil will say so much to those already in the profession.
Do not by cheap pencils, they do not last, and often break or at least the lead will break far to easily.
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My preference is to by a box set to start, from either:
- Faber-Castell
- Stadlier
Both offer box set, in a small tin box, this is going to be with you for a long time, and both companies know this, its permanant advertising, but the tin box protects your pencils and keeps the exposed lead core safe.
In the tin Box you will have a collection of pencils that offer line thicknes and depth, that is the dencity of lead left on the paper.
On the pencil, place at the top, or oposite end to the pointed lead, there will be a small code 2H or 3B.
These letters indicate two things:
The hardness (H) and blackness/softness (B) of the graphite core. H stands for Hard (lighter,,,fine lines), B stands for Black/Soft (darker, smudgy, for shading), HB is Hard-Black (medium, for writing), and F stands for Firm (sharp, fine point). Higher numbers (e.g., 4B, 2H) indicate greater intensity of that property.
H (Hard): Contains more clay binder, creating lighter, precise lines. Ideal for technical drawing, blueprints, or light sketching.
B (Black/Soft): Contains less clay, creating darker, softer lines that blend easily. Used for shading, sketching, and artistic work.
HB (Hard Black): The standard, balanced, multi-purpose pencil for writing and everyday sketching.
F (Firm): A specialized, fine-pointed, and firm-lead pencil.
Number Prefixes:
The Numbers before letters (e.g., 2H, 4B) indicate the degree of hardness or softness. Higher numbers signify a more extreme, such as 9H (extremely hard) to 9B (extremely soft).
The choise is yours, My prefereance has always been Faber-Castell, the Tin Box is well made, it clicks shut so will not open in your bag
I purchased a 12 pencil box set a log time ago and replace pencils as needed.
These days I tend to by from an Artist shop where the staff are not just shop keepers, they are very knowledgable on the products.
I sometimes buy online, but only when I can be assured on the delivery, and protection of the pencils.
And here we need to underdtand that useing a pencil as a drum stick, is not good for the pencil, the Leads break and make for shapening the lead very difficult.
For online purchases, I tend to use the Faber-Castell web site [Faber-Castell](https://www.faber-castell.co.uk)
Faber-Casell, tend to send out pencil sets in well packaged tins or pencil wrapped in card and plastic hangers, although I prefer to visit my artist shop to browse paper, card and other things I probably don’t need !
Pencils are now but one option, for years I used a clutch Pencil, buying just the leads to fill mt various clutch pencils, using a specific sharpener not a pencil sharpener to sharpen the lead.
It may seem complicated, but taking notes in pencil is a lot easier than typing, it offers a [free flow of ideas](free-flow-of-ideas.md), a quick sketch or idea, typing, on any system or program restricts this and prevents that free flow of thought. The code above links to another .md txt file, that expands my thoughts on what I mean by a free flow of ideas, I do this a lot, rather than put all of the content into one file I make new files when I think I might want to share it with another note.
A rubber is so much easier than backspace of highliting a word and hitting deleat, so next purchace, a Staedler Mars Plastic Rubber is the best delete button ever, but even better, just line out a section if its wrong and don’t waste time rubbing out, just carry on, and remove later. although I rarley do.
A small but usefull tool when you own a set of pencils, is a pencil sharpener, again don’t by cheap, go gor a nice sharp little shapener that cut the woon and leaves a nice sharp lead.
Next your note book, It needs to be handy, an A4 is ok, but it takes up a lot of bag space, and realestate on a desk, so I went a long while ago to A5. I tried Moleskins, and they are very nice, but exspensive, also they do not lay flat and open, so eventualy I found a Spiral bound A5 notebook as the perfect notebook, I like it to have a very faint dot grid, 10mm is ideal, for sketching to scale.
I an currently on book 5 of a new find, from RHODIA called simply dotbook.
The paper is ideal just good enough to stop bleed through when using a marker, and the dots just visable, excellent. I tend to use Cult Pens to suppy my order, but my last purchase of five with a discount was from Amazon, search for “Spiral bound A5 Notebook” or take a look at [Cult Pans](https://cultpens.com)
---
Next is what to do with your notes, the simplest, and one that will make you think of both the lecture and subject, is to transcribe your notes, into a digital form.
Why you might ask when my notes are already done, well tanscribing does many things, it makes you thing about the subject, and it reinforces the lesson, as a memory, I often do searches for items, and these days I often ask my AI of preference to expand a point, more on this later.
Plus, and here is a major point, as your notebook collection increases, so does the content, and so often I spent a lot of time trying to find a note I made which I was convinced was in a certain book, only to later find it in another completely unrelated notebook.
Seach on most digital Platforms have progressed to a point where the program searched, not just names of files, but content.
To make this easier I use just plane old txt files, hardley any formating, and almost any computer no mater how old, will read it and most important, search it by file name and content.
To format the text thats as easy as writing some text, that does not make the content readable by only one specific program, then we need to look at Markkdown.
Markdown is based on pure txt, and uses spefic simple code to make text bold, layout and link in a very simple way. Best of all its not linked to any specific program, use any text editor to type the article, some have specific help programs to aid adding markdown code.
Search is therefore very easy for most computers. But like most searches you will get a long list of files. Therefore your search term needs to be very specific. I use hashtags where in each file I list a number of very specic tags to aid search and reduce the return to files that are what I want.
So what do you read the text files on, well, the internet is made of txt, and it understands Markdown as a version of html and will show the layout as the author intends.
But there are some specific programs that use Markdown and txt files as their main file format. One such program is Obsidian, not only does it use txt files but uses Markdown as original intended. as a simple layout code
.
But Obsidian comes not just as a reader, but more its a gateway to building a Knowledge base, that uses the file name, the text and links to aid search and take it to another level.
Enter Graphical Visual Display of your search, See photo above, showing not just the files you searched for, but showing how the files link to each other.
For instance, say you write a major file on say Drainage, and then write several other documents on say single pipe systems, twin pipe systems, fall, load, sewage plants, and say leveling, and surveying for setting falls, the Graphical Visual display in Obsidian will show how each file links to each other with each node, or file, displayed by how many links it has.
Do I need to leave Obsidian to write, no, you can make new files, type as to want, and use a very nice help system to add Markdown to your txt, and see the change in its own html viewer.
All the while each file is still a txt file all be it with a .md rather than a .txt tag.
One small point, linking your file to another file, to say expand on a word or Phrase, is very easy, but there are certain rules. first, links to other files in the same folder need to be exact, also spaces between words often causes problems, so either add a dash free-flow-of-ideas, or remove spaces altergether. The code above is a good example, copy and reuse.
Obsidian also has a vast library of extensions that adds some form of addition to the search, or how the file can be used, without changing the core .txt format, ok it might add extra txt to help the extension work, but its still txt, and most are free community plugins.
Obsidian is free, although you might want to donate a small sum to help development, but the program is free.
whilst we are looking at the digital transcribing of your notes, lets not forget AI, what ever your choice, mine is currently Google Gemini, It is not plagorism to ask your AI to expand on a subject. I now do this a lot, not just with lectures I am attending, but with books I read, or conversations I have. Most AI programs will be only to happy to expand on a subject, your job is to define the conversation, tell it what you already know, if your trying to undersand a lecture, or your notes are not clear, tell the AI what you want, other wise it will just bable on, like any other Prof, me included, last thing you want, so be clear and presise in your conversations, and thats an important point, commands get you nowhere, but a conversation will get you results.
Another nice point of AI requests is that your conversation is saved, and will have a link you can add to your Obsidian notes, I have, in the past, copied the conversation and added it as a text file to onsidian or my .md markdown files and expanded it with the link, and some additional notes like hashtags, that will help link it to my master file or files on the subject in question.
The point of all this is making a knowledge base is not making a database, or a spreadsheet loaded with fact, a knowldge base should be a flowing link of easy to read txt files, open to search, and linked as best as you can to each other. Certainly Obsidian is the first program to open up the file structure to its simplest format and show that the data in what ever format is yours not the programs.
Freeflow of Ideas
#Free flow of ideas#Pencill
When I get an idea, I like to use just a pencil and paper to get the gist of an idea down, I tried a keyboard, but it just slowed me down, I lost the idea just because the computer took over
A pencil is not bound by anyhing, just a piece of paper and a fairly good point to the lead, and away I go, writing notes adding notes to clarify, annding a sketch, a thumbnale comment.
So now carry almost always an A5 note pad and so often a clutch pencil but does that mean I don’t use some form of computer, no I can often load up my iPhone and use Apple notes to scan a text in a poster, or book I am reading, I can used my audio record in Apple Notes to make a verbal notes, but I always revert back to my notebook that make a note of the event, I am always liable to forget I have done it, but the note is a permanant reminder.
Sketching is fun, I like the time spent, I sometimes redo an idea several times till I get to a point where am satisfied.
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