Write permanent notes for your six-months-from-now self…

When This Fires

• When writing any note intended to persist in your knowledge system
• When reviewing old notes and finding them incomprehensible
• When your note system contains notes you wrote but can no longer understand
• Complements Every new permanent note must link to at least one… (link at creation) with the quality standard for the note itself

Common Failure Mode

Context-dependent shorthand: "Same mechanism as before, but with X instead of Y — implications are obvious." Nothing is obvious six months later. Every "obvious" implication should be spelled out. Every "same as before" should be replaced with the specific mechanism. Every shorthand should be expanded.

The Protocol

(1) After writing a permanent note, apply the six-month test: "If I read this note in six months, having forgotten everything about the source and context, would I understand it?" (2) Check for: Relative references ("above," "this," "the author") → replace with specific names and concepts. Shorthand ("RLHF," "ToC," "the usual mechanism") → expand or define. Context-dependent claims ("obviously this means X") → explain why it means X. Source-dependent logic ("as shown in the paper") → state the conclusion in the note itself. (3) Each permanent note should contain: the claim or idea (stated explicitly), the reasoning (why this is true or important), and enough context to understand both without any external reference. (4) Use the note's title as an additional comprehension test: does the title alone convey the core idea? (5) Err on the side of over-explanation. A note that's slightly verbose but fully comprehensible is vastly more valuable than a concise note that's opaque.