Ideas worth keeping

Thoughts on knowledge, AI, and building tools that respect how humans think.

AI Bookmark Managers: Five Ways to Find and Use Saved Links

Compare Raindrop, mymind, Karakeep, Recall, and Ancher for saved links, AI retrieval, and source-based writing, with a practical test before importing.

From the blog

Product notes, thinking on knowledge work, and what we are learning as we build.

AI Knowledge Management: How It Works and Where to Start

Learn how AI knowledge management connects sources to useful answers, where it can fail, and how to evaluate it with one practical research task.

AI Note Taking Apps: Choose for Meetings, Reading, or Research

Compare Granola, Otter, Notion, NotebookLM, and Ancher by what you capture and what you need next: meeting actions, study notes, or a useful draft.

NotebookLM Alternatives: Four Options for Different Research Tasks

Compare Ancher, Claude Projects, Perplexity, and Open Notebook as NotebookLM alternatives for source-based writing, web research, and self-hosting.

Personal Knowledge Management: A Simple System You Can Use

Build a personal knowledge management system around one real project: capture with context, organize sources, write a working note, and reuse what you learn.

What Is an AI Second Brain? From Saved Information to Useful Work

Learn what an AI second brain is, how it works, and how Ancher helps turn saved information into useful, structured work.

Why we built Ancher

Most note-taking apps solve the wrong problem. They help you capture more. We wanted to help you use what you already have.

The knowledge problem

Information isn't the bottleneck. Retrieval is. Why the tools we use to think are failing us — and what we're doing about it.

AI that works with your thinking

There's a difference between AI that replaces thinking and AI that amplifies it. We're firmly in the second camp.

The second brain myth

Everyone wants a second brain. But what we actually need is a better first one. On why externalizing knowledge is only half the battle.

From capture to creation

The best note-taking systems don't just store ideas — they generate new ones. A look at how compounding knowledge actually works.

Memory, machines, and meaning

What happens when AI can remember everything you've ever read? On the promise and limits of machine-assisted memory.