Alternatives
Products that do what Rethink note-taking and learning experience does
Hey! Just launched my new project. The cmaps platform was created after a long period of research and development in the field of education. It's known that human thinking is not linear, but rather associative. Without realizing it, we are constantly making connections between the things we learn. I believe that the best way to learn is to make these connections explicit. Instead of studying and taking notes in a linear fashion, we should be able to create a map of the concepts we are learning. This way, we can see the big picture and understand how everything is connected. I can say that…
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- 2LO
Hello HN, Over the last 12 months, I have been building https://learnawesome.org This idea came from Danny Hillis' 2012 talk at OSCON, which itself was inspired from Neal Stepehenson's _The Diamond Age : A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer_ The dream is to build a tool that matches the right learning material to the right student at the right time. Wikipedia is great, but it doesn't do a good job of leveraging the rich variety of learning resources that exist on the Web. Same applies to GoodReads - which is focused only on books, whereas these days we actually learn from videos,…
2020
- 3IH
Hey there, While searching for my next role as a PM in Blockchain + AI, I started building an AI-powered notetaker called MindNote: https://www.mindnote.online. The idea is simple: you input your thoughts, and AI helps you complete or modify them. If you decide to test it, try using the prompt: Keep this text and…"(add budget, complete list, organize alphabetically, add their translation, etc.). The first big release is all about modifying your notes with AI prompts. The next big step? Capturing thoughts directly from the mind using brain-to-text technology. There is a 3 days free…
2025
- 4LP
Hi! I am doing a learning project, attempting to build an imperative language (and interpreter). The end product will be useless for others, I just want to learn and better understand how to build imperative languages. :) If someone else shares this interest and want to give some good hints on good resources I would be grateful. Currently I am looking at an awesome text by Bob Nystrom. All suggestions and tips on resources are most welcome. I am very much a beginner in this, but I find this topic very fascinating. Mail me or post links here! Cheers! You can try a beta version Online at…
2020
- 5VN
I got the idea of [mindmap.so](http://mindmap.so/) out of my own frustration of managing my personal notes in Notion and Miro in parallel. I have built it 3 months back on top of excalidraw, posted it in Reddit a couple of times, and never looked back (was using it only for personal use). Little did I know that the small and nimble tool that I created has crossed 2000+ users (was so surprised when I saw the dashboard last week). It was all organic and word of mouth . Having 2000+ users trusting a product is no easy feat. That’s when I thought may be I should put some more…
2024 · mindmap.so
- 6IB
I’ve always liked fast online tools for jotting notes or organizing thoughts — but most “productivity” sites either save data to the cloud, require sign-ups, or are full of distractions. So I built an online productivity tools website, a small collection of browser-based tools. It includes an online notepad where you can write and save notes right in your browser, a cornell notes tool available in more than 20 languages, and more coming soon like a pomodoro timer and a simple blank page for focused writing. Everything works entirely in-browser using localStorage — no accounts, no cloud sync,…
Oct 2025 · onlinenotep.ad
- 7IS
YouTube learning has no structure—your learnings are scattered across random playlists, you're just passively watching without retention, and there's no one to ask when you don't understand something. I built Notetube to solves this by combining organizational tools with AI to create an actual learning system: Organizational layer: Create structured collections by topic/course/skill, track your learning progress with visual dashboards, and set achievable learning goals AI layer: Auto-generated comprehensive notes (3000+ words for 1 hours video) and summaries from any video, key…
2025 · notetubeai.com
- 8KM
Over the last couple of months I have designed and written Keys, a Mac application the helps learning typing and that is supposed to meet Mac users standards for a well-designed application. My goal is to become a micro-ISV or indie developer. The app is only in the Mac app store for now (no trial yet), since end of May, and I have been busy putting together a website and a personal blog since. I would be very interested what the HN community thinks about the application, how you like it, and how it is presented, from a business angle. Prior to this project, I have done much more work on…
2012
- 9AD
Hi all, I threw together a small prototype I am calling “Notepad.ai”. A new take on UIs for interacting with LLMs. While I enjoy using LLM’s in the chat format I wanted to see what it would be like to do it in a more long form style. It let’s you write in a pretty free form, much like Window’s Notepad, but you can choose to hit ctrl+[ to analyze the text with a preset prompt of your choosing. It has a few other small features. It’s WIP and very experimental. I would appreciate any feedback or thoughts. Video: https://youtu.be/ntdlgFmSxQY Live Demo:…
2024 · github.com
- 10CA
2020 · csnotes.me
- 11IB
Hi HN, I built an app to solve a problem I kept running into: I’d read great articles or watch insightful YouTube videos, but within a few days, I’d forget most of what I learned. Taking detailed notes felt like a chore, and I'd rarely revisit them anyway. To solve my own problem, I built Curio. It's an iOS app designed for low-effort capture and active recall. How it works: 1. Share any article or YouTube link to the app. 2. It automatically extracts key ideas as bullet points and links them back to the original context (the specific paragraph or timestamp). 3. The app then generates…
2025 · apps.apple.com
- 12SA
Over the past three months, I’ve been working with my dad on this app as a way to learn Cursor, shadcn/ui, and Next.js. I’m currently studying UX design at the University of Michigan, and I’ve been really impressed by how much vibe-coding tools have advanced over the last six months. This work journal includes private AI-generated insights with scheduled summaries that can be shared with your team or manager. You can also choose to make a summary public—like I’ve done here for my work on this web app: https://www.workjourney.ai/summary/mkblt2zt-hn2kdbus If anyone has…
Jan 2026 · workjourney.ai
- 13LB
Hi HN, For 4 years I've worked on the psychology of learning following a CompSci degree with an AI minor from back in 2019. I love the future of effective learning that is coming. This is a way for you to study for specific exams, lectures and videos. You upload your content, and get specific, citing flashcard exercises delivered in a fun way. Not only can you view the timestamp in the video that a question was generated from, for example, but your answers are used to inform a "Compilation stage". The Compilation stage uses your choices of answers (and wrong answers), as well as data on when…
2023 · studywand.com
- 14OA
Hey Hacker News, I'm Nir, cofounder of Oboe (https://oboe.fyi), which we just launched publicly. Oboe lets anyone create a course out of a single prompt to learn about any topic. We're on a mission to democratize learning. We envision a future in which AI feeds us, making us smarter, and reignites the love of learning we all seem to have lost. Each course enables a variety of learning formats, letting you learn how you want, when you want. From deep dive articles to podcasts to games to quizzes. We want courses to feel lightweight and accessible, and to encourage following rabbit…
Sep 2025
- 15KA
Hey HN! I've spent the past year full-time building Knowing, a tool for interacting with LLMs directly inside hierarchical structures instead of the usual prompt-response format. The idea started because I realized how much more intuitive it felt to build concept hierarchies continuously—no more endless copy-pasting or wondering how everything connects. The journey’s been a struggle. While I see huge potential in structuring AI interactions this way (writing books fast, planning projects, or organizing ideas), it’s been hard to pin down clear use cases in the market. I’m also working in near…
2024
- 16IB
Hey all, I’ve been working on a project that aims to change how we approach learning new skills. The idea is simple — you can master any skill in 30 days using a personalized learning plan powered by AI and Notion. They keys: practice and discipline. How it works: You can fill out a Typeform, and our AI will create a customized 30-day program just for you. Structured learning: Each day, the system provides you with a clear task or lesson based on science-backed learning principles. Track progress: It’s all managed in Notion, so you can stay organized and motivated while learning. Why I built…
2025 · 30daysmethod.com
- 17SN
Hi guys, I've been thinking a lot about how advancements in NLP can be standardized; when building a sentiment analysis, you know for sure that other attributes than the actual sentiment can be highly interesting, such as the urgency. Together with my team, I started a new open-source project, aiming to do exactly that. It's called bricks, and it is a composition of more than 50 open-source and modular code snippets, such as computing sentence complexities, emotionality detection and many more. For context, the idea came up after watching the incredible talk "Inventing on Principle" by Bret…
2022 · bricks.kern.ai
- 18KA
I'm building out Kerns, as an AI environment for research. You can seed a space with a topic and multiple source documents, and complete your research completely in one space. There's interactive mindmaps for exploration, podcast mode, powerful source readers with original plus chapter level summaries that let you zoom into source on demand, a powerful chat agent that lets you control context and cite refs, and AI assisted note taking. My goal is to have one place to do research on any topic which minimizes manual context engineering, and jumping around between chat/notes/readers.…
Nov 2025 · kerns.ai
- 19RY
2021 · remnote.io
- 20HP
Hey everyone, I've been experimenting with collaborative learning and active learning for a while (I launched Coderoulette a couple of months ago) and I'm launching something new today that I'm really excited about. Online learning is pretty passive (video lectures) and lonely, and I think we could create an online learning experience much engaging and effective than that. Only 5% of people who start a Coursera course finish it. My hypothesis is that we can increase that number significantly by matching learners online in teams of 2-3 and giving them a real project to build together. On top…
2016
- 21IB
Hi HN, I have been working on a new tool that was inspired by Vannevar Bush's memex and Luhmann's Zettelkasten. Having been a long time user of different tools, I got to the point where I decided to build my own. For the longest time I have been looking for something that puts association first, works as fast as the mind, and allows you to stay in flow state. Making building a second mind, playful and rewarding. If anyone is interested, I have added the link below. At this point I am slowly letting on the first users, and hoping to gather as much feedback as possible. The explore link on the…
2020
- 22CA
Happy Valentine's Day! I built a language learning app designed specifically for couples, where one partner helps the other learn a new language in a fun, personalized way. My partner is originally from China, and I wanted to learn Mandarin and Cantonese to speak to her family. But learning through other apps, I found many words sounded awkward or outdated — especially due to regional differences. I wanted to sound natural and local, not like a textbook. Instead of struggling alone, I thought why not learn together? Many of my couple-friends were in the same boat but had no real system and…
2025 · couplingcafe.com
- 23MO
Hi HN! We're happy to announce the launch of Mapedia.org, an open source crowdsourced learning map! Mapedia is a new kind of learning platform at the crossroad between Wikipedia, Google Maps and Khan Academy: a learning map built collaboratively to support online learners to learn any topic seamlessly. We built an interactive learning map of topics to be able to visualize the different fields of knowledge, what concepts are included in them and how they relate to each other. This allows for curiosity based exploration, identifying knowledge gaps (unknown unknowns) and figuring out what to…
2022 · mapedia.org
- 24IB
I was frustrated with how I share ideas online. LinkedIn/X forces you to compress everything into hot takes. Research papers require months of work. And posting on social media increasingly feels like trying on outfits in ChatGPT until you find one that "fits" – performance over genuine thinking. I wanted something in between. A place where: - Half-formed ideas are okay - Thinking evolves over time (with revision history) - Garbage gets pruned naturally through format itself and status tracking (exploring → resolved → abandoned) So I built Kwegg. How it works: 1. You're in ChatGPT or…
Jan 2026 · kwegg.com
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