Traditional book note-taking is broken.
You highlight a sentence on page 12. Another on page 87. A third on page 203. Weeks later, you open your highlights and find a disconnected list of quotes with no context about why you highlighted them or what you were thinking when you read them.
The highlight says: "Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness."
Your brain says: "I have no idea what I was connecting this to."
The Problem With Highlights
Highlights capture what the author said. They don't capture what you thought about it.
When you read something that sparks a connection—to your work, another book, a problem you're solving—that connection lives in your head for about 30 seconds before fading. A highlight doesn't preserve it. A typed note interrupts your reading flow for too long. So you highlight and hope you'll remember.
You won't.
Voice Notes Capture the Reaction, Not Just the Quote
When something in a book strikes you, speak your reaction immediately:
"Page 47—this antifragile concept is exactly what we're missing in our product roadmap. We optimize for stability when we should be designing for small failures that make us stronger. Need to bring this up in Monday's planning meeting."
That took 12 seconds. Your reading flow barely paused. And you captured:
- The page reference (so you can find the original)
- The connection to your actual work
- The action it inspired
- Your emotional reaction (the urgency)
A highlight would have given you: "Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness."
Setting Up Your Voice Book Notes System
Step 1: Create Your Folder Structure
In iCloud Drive (Files app), create this structure:
Brain Dump/
└── Books/
├── Fiction/
│ └── Author - Title/
│ ├── Overview.md
│ ├── Ch 01.md
│ ├── Ch 02.md
│ └── ...
└── Non-Fiction/
└── Taleb - Antifragile/
├── Overview.md
├── Book 1 - Ch 01 Damocles.md
├── Book 1 - Ch 02 Overcompensation.md
└── ...
Why this structure:
- Fiction vs Non-Fiction helps you browse later
- Author-first sorting keeps an author's books together
- Per-chapter notes prevent giant files and help you find specific thoughts
- Overview.md holds your final summary and key takeaways
Step 2: Set Up Your Siri Shortcut
Download the "Continue Last Note" shortcut from /shortcuts.
This lets you say "Hey Siri, continue my note" to append to whatever note you last worked on—perfect for adding thoughts to the current chapter without navigating files.
Pro tip: Create a shortcut specifically for your current book that appends to a specific chapter file. Update it as you progress.
Step 3: The Reading Workflow
- Start reading with Brain Dump open (or use Siri to start)
- Leave it running—Voice Activity Detection (VAD) filters silence
- When something strikes you, speak immediately:
- Start with page number: "Page 73..."
- State the insight or connection
- Add any action items or questions
- Keep reading—the note is captured
- End of chapter: Review notes, add section header, start new chapter file
Step 4: What to Capture
Not everything deserves a note. Speak when you experience:
Connections
"This reminds me of the second law of thermodynamics from that physics book—entropy increases unless you add energy. Antifragility is like negative entropy."
Disagreements
"I'm not sure I buy this. He's saying volatility is always good, but what about volatility in, say, medication dosing? That seems dangerous, not antifragile."
Applications
"This applies directly to our startup. We've been trying to predict the market when we should be building optionality—small bets that have limited downside but unlimited upside."
Questions
"He keeps mentioning Seneca. Need to read Letters from a Stoic next. Adding to reading list."
Emotional reactions
"This chapter is dense. I've read this page three times. Coming back tomorrow with fresh eyes."
Example: Reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
Here's what real voice notes might look like for Chapter 2 of Antifragile:
File: Taleb - Antifragile/Book 1 - Ch 02 Overcompensation.md
# Chapter 2: Overcompensation and Overreaction
## Session 1 - Nov 28
Page 44—The Mithridates example is wild. He made himself immune to poison by taking small doses. This is literally how vaccines work. We build resilience through controlled exposure to harm.
Page 47—"Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness." This is the key distinction. Resilient things survive shocks. Antifragile things get BETTER from shocks. My fitness routine is antifragile—muscle grows from the stress of lifting.
Page 51—He's saying modern society removes stressors that we need. Helicopter parenting creates fragile kids. Overprotection is actually harmful. This connects to the coddling stuff in Jonathan Haidt's work.
Page 55—Question: Is there a limit to beneficial stress? At what point does antifragility break and become just fragility? He must address this later.
## Session 2 - Nov 29
Page 58—The redundancy point is interesting. Having two kidneys isn't inefficiency—it's antifragility. We over-optimize for efficiency and remove the redundancy that lets us survive shocks.
Page 61—Action item: Look at our product architecture. We've optimized away redundancy. What happens if our single database fails? This isn't paranoia, it's antifragile thinking.
Finished chapter. Key insight: I've been thinking about resilience wrong. The goal isn't to survive problems—it's to get stronger from them. Need to restructure how I think about "failures" at work.
Notice what these notes have that highlights don't:
- Context: What you were thinking, not just what you read
- Connections: Links to other books, ideas, and real-life applications
- Questions: Things to explore or revisit
- Actions: Concrete next steps inspired by the reading
- Emotional state: How the ideas landed, including confusion
Why Voice Works Better Than Typing
1. Speed
Speaking takes ~150 words per minute. Typing takes ~40 words per minute. Voice captures 3-4x more insight in the same time.
2. Flow Preservation
Switching apps, finding the note, typing, switching back—that's 30+ seconds and a complete context switch. Speaking is 5-10 seconds with minimal interruption.
3. Natural Expression
You think in spoken language. When you speak your reaction, you capture the natural way your brain processed the idea. Typing often over-edits the thought.
4. Emotional Capture
"This is WILD" conveys something "This is interesting" doesn't. Voice captures emphasis, excitement, confusion—the emotional texture of your reading experience.
Advanced: Battery-Optimized Background Recording
Brain Dump uses Voice Activity Detection (VAD) to filter silence automatically. This means:
- Leave it running while you read for an hour
- Battery stays fine because it's not constantly transcribing
- Only speech gets captured—pauses, page turns, ambient noise are filtered
- No starting/stopping between thoughts
Just start Brain Dump at the beginning of your reading session and let it run. Speak when thoughts arise. Review at the end.
Organizing Your Book Notes Library
After finishing a book, create an Overview.md file:
# Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
**Read:** November 2025
**Rating:** 5/5
**One-line:** Systems that gain from disorder outperform systems that merely survive it.
## Key Concepts
1. Antifragile vs Fragile vs Robust
2. Barbell Strategy
3. Via Negativa
4. Skin in the Game (preview of his next book)
## Top Insights
- [Link to Ch 2 note about overcompensation]
- [Link to Ch 5 note about optionality]
- [Link to Ch 12 note about via negativa]
## Changed How I Think About
- Product architecture (add redundancy)
- Personal finance (barbell: 90% safe, 10% high-risk)
- Career decisions (optionality over optimization)
## Read Next
- Letters from a Stoic (Seneca)
- The Black Swan (Taleb's earlier work)
- Fooled by Randomness (Taleb)
Comparison: Highlights vs Voice Notes
| Aspect | Highlights | Voice Notes | |--------|-----------|-------------| | Captures author's words | Yes | Yes (via page reference) | | Captures your reaction | No | Yes | | Preserves connections | No | Yes | | Includes actions | No | Yes | | Reading flow impact | Low | Very low | | Searchable | Yes | Yes | | Emotional context | No | Yes | | Usable months later | Barely | Absolutely |
Start Today
- Pick a book you're currently reading
- Create the folder structure in iCloud Drive
- Download the Continue Last Note shortcut from /shortcuts
- Read for 30 minutes with Brain Dump running
- Speak your reactions when they arise
- Review your notes and see the difference
Your future self—the one who wants to remember what you actually learned—will thank you.
Related guides: