Open problems are like evergreen notes
Questions are like evergreen when they are questions with answers like in spaced repetition. But I feel like every notes would be better served if they had open ended questions that you were attempting to solve clearly called out, and then like Andy does, putting your questions that are spaced repetition style in the note in the Evergreen note as well, like at the bottom.
Questions can be on a spectrum. Simple rote memorization x == y. They can also be much more complicated (or even incipient).
Forming questions Well is hard in a similar way to notes. There are a set of heuristics that are extremely similar, and when consuming material, turning it into a question can be very challenging. You can be virtual Bostic in question riding in the same way that you are in note writing.
Questions are like link not tracked because you shouldn't necessarily view them as completed when you've made the first version of one. They are more interesting when they are interconnected. They should be atomic.
Both of them help build up a mental model?
Page 118: ultimately you should have mental models that help inform your permanent notes, or that you derive from your permanent notes. ^permanent-notes-mental-models
Andy's note about evergreen notes functioning like spaced repetition
Ideally, you'll have a single identifier for a question, but multiple variations of the exact wording... which helps the connections be more clear. ^multiple-variations
In Anki, this is the card/note distinction.
No orphans... same as with evergreen notes.
Page 88: When we try to answer a question before we know how to, we will later remember the answer better, even if our attempt failed (Arnold and McDermott 2013). ^protesting-makes-learning-more-effective
The question that you answer as hard because you don't completely understand it, or it mentions a word that doesn't seem quite right, is very powerful. It reminds you that you are a little confused, and keeps that in your head. That means when you encounter new material that helps bring clarity, you are very prepared for it, and can quickly update your thinking on the subject. This also means that you may end up updating pre-existing questions when you realize that you asked them poorly. ^improving-a-question-as-you-learn-more
Variation
You can continue to add new variations as you come across them, using your link not tracked to facilitate link not tracked. Variations are for the same underlying concept, which makes them a bit like what I talk about in link not tracked... different text for the same underlying idea. This is also a reason why the atomicity of the note is important.
final output
With notes the idea is to output writing... linearize the concepts into a narrative that benefits others. With questions, perhaps there's a goal, too. Rewatch the original material to catch what you missed, but only after internalizing large bits of it? Broader tasks like writing a big program, or doing a complicated piece of math?
What if we mean questions like bigger questions?
But as I think about evergreen notes, it makes me realize that that's kinda what they are… they are all your favorite problems, just looking for you to push them forward incrementally.