I've wanted to come clean for years, because I lumped productivity apps into the same category as corporate team-building exercises. They were a well-intentioned, over-engineered hassle that got in the way of actual work. Mind maps were the worst offenders, and I thought of them as glorified flowcharts consultants throw on whiteboards to justify their $500-per-hour fee. Sure, I used small flowcharts as an extension of analog note-taking in college, but it still felt like a convoluted, arts-and-crafts way to visualize a simple bulleted list.
Then, NotebookLM, an AI tool I was already using to wrangle research documents, quietly revived the entire concept for me. It took an interactive approach to building mind maps that lived up to the concept's very name. Ideas tied to sources logically, and moreover, I could quiz the map. You can click on a node and ask questions, summarize that specific branch, or find all the sources that contributed to it. This one feature transformed mind maps from a passive, manual-entry tool into a dynamic, interactive learning experience. The profound experience has me rethinking -- and even regretting -- how I dismissed mind maps and other productivity tools back in the day.
A little background on what I did with my notes
Functional beats beautiful
For starters, I'm no productivity-maximizing workaholic. I'm a writer and a tinkerer. My workflow, for years, has been stubbornly analog. I've always carried a pocket notebook with grid-ruled pages, and a fountain pen I can refill and repair. Over time, thoughts spanned multiple notebooks, while one Commonplace book logged all my lists. Some lists I eventually migrated to Google Keep, but I never relied much on digital suites. The overhead of learning and maintaining a complex suite of digital tools didn't seem worthwhile. Why would I spend 20 minutes color-coding a to-do list in an app when I could have just done two of the things on the list at that time?
This skepticism kept me away from an entire software category throughout university. They seemed like solutions to problems I didn't have because my analog system just worked. However, staying current is crucial, and Google's NotebookLM seemed like a fascinating tool, named so close to the tools I trusted.
The advent of NotebookLM and mainstream AI
Interactive maps for the win
The advent of mainstream AI tools changed the equation by taking the legwork out of the equation instead of seeking plenty of manual input. Its efficacy as a learning tool was undeniable. Suddenly, I could upload a dozen dense, academic PDFs on a topic I knew nothing about -- say, the intricacies of gasket-mounted keyboards -- and just... talk to them. One-way media became personalized and interactive, and it also offered one-click mind-mapping that ties related ideas to a shared central concept, all within a few minutes.
In college, I'd scrawl a central concept in the middle of a page and draw branching lines to related theories, key dates, and supporting arguments. It was a mess, but it worked for cramming. The digital version dials things up to eleven since I can expand it on an infinite canvas. I can collapse an entire branch of thought to focus on another, then expand it later when I return. This feature alone makes it ridiculously easy to congregate all your thoughts about a single idea in one place.
I now just "brain dump" every half-formed idea, link, and note, and then worry about tying them together. It's a non-linear way of thinking that perfectly matches the chaotic process of learning something new. Moreover, NotebookLM does that additional, magical step of tying the ideas together for me. Although basic, the AI-generated mind map is a great starting point for further targeted exploration of the central idea.
NotebookLM doesn't do it all just yet
Free and open-source tools still stand a fighting chance
Inspired, I looked at other mind-mapping utilities, and the trade-offs became immediately clear. Most free and open-source mind-mapping tools lack the AI-powered interactivity that makes NotebookLM so special. I can't just drop a folder of documents onto a FOSS tool and have it build the map for me in two minutes. I can't quiz specific nodes. I can't add or remove sources at will and watch the entire map intelligently reconfigure itself. That dynamic, research-focused power is, for now, NotebookLM's killer app.
However, what these dedicated tools lose in AI interactivity, they make up for in spades with customizability. This excites the tinkerer in me because NotebookLM doesn't take back the sole layout it spits out. Dedicated apps like FreeMind or WiseMapping give you control over bubble shapes, wild, curvy, color-coded connecting lines instead of simple right angles, and even the entire shape of the branching pattern -- from top-down to radial and beyond.
Yes, Google may soon catch up. Given the breakneck pace of AI advancement, a proper, fully-featured, and customizable mind map utility in NotebookLM won't be a real shocker. Until then, I am just thankful this AI tool showed me the light. It used its smarts to demonstrate just how much I can get done with a mind map, breaking through my years of stubborn, analog skepticism.
Pick your tools carefully
Overall, NotebookLM has replaced several pen-and-paper notebooks I would've filled up. The AI tool has become an important component and labor-saver in my learning process, and I love to watch a mind map come alive. As my needs evolve, I hope the AI industry keeps up the cadence so more customization reaches users in the free tier, and people willing to pay for solutions from smaller companies have an equally rewarding, instantaneous experience like NotebookLM offers.
Now, I'm off to build my own maps from scratch. But unlike my chaotic notes from college, I'll be doing it digitally, on an infinite canvas, with a new appreciation for a tool I wrote off far too soon.
