Ideas as Note Titles

Note titles should be claims, not questions. The insight belongs in the title, not buried inside.

The Problem

Question-titled notes hide the answer:

Note: "What is opportunity cost?"
└── Answer inside: "The next-best alternative foregone"

To find out what you know, you have to open every note.

The Solution

Idea-titled notes surface the insight. Questions become aliases for wayfinding:

---
aliases:
  - "What is opportunity cost?"
  - "How do I evaluate trade-offs?"
---
 
# Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative foregone

The title IS the knowledge. Questions that led to it become searchable entry points via aliases. No plugins needed—native Obsidian search finds aliases.

Why This Matters for Retrieval

When you’re writing, thinking, or making decisions, you search “what do I know about X?”—not “what was I confused about?”

Question-Titled	Idea-Titled
Search: “opportunity cost”	Search: “opportunity cost”
Result: “What is opportunity cost?”	Result: “Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative foregone”
Must open to see answer	Answer visible in search

Why This Matters for Linking

One idea can answer multiple questions:

“Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative foregone” answers:

• Why can’t you have everything? (scarcity/choice)
• How do I evaluate trade-offs? (decision-making)
• Why does free stuff still cost something? (hidden costs)
• How should I think about time allocation? (productivity)

If the idea is inside a note titled “What is opportunity cost?”, it’s trapped. It only connects to one question.

If the idea is the title, it can link to all those questions. The idea becomes a reusable building block.

How to Convert

Before (Question)	After (Idea)
“What is opportunity cost?"	"Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative foregone"
"Why does scarcity force choice?"	"Scarcity forces choice because wants exceed resources"
"How do direct and indirect effects compare?"	"Direct effects dominate diluted effects”

Where Questions Still Belong

Feynman 12 problems stay as question-titled notes. They’re hubs that accumulate ideas over time. The question persists; answers link to it.

Everything else: Ideas are primary. Questions become metadata—links inside the note, or tags, or simply implicit.

The Structure Shift

OLD (question-centered vault):
├── "What is X?"
│   └── [answer inside]
├── "Why does Y happen?"
│   └── [answer inside]

NEW (idea-centered vault):
├── "X is [definition]"
│   └── Answers: [[What is X?]], [[Why does X matter?]]
├── "Y happens because [mechanism]"
│   └── Answers: [[Why does Y happen?]], [[How to prevent Y?]]

---

North: Where this comes from

• Atomic Notes (one idea per note)
• Evergreen Note Titles as APIs (Andy Matuschak’s principle)
• Q-I-ST Framework (Ideas are the core unit)

East: What opposes this?

• Question-Titled Notes (answer hidden inside)
• Topic-Based Titles (“Notes on Opportunity Cost” → vague)

South: Where this leads

• Better Search Results (answers visible without opening)
• Flexible Linking (one idea, many contexts)
• Writing From Notes (claim-titled notes become draft sentences)

West: What’s similar?

• Thesis Statements (academic writing: lead with the claim)
• Headline Writing (journalism: the point goes first)
• API Design (function names describe what they return)