A great thing about taking notes is that it subtly encourages you to live a ‘notes-worthy life’
You end up seeking interesting conversations to build your memex; experimenting with new recipes to add to your collection; reading more widely to find surprising connections etc.
Most note-taking apps have broken feedback . Step one, you write a note, step two... there is no step two! You cast your note into the abyss of Apple Notes. It will never return to you, unless you go back and deliberately look for it (effort).
notetaking tools today can surface known unknowns. If I know that I know this thing, but I don't remember it, I can go find it.
what it doesn't do well is show you unknown unknowns, making connections that you haven't thought of yet.