How I keep tech notes using plain text files and Vim

I use a terse form of English that is easily understandable to non-native speakers and to myself. I avoid tenses and try to keep the voice passive. This terse form of English is much easier to parse and less taxing on brain resources when accessing information.

Here’s example text from a digitalocean.com tutorial on a feature of the Nginx web server called SSL termination, which I then translated into tech-lingo for my notes:

Nginx can be configured as a load balancer to distribute incoming traffic around several backend servers. SSL termination is the process that occurs on the load balancer which handles the SSL encryption/decryption so that traffic between the load balancer and backend servers is in HTTP

Another thing I do is try to break the information down into basic lines that are ideally less than 80 characters long so as not to exceed the terminal width.

Here is the transcription into tech-note-lingo:

# SSL Termination
  nginx configured as load balancer
  distribute incoming traffic around several backend servers
  SSL termination: load balancer handles the SSL encryption/decryption
  traffic between load balancer and backend servers is HTTP

I highly recommend this system to anyone who deals with technical, scientific, or other types of information which they need to keep notes on.