I highlight articles like I highlight papers or books. Key phrases, important ideas, clever turns of phrase I could use as a quote when talking about a piece. Anything that goes onto my "memory palace" memory tree gets highlights.

Do you know the Tekumel books? I file things in my memory palace on a tree. Each data point a folded bud/leaf on various branches.

When I reread it later in my mind, I look at the highlights first. They are a form of precis for me. The rest of the piece unfolds like a flower from that.

There are approximately 23,000 tagged articles and books in my current "working mental dataset". Things that I can recall "on demand". My internal wikipedia.

Once it was over 30K, but I have had several Traumatic Brain Injuries in my life. Each took something from me and left me "less than" I was.

The last made me more impulsive. That's what forced my retirement. It's a bad thing in an EOD specialist.

I will stop.