Ordered, categorized, and isolated content is more difficult to learn than content shown with relevant contrasts, comparisons, and variations.
Comparison and analogy are great tools for teaching and learning. I think this comes into play when writing notes themselves but comparisons and analogy probably shouldn't be the connections, connections need to signify meaningfulness in the associated context.
This implies that having the language to describe something is a necessary pre-requisite to learning, in the same way that Concepts and categories are essential to the human experience. If you cannot name something, especially something abstract (e.g. democracy, emotions, or morality) you cannot compare and contrast. Increasingly complicated taxonomies develop so that we can compare and contrast. This is the basis for how we teach children in the book Choice Words How Our Language Affects Children's Learning - Peter H. Johnston, which is a book that significantly shaped my thoughts on how to raise a kid.
-