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He soon developed new categories of these notes. He realised that one idea, one note was only as valuable as its context, which was not necessarily the context it was taken from.

The 2rd sentence, I think it means the note or idea was valuable only if in its context, which was not necessarily the context it was taken from.

Is it correct? Why? What does the 'as...as' mean? Thank you!

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    It's sloppy phrasing. What the writer means is an idea is only as valuable as the value it had in [its original] context, but that's a very long-winded way of expressing it. More elegantly, an idea only has value IN CONTEXT. Where for any given context, you'd have to decide whether you wanted to explicitly say in its original context, or leave that aspect "open" (where only has value in context implies any context that makes sense for the thing being referred to).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 1, 2021 at 14:49

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You seem to be right - the implication being that it's the context of the note or idea that determines the value of it, rather than the idea itself. The important takeaway is that even a "good" idea will be worthless if the context is lacking or missing, and conversely that an idea can be made more valuable when taken from its original context and placed into a different one.

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