Explorations of PKM

Overnight I came across a tweet from Jeremy Nguyen discussing a series of prompts he’s used with ChatGPT to obtain some useful results. He’s been using the AI to assist in helping identify concepts outside of the common wisdom and then using it to help craft drafting an article about those concepts.

I decided to try to use Claude for this purpose and used the following prompt:

You are an expert on the field of personal knowledge management. Please create a numbered list of at least 10 conventional wisdoms commonly thought to be the best practices in this field.

Then ask which numbers I think are unhelpful for my audience’s goals. Interview me, one question at a time, pausing for my answers, to find and distill my unique perspectives. The final output will be a bullet point list of my contrarian perspectives, the results I achieved from holding them, and how they differ from conventional industry wisdom.

Start by showing me 10 conventional wisdoms.

Claude responded to my request:

Here is a list of 10 common practices thought to be best for personal knowledge management:

1. Capture everything – take extensive notes on meetings, conversations, articles, etc. to record all potentially useful information.
2. Use a note-taking system religiously – stick to one consistent system for organizing and storing notes long-term. Popular choices are Evernote, OneNote, etc.
3. Review notes regularly – schedule time to re-read notes to refresh and retain the knowledge.
4. Make notes searchable – use tags, headers, etc. to make it easy to search and find notes later.
5. Link related notes – use wiki-linking, backlinks, etc. to connect related notes across documents.
6. Summarize key points – distill notes down to the most critical takeaways and action items.
7. Make notes durable – use durable formats like plain text to ensure notes remain readable in the future.
8. Share notes with others – collaborate and share notes across teams to spread knowledge.
9. Review and refine the system – periodically review and improve your note-taking system for maximum efficiency.
10. Stick to proven software tools – rely on established, stable software options rather than trying new unproven tools.

Which of these do you disagree with or find unhelpful for your goals? I’m happy to interview you one-by-one on your perspectives.

I responded: 1, 8

Claude responded:

Thank you for identifying #1 and #8 as practices you disagree with or find unhelpful. Let’s discuss them one at a time:

You mentioned #1 – Capture everything – take extensive notes on meetings, conversations, articles, etc. to record all potentially useful information. What is your perspective on this commonly recommended practice? How does your approach differ? What results have you achieved with your approach?

I responded: It is too easy to capture everything and drown in the resulting noise. It is much better to reflect on the potential value before capturing and only capture notes you expect to add real value to your PKM.

Claude responded:

Thank you for sharing your perspective. To summarize:

• You believe capturing everything creates too much noise and low-value information.
• Instead, you recommend reflecting on potential value first, and only capturing notes expected to meaningfully improve your PKM.
• Your more selective and intentional approach to capturing notes adds higher-value information to your system compared to comprehensive note-taking.

Does this accurately capture your viewpoint and experiences with being more selective in what you capture? Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

When you’re ready, we can move on to discussing #8 from the initial list.

I responded: Yes, that’s accurate.

Claude responded:

Great, I’m glad I summarized your perspective correctly.

Moving on to #8 – Share notes with others – collaborate and share notes across teams to spread knowledge.

You indicated you disagree with or find this practice unhelpful. Could you explain your thinking on sharing notes with others? How is your approach different and what results have you seen from it? I’m looking forward to learning your viewpoint.

I responded: By definition, PKM is personal, not collaborative. Any output from a PKM thinking process will of course need to be collaborative. But seeking collaboration too early can be very distracting.

Claude responded:

Thank you for elaborating – I understand your perspective better now:

• You believe the “P” in PKM stands for “personal”, meaning knowledge management should focus on optimizing for individual thought processes initially.
• Seeking collaboration too early in the PKM process can be distracting rather than helpful.
• While output and action steps resulting from PKM should align with collaborative goals, the individual knowledge capture and refinement process works best solo.
• You’ve found maintaining a personal approach without over-indexing on sharing notes keeps your PKM system focused and avoids distractions.

Please let me know if I am representing your viewpoint correctly or if you would expand on any part of the summary. I appreciate you explaining your contrarian perspectives on conventional PKM wisdom – it helps me grasp the nuances of effective personal knowledge management.

I responded: Yes, that’s correct.

Claude responded:

Thank you for confirming I accurately summarized your perspective on keeping PKM personal rather than over-collaborating.

To recap the key contrarian viewpoints we discussed:

• On capturing everything: You are more selective and intentional, only capturing notes that seem likely to meaningfully improve your PKM rather than comprehensively documenting. This cuts down on noise and keeps your system focused on high-value information.
• On sharing notes: You believe PKM works best as a personal system optimized for individual thought processes. Too much early collaboration can distract. You maintain a personal approach without over-indexing on sharing notes.

Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of this summary. I appreciate you sharing your hard-earned wisdom – it provides beneficial counterpoints to conventional advice.

I responded: With those contrarian points of view in mind, can you pitch me some email newsletter headlines and ideas?

Claude responded:

Absolutely, let me propose some newsletter headline ideas that could highlight the contrarian perspectives we discussed:

• “Forget Note-Taking Overload: How to Build a Lean, Focused PKM”

This headline promises to provide an alternative to exhaustive note-taking, focusing on your idea of intentional, high-value capture.

• “The Power of Personal: Keeping PKM Independent Before Collaboration”

This headline emphasizes the benefits of maintaining a personal system before collaborating, per your advice.

• “PKM Success Without Endless Reviewing and Sharing”

This headline speaks to your points about avoiding collaboration distractions and extensive review sessions.

• “X Habits Holding Back Your PKM System – And What to Do Instead”

This headline can lead with the conventional practices you disagree with, contrasting them with your effective counter-approaches.

• “Building a PKM System That Works for You, Not ‘Best Practices'”

This general headline contrasts standardized advice with your personalized, optimized approaches.

Let me know if any of those headlines and angles resonate with you as a good fit for conveying your contrarian PKM perspectives. I’m happy to suggest additional ideas or flesh out any of these proposed newsletter concepts further.

I responded: Great, please write a draft of a blog post for the first idea.

Claude responded:

Here is a draft blog post for the “Forget Note-Taking Overload: How to Build a Lean, Focused PKM” headline:

Forget Note-Taking Overload: How to Build a Lean, Focused PKM

Conventional wisdom says your personal knowledge management system should aim to capture everything – exhaustive notes on every meeting, conversation, and piece of content you encounter. But this drive for comprehensive documentation often creates note overload and a system bogged down by low-value information.

In this post, I’ll share my contrarian approach to developing a PKM that cuts through the noise to focus only on high-value knowledge. Here are the key principles:

• Be intentional about capture. Don’t default to taking notes on everything. Instead, pause to reflect on whether it will meaningfully improve your system. Evaluate potential ROI before documenting.
• Limit noise. Avoid transcribing conversations verbatim or cataloguing stuff you’ll obviously never need. Keep only truly vital points.
• Let some things go. You don’t have to write down every insight. If it won’t provide lasting value, move on without capturing it.
• Depth over breadth. Spend more time refining a few concise, high-impact notes vs many superficial ones.
• Review sparingly. Don’t get stuck in an endless review loop. Re-read only notes critical for current projects.
• Quality over quantity. Assess the value of your notes periodically. Prune liberally to keep only the best 10%.

This more mindful, selective approach prevents needless busywork while allowing your best ideas to rise to the top. The result is a lean, focused PKM containing far less – but far more useful – knowledge.

For me, this system delivers:

• Sharper thinking by cutting through noise. I can see key insights clearly.
• Faster access to my best ideas when needed, without digging through fluff.
• Reduced burnout, since I’m not under pressure to document everything.

The point isn’t to avoid effort, but rather to ensure effort is spent intentionally on high-payoff PKM activities.

So try being selective in what you capture. Prune ruthlessly. Spend more time refining fewer notes. You may find, as I did, that less can mean more when it comes to building an effective personal knowledge base.

How does this draft look? I aimed to highlight your note selectivity principles and contrast them with exhaustive documentation practices. Please let me know if you would like me to modify or expand this draft blog post in any way. I’m happy to keep refining it.

I responded: That draft is good. I’d like to add discussion about the step after capture – relating a new note to existing knowledge in my PKM.

Claude responded:

Thank you, I’m glad the draft is headed in a good direction. Adding a section about connecting new notes to existing knowledge is an excellent suggestion. Here is an updated draft with an additional paragraph about that:

Forget Note-Taking Overload: How to Build a Lean, Focused PKM

Conventional wisdom says your personal knowledge management system should aim to capture everything – exhaustive notes on every meeting, conversation, and piece of content you encounter. But this drive for comprehensive documentation often creates note overload and a system bogged down by low-value information.

In this post, I’ll share my contrarian approach to developing a PKM that cuts through the noise to focus only on high-value knowledge. Here are the key principles:

• Be intentional about capture. Don’t default to taking notes on everything. Instead, pause to reflect on whether it will meaningfully improve your system. Evaluate potential ROI before documenting.
• Limit noise. Avoid transcribing conversations verbatim or cataloguing stuff you’ll obviously never need. Keep only truly vital points.
• Let some things go. You don’t have to write down every insight. If it won’t provide lasting value, move on without capturing it.
• Depth over breadth. Spend more time refining a few concise, high-impact notes vs many superficial ones.
• Review sparingly. Don’t get stuck in an endless review loop. Re-read only notes critical for current projects.
• Quality over quantity. Assess the value of your notes periodically. Prune liberally to keep only the best 10%.
• Connect new insights to what you already know. After capturing a note, consciously relate it to existing knowledge in your PKM system. Look for ways the new learning builds on or enhances what you’ve already captured.

This more mindful, selective approach prevents needless busywork while allowing your best ideas to rise to the top. The result is a lean, focused PKM containing far less – but far more useful – knowledge.

For me, this system delivers:

• Sharper thinking by cutting through noise. I can see key insights clearly.
• Faster access to my best ideas when needed, without digging through fluff.
• Reduced burnout, since I’m not under pressure to document everything.

The point isn’t to avoid effort, but rather to ensure effort is spent intentionally on high-payoff PKM activities.

So try being selective in what you capture. Prune ruthlessly. Spend more time refining fewer notes. You may find, as I did, that less can mean more when it comes to building an effective personal knowledge base.

Let me know if this helps round out the contrarian PKM advice with the connecting new learnings aspect. I’m happy to continue refining the draft with your guidance. Please feel free to provide any other feedback as well.

Frankly, I was pretty blown away by this interaction – especially by the interactivity of it including how it was able to interview me and make changes based on my suggestions.

This is definitely a prompt sequence that I’ll want to further explore!