Category: Obsidian

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Link-based note-making Linking Your Thinking Obsidian Personal Knowledge PKM Personal Knowledge Management

Forgotten Gems: Mining Your Second Brain

“One of the best uses for a Second Brain is to collect and save the scraps on the cutting-room floor in case they can be used elsewhere.” – Tiago Forte

Ever had a fleeting idea that later becomes a game-changer? Nick Milo’s Linking Your Thinking (LYT) workshop equips writers, students, and creative professionals with a powerful framework for capturing, developing, and ultimately communicating their ideas.

A core concept in LYT is the Ideaverse, a personal repository for all your captured ideas, thoughts, and insights. Whether it’s a scribbled note, a website URL, or an overheard conversation, the Ideaverse encourages you to collect these sparks of inspiration. Tiago Forte uses the term “Second Brain” for the same idea as the Ideaverse. Forte has taught a similar workshop for years and has also published a book on the subject.

The LYT framework, built on the Add-Relate-Communicate (ARC) approach, guides you through the process of nurturing those sparks. Adding involves capturing the initial idea in any format that works for you. Relating encourages you to explore connections, ask questions, and build upon the original idea. Finally, Communicating involves sharing your developed thought through writing, presentations, or simply internalizing it for future use. (Note: I have been using Obsidian as my tool of choice for my personal Ideaverse. I’ve found it second to no other applications when it comes to linking ideas and notes together, helping me to discover new insights in often surprising ways.)

The key lies in maintaining a balance. LYT helps you avoid the trap of over-collecting ideas. By establishing criteria for capture and prioritizing based on potential impact, you can focus your energy on the ideas most likely to bear fruit. How often have you had a brilliant idea or stumbled across an interesting tidbit, only for it to slip away into the ether, forgotten and lost? Our minds are fertile gardens, constantly sprouting seeds of inspiration and insight. But without a system to capture and cultivate those seeds, so many wither on the vine before they can fully blossom.

By cultivating a robust personal knowledge management system, we create a repository to gather up all those little scraps – the half-formed thoughts, the kernels of concepts, the raw materials of creativity. Much like a compost bin nourishes a garden, our Ideaverse provides a rich bed of inspiration where our intellectual and artistic seeds can germinate and grow.

What makes this approach so powerful is the emphasis on saving “the scraps on the cutting-room floor.” We’re all familiar with those fleeting moments of genius – the clever turn of phrase that comes to mind in the shower, the spontaneous creative spark while commuting, the “Aha!” revelation in the weekly meeting that peters out before we can fully explore it. Our Ideaverse becomes the catcher’s mitt for those vagabond thoughts, preventing them from drifting off into the ether of distraction.

And those scraps, when collected and cross-pollinated as we relate to them, have extraordinary emergent potential. A stray joke becomes the seed for a new creative project. An intriguing book quote plants the roots for an original philosophy. An overheard conversation germinates into a novel perspective to share with the world. Our Ideaverse is both archive and icebox, preserving the perishable flashes of brilliance to be leveraged and recombined in novel ways.

The creative process is so often portrayed as one of passionate inspiration and Eureka moments. But any prolific artist or thinker will tell you that their masterworks are built from a million little scraps – the unfinished thoughts, the faint impressions, the whispers of ideas that gradually coalesce into a cohesive whole. By giving those fleeting intellections a dedicated space to live and mingle, our Ideaverse transforms from a mere repository into a fertile idea nursery.

So embrace the scraps, the snippets, the clippings and fragments. Let your Ideaverse or your Second Brain be the garden bed where those discarded trimmings are collected and composted into the rich soil for your creative progeny to take root and thrive. Don’t leave those forgotten gems scattered on the cutting-room floor when they could be the seeds of your next breakthrough.

Note: see also my earlier post from last summer that I wrote after attending my first cohort of the Linking Your Thinking workshop.

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Obsidian PKM Personal Knowledge Management

My Current PKM Stack

My PKM Stack as of September 2023

I’m enrolled in cohort 2 of Mike Schmitz’s Obsidian University. Mike is an excellent educator and he’s developed considerable expertise in Obsidian. His first two sessions are deep dives into setting up a personal knowledge management (PKM) system. The first session was about philosophy, the second about specific tools he uses/recommends.

I’ve been using Obsidian pretty heavily since I first started playing with it in May 2022. I’ve got lots of notes collected and have a workflow that’s been working for me in terms of capturing information I want to think about later. Here’s my basic workflow:

  1. I’m doing all of my browsing in Safari on Mac, iPhone or iPad. I have used Instapaper as my read-later service for years and articles I find while browsing that I might want to save I’ll capture in Instapaper. I like Instapaper’s “clean up” approach – taking all of the extra stuff out of web pages and distilling them down to the essence of the text on the page.
  2. A second source of capture is Feedly which I’m using as my RSS reader and in which I also capture articles to Instapaper.
  3. Sometime later I’ll open Instapaper and read through what I’ve captured. If I find an article I want to add to my Obsidian vault, I will email it to Drafts using its recently added mail drop feature. Once it’s in Drafts, I used an action to save the article to my Obsidian Inbox folder which is stored in iCloud.
  4. Later, I’ll open Obsidian and review my Inbox folder and open each item in turn, add metadata properties to the top (using an Obsidian template that I’ve created), and – once I’m finished editing it – I’ll move the note to my Zettlekasten folder in Obsidian which is where I store all of my notes.

That’s it.

I also use Drafts from time to time to just capture text that I either write or dictate – and process that later in the same fashion.

What I’m still trying to figure out how to do better is taking advantage of the notes I’ve captured – revisiting them, summarizing them, using them as the basis for a new note or a blog post, etc. In other words, creating some useful output from all of the input I’ve been adding. This is very much a work in progress!

By the way, sometime that’s important to learn before or while you’re learning Obsidian is the Markdown text format. It’s a simple, easy to learn way to “markup” text and it’s important to become fluent in using it with Obsidian.

Note: in addition to Mike Schmitz’s Obsidian University, I’ve also purchased David Sparks’ Obsidian Field Guide which is also a useful educational resource for learning the ropes of Obsidian.

Categories
AI AI: Large Language Models ChatGPT Link-based note-making Linking Your Thinking Note-making Obsidian

Link-based Note-making

Update: see my more comprehensive review of the Linking Your Thinking workshop.

I’m currently immersed in Nick Milo’s 11th cohort of his Linking Your Thinking workshop, and I must say, it’s been an enjoyable experience so far. This workshop has proven to be an excellent opportunity for me to refine my skills using Obsidian as my primary tool for capturing notes and thoughts. Moreover, it has provided me with ample time to engage in deep thinking and establish connections between various concepts through note linking.

This week in the workshop is dedicated to “AI Week,” where we delve into the realm of artificial intelligence to enhance our thinking processes. One fascinating aspect has been our exploration of generative AI chatbots such as Google Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Yesterday, we had the privilege of an expert session with Jeremy Nguyen, who has honed his expertise in leveraging multi-step prompts with ChatGPT to engage in interactive conversations with selected “mentors.” The intricacies of his process were truly captivating!

I was up early this morning and playing a bit with ChatGPT. I had come across someone else who had put together a prompt like the following to generate some pithy one-liners that he could use on Twitter to stimulate interest:

Create 35 one-line statements that sound motivational and inspirational but are really just platitudes that have very little intellectual value. They must be original and not quotes.

I modified a version of that prompt as follows:

Create 15 one-line statements about the power of link-based note making that are very motivational and inspirational. They must be original and not quotes.

Here’s what ChatGPT generated in response – these one-liners are all pretty good!:

  1. Unlock the limitless potential of link-based note making and watch your ideas soar to new heights of creativity.
  2. Embrace the interconnected web of knowledge through link-based note making and witness the power of ideas intertwining.
  3. Harness the transformative power of link-based note making to create a symphony of ideas that harmonize and inspire.
  4. Let link-based note making be the key that unlocks the door to boundless inspiration and innovation.
  5. Dive into the world of link-based note making and witness how the threads of knowledge weave a tapestry of enlightenment.
  6. Embrace the empowering nature of link-based note making and discover the magic that happens when ideas collide.
  7. Unlock the door to accelerated learning and creative breakthroughs with the dynamic tool of link-based note making.
  8. Let link-based note making be the catalyst that ignites your imagination and fuels your pursuit of greatness.
  9. Embrace the transformative power of link-based note making and watch as your ideas bloom and flourish.
  10. Dive into the ocean of possibilities with link-based note making and witness the ripple effect of inspired thinking.
  11. Unlock the untapped reservoirs of inspiration with link-based note making, where connections illuminate the path to brilliance.
  12. Embrace the synergistic dance of ideas with link-based note making, where each link becomes a stepping stone to greatness.
  13. Harness the creative energy of link-based note making and unleash a tidal wave of inspiration that propels you forward.
  14. Let link-based note making be the compass that guides your intellectual journey, leading you to new frontiers of discovery.
  15. Dive into the realm of boundless inspiration with link-based note making and witness the alchemy that happens when ideas collide and synthesize.

I then remembered having fun weeks ago using ChatGPT to generate poetry – so I tried the following:

Write a poem about the joy of link-based note making.

I got the following lovely response:

In the realm where thoughts do flow,
A joyous dance, a rhythmic glow,
Link-based notes, they intertwine,
A tapestry of knowledge divine.

Each word a vessel, meaning true,
Threads connecting what’s old and new,
Ideas woven, seamlessly bound,
A symphony of thoughts profound.

Hyperlinks, the bridges strong,
Guide us where our hearts belong,
From concept’s core to distant shores,
Exploration, forevermore.

With every click, a path unfolds,
A gateway to stories yet untold,
A web of wonders, vast and wide,
Linking worlds, side by side.

No longer bound by linear thought,
Unleashed, the mind’s expansion sought,
A fluid canvas, limitless and free,
Mapping ideas, effortlessly.

Inspiration sparks, creativity soars,
As we navigate these digital shores,
Link by link, we venture through,
An endless maze of knowledge accrue.

So let us revel, embrace this bliss,
In link-based notes, we find our kiss,
For in the web we’re all entwined,
A testament to the human mind.

My explorations continue!

Categories
Obsidian Personal Knowledge Tools

Steps to a new ecology of mind

How I Used Obsidian to Build a Personal Knowledge Base

I’ve been using Obsidian as a tool for learning for the past year. I got serious about using it in May 2022 after exploring it earlier for a few months. I like to think I’ve learned a few things along the way about how this powerful tool can be effectively used (at least for me) – and where it might be less useful and, in fact, can end up wasting time instead of helping accelerate thinking and learning.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is the power of Obsidian to literally be able to do almost anything you might want a computer to do. It’s such a powerful and flexible platform – with so many others writing community plug-ins that help them accomplish specific tasks – that it’s way too easy to end up creating a “monstrosity.”

By that I mean an almost Rube Goldberg-like creation that can do what you need but is built on a variety of frameworks, plug-ins, scripts, Dataview queries, etc. I began to head down those paths early on in my explorations with Obsidian – it’s almost addictive in providing fun ways to do the things you think you need it to do.

However, I’ve come to realize that the best way to use Obsidian for learning is to keep it simple. Don’t get caught up in the endless possibilities of what you can do with it. Instead, focus on using it to capture your thoughts and ideas, organize your notes, and create links between them.

Based on my experience, here are a few tips for using Obsidian effectively for learning:

  • Start by creating a simple note-taking system. This could be as simple as creating a new note for each topic you’re learning about. You can then use tags and links to organize your notes.
  • Use Obsidian’s backlinks feature to connect your notes. This is a powerful way to see how your different ideas are related. As you investigate a particular topic and collect notes, you may find it help to create a high level “map of content” which links to those specific notes. Popularized by Nick Milo, the map of content idea provides a very useful organizational tool for helping add some structure to your notes – without trying to use a more rigid folder structure for example.
  • Learn the most important Hotkey shortcuts – in particular ⌘-o which allows you to quickly go to any note in your vault and ⌘-p (Command Palette) which is a quick way to invoke any of Obsidian’s commands.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with different plug-ins. There are a lot of great plug-ins available that can make Obsidian even more powerful. However, don’t get caught up in the endless possibilities of what you can do with them. Focus on using the plug-ins that will help you learn more effectively. Try to use now more than 10 community plug-ins – some of which (like Dataview) are really esssential.
  • Most importantly, keep it simple. Obsidian is a powerful tool, but it’s easy to get bogged down in the details. Remember that the goal is to use it to learn, not to build a complex system. Be careful about trying to, for example, use Obsidian for task management or journaling. Both of those areas have excellent purpose-built tools that are available and which work much more effectively in my experience rather than trying to build that capability in Obsidian. Some folks seem to delight in using Obsidian as kind of a “Swiss Army knife” – I don’t and don’t recommend that approach.
  • There are some incredible resources available for learning more about using Obsidian – and about how to apply its tools for learning and thinking. I particularly recommend the many YouTube videos by Nick Milo and Nicole van den Hoeven. Both have made great contributions to the Obsidian community – and both offer paid workshops and courses as well. Mike Schmitz has also just announced his Obsidian University which begins its first cohort in June.
  • Experiment and play with the LYT Kit “vault” which Nick Milo has made available. It’s a great way to get started and learn. With Obsidian, you can have multiple vaults open – so you could open your personal vault and then also open LYT Kit and flip between them as you learn and explore.

I hope these tips help you use Obsidian effectively for learning. I’ve found it to be a wonderful tool with pretty amazing capabilities. But do try to keep your usage simple!