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DeveloPassion's Newsletter #136 - New Course

Edition 136 of my newsletter, discussing Knowledge Management, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!

Sebastien Dubois

Aug 29, 2023 — 9 min read

Welcome

Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩

This week marks the end of the vacation period for the kids here in Belgium. A part of me is sad, but the other cannot wait. When kids go back to school, parents usually get to rest a tiny bit more 😂 (at least that's been my experience, having three.

I have great news to share with you this week!

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

Journaling ❤️

Journaling has served me well so far. I've been journaling for a number of years, and it has helped me tremendously! I find it valuable (for myself) to capture my journal along with the rest of my notes. I'm able to link everything together and associates notes and journal with time. It's one of the most important commitments in my life, and one that really pushes me forward.

I recommend it to everyone around me, whether for personal development or work. I've shared a number of articles about it already:

I also strongly recommend journaling to all founders and leaders: https://www.dsebastien.net/how-to-approach-journaling-as-a-founder/

The lab 🧪

A new creation has come out of the lab this week 🎉. After hesitating for a while, I've finally hit the "Record" button and created the Obsidian Starter Course, a 2h+ video course explaining tons of things about Personal Knowledge Management and Obsidian. It took me about a day and a half to prepare (outline, record, edit and publish). And the good news is that it is now available!

This course is great for people getting started with note-taking, Personal Knowledge Management and/or Obsidian. In it, I've also explained how the Obsidian Starter Kit works in great detail, which should help everyone have clear ideas about how to structure their knowledge base. Moreover, I've shared ideas and recommendations about journaling, automation, and more! You can find all the details on the product page: https://developassion.gumroad.com/l/obsidian-starter-course

On launch day, I've already sold 15 copies. I did all I could to make (online) noise about the release:

I've created the visuals, the product page on Gumroad, updated the one of the Obsidian Starter Kit
I've announced the release on Twitter, LinkedIn, Substack, Slack, Reddit, Polywork, BlueSky, Mastodon, in my communities, etc
I've updated ObsidianStarterKit.com
I've updated PersonalKnowledgeManagement.com
I've offered a discount code to my existing customers
...

This was quite intense, but I got it all done in a few hours. I'm really glad about the launch and how it turned out. So far, the feedback has been really positive. I can't wait for more people to build their own Personal Knowledge Management systems ❤️

This week, I've also updated the IT Concepts Wall multiple times. I've added new resources about software design, team management, project management and best practices around documentation.

New articles

No new articles this week!

Quotes of the week

Life is like photography. You need the negatives to develop — Ziad Abdelnour
If you manage to have fun when things get really hard, then you are made to be an entrepreneur

Thinking and learning

The following article is quite interesting, but I think that the author focuses too much on the act of thinking, and not enough on the context in which that happens:

He is right that PKM / note-taking tools won't magically help us become better thinkers. That can't happen without plugging some kind of device with our brain... But while thinking does happen within our brains, we can use external tools to help. In reality, PKM tools don't have to make us smarter. They simply have to alleviate the burden on our minds, and to help us go faster and/or further than our brains alone can. I believe that they already do, and they don't even need AI to get us there.

Whenever we think about something, we don't start from a blank slate. Our brain loads information from our memory. That information is composed of thoughts, ideas, memories, feelings, etc. Our mind's "whiteboard" is actually a giant patchwork. But we never get to see the whole thing. Instead, we hold a weak "flashlight" that is only able to focus on a few pieces at a time, and only for short durations. We don't see much because our working memory is very limited. Moreover, our shortening attention span leaves us with little time to focus. And if that wasn't enough, our memory is unreliable. Sometimes we can't even retrieve the information that we've "stored" when we need it.

With that in mind (I've helped you create a mental context for our discussion!), it's quite obvious that externalizing (some) of our memory and thinking can be hugely beneficial. It's not about replacing our brain, but about helping it in some way. Note-taking and Personal Knowledge Management tools help because they can be used to:

Save/restore our mental contexts
Persist information, ideas, knowledge and links between all those
Create fully visible "whiteboards" that can support our thinking
Let us focus on, explore, and expand specific groups of ideas
...

As Andy Matuschak wisely said:

The goal is not to take notes — the goal is to think effectively — Andy Matuschak

PKM tools such as Obsidian are extensions of our minds. Our brain does the work, but PKM tools assist us. They help alleviate our inherent limitations.