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DeveloPassion's Newsletter #139 - New lab

Edition 139 of my newsletter, discussing Knowledge Management, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!

Sebastien Dubois

Oct 3, 2023 — 6 min read

Welcome

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

It's been a while! The new lab is finally installed in my new home, so it's finally time for me to get back to you. And I'll be honest: I've missed you all! It's tough to pause everything for so long when you're conditioned to work hard every single day.

Now that everything is where it belongs, plugged in, I'm ready to get back to work 🎉

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

The lab 🧪

As you know, the lab was offline for about two weeks. I hoped to get back sooner, but I really needed some rest after our move. Moving 70+ crates of board games, and all sorts of furniture took quite some time and effort. My back really needed to heal 😂

Now that I'm back, I can resume writing articles, working on this newsletter, my products, Knowii and the YouTube channel. It will take me some time to rebuild productive habits, but I'll get there, one effort after another. My objective this week is to publish two articles. Next week, I'll record/publish a new YouTube video.

Getting back to coding Knowii will be a big harder as code quickly gets forgotten. I'll have to find my way around all over again.

While I was away, I've also been thinking about the next experiments I want to invest in. One of those is a podcast. I think I've already mentioned it, but I like the idea of repurposing content, and giving you more choice when it comes to consuming my creations. I'll keep you posted!

New articles

Last week, I've managed to publish a small article. In it, I discuss the concept of Inertia and how it relates to change: https://www.dsebastien.net/fighting-against-inertia/

Quotes of the week

"Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and assembling an airplane plane on the way down"
"Celebrate all your wins. Don't wait for those big breakthroughs. The journey matters way more than you think"

Thinking and learning

Beth has recently decided to work full-time on PKM. I've been following her for a while, and I'm convinced that she's going to kill it. I recommend you give her a follow on X and check out her "PKM in the Wild" newsletter.

Obsidian now supports importing notes from various sources: https://twitter.com/obsdmd/status/1700596835671511443

You can now easily convert your notes to durable, private, local files, that you own and can access offline at any time.

Free your notes from proprietary formats and databases. pic.twitter.com/wQIK1Xfm9C
— Obsidian (@obsdmd) September 9, 2023

If you haven't checked out the new support for "Properties" (i.e., note metadata) in Obsidian, then check this out: https://medium.com/@dianademco/obsidian-properties-the-new-feature-that-changes-everything-68077acc48fe

Over time, Tana gets more and more interesting. To me, it feels like the most advanced solution for connecting notes together intelligently, using their smart links. Now they also have a native integration with Readwise. I'm not sold yet as I love having full control over my notes (which is why I prefer Obsidian's way of storing notes), but it's still worth checking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Xk3Sl6eYw

In software development, naming things is one of the hardest things. And it's also true for notes. Johnny has some great advice to share on this topic:: https://johnnydecimal.com/20-29-communication/22-blog/22.00.0011-naming-your-areas-and-categories/

22.00.0011 Naming your areas and categories║J•D

Johnny.Decimal is a system to organise projects (or your life, or anything else)

I personally like to keep my tasks next to my notes and my journal. I use the Kanban plugin a lot. It's bare bones, but it's all I need. Here's how you can move tasks from Trello to Kanban boards in Obsidian:

Indie Hacking and bootstrapping

Getting stuck in planning mode for too long is a trap that all indie hackers need to avoid. Arvid explains this very clearly: https://share.transistor.fm/s/e2bb7424

Anti-'Vanity' metrics you should be paying attention to on your social media posts:

Three Anti- 'Vanity' Metrics You Should Be Paying Attention To On Your Posts:

👉 Questions & Comments signal that people are interested in your idea. You've created real value, not a cheap dopamine hit. And people buy from people who provide value.
👉 Bookmarks indicate that…
— ⚡️ Ev Chapman 🚢 | Creative Entrepreneur (@evielync) July 5, 2023