DeveloPassion's Newsletter #146 - Black Friday News

Welcome

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

This week, I've continued my work on the Knowledge Worker Kit. It's been fun and interesting so far, and I still have tons to do for that product to reach the "1.0" milestone.

I've been preparing the end of the yearly, slowly starting to review my progress on different initiatives I've launched and started working on. It's always an enlightening part of the year. With only ~40 days left, there's not much time left to achieve tons of goals, but there's still room for gradual improvements (the best kind I know!).

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

The lab 🧪

So far, I've sold 18 copies of the Knowledge Worker Kit, even though it's still in beta. My Black Friday sale helped a lot, and it's still on for about a week: https://www.dsebastien.net/black-friday-sale-2023/

Black Friday Sale

I’ve just launched my Black Friday promotion. You can now get 50% off all my products using the following discount code: BLACKFRIDAY2023 Subscribe to Sébastien Dubois on GumroadPassion makes all the difference. https://linktr.ee/dsebastienGumroad

Sébastien DuboisSebastien Dubois

Next to that, I've sold many more copies of the Obsidian Starter Kit, the Obsidian Starter Course and the PKM Library. People seem to really enjoy the complementarity of my different products, which is exactly what I focus on. To me, they are all part of one product group, and I intend to continue delivering valuable increments. The realm of Personal Organization, Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) and Productivity is quite large, and there's a ton more to say on those topics.

I'm on my way to hit a new record this month. So far, I made $1.6K with those products, and the Black Friday sale continues to convince more people to join and learn along.

I just really wish I had more time to dedicate to my side projects, and even to turn those into my main focus, but I'm still not there yet. Weirdly enough, what feels most reassuring is the fact that a few of you have decided to become paid subscribers here.

What I'm after is not wealth, but independence. I couldn't care less about having millions on my bank account. It doesn't make sense to me. What does is being able to work on projects that fulfill me, provide value to others, and give me enough freedom to work however I want. All the rest is bonus, and I don't really care.

New articles

No new articles this week. Although, I'm preparing a long article for new Obsidian users. I get a ton of basic questions about Obsidian, how to organize notes, which plugins to use, how to do X or Y, etc. I've covered most in my Obsidian Starter Course, but I feel like a (free) deep dive will be useful for many, and might convince some to check out my other projects. I'll let you know once that one is ready! 🎉

Quotes of the week

• Give up on your fears, not your dreams
• What is not started today is never finished tomorrow — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you — Mark West

Thinking and learning

Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems

Contrary to popular wisdom, faster isn’t always better. There is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy in cognitive processes.

Big ThinkMo Costandi

Why So Many Elites Feel Like Losers

It’s destabilizing to have a nation of young strivers with no coherent vision or path to success.

PersuasionFreddie deBoer

Svante Pääbo: ‘It’s maybe time to rethink our idea of Neanderthals’

The Swedish geneticist on winning the Nobel prize, his laureate father and early man’s sensitive side

The GuardianKate Connolly

I Built a Second Brain with OpenAI

Information Data Pipeline + Note taking tools+ OpenAI Architecture

Artificial Intelligence in Plain EnglishMelchor Tatlonghari

Mastering the Craft of Obsidian Note-Taking: How to Read Smarter and Remember More

This is the exact process I apply for transforming reading books into lasting knowledge with Obsidian.

MediumDiana Demco

‘It’s that moment of mastery when something difficult gives way’: Adam Gopnik on the pleasure of learning a new skill

In an extract from his new book, The Real Work, the New Yorker writer and critic sets out to learn to draw for the first time – and to drive a car

The GuardianAdam Gopnik