DeveloPassion's Newsletter #167 - Setbacks

Welcome

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

This week, I've made great progress on the Knowledge Management course. I've finished preparing the second module and am now busy scripting the third one. I can't wait to deliver it!

I attended a very interesting workshop here in Belgium, by Jean-Charles de la Faille. I shared the core ideas here, and I will later leverage those to improve the "Clarity" section of the Knowledge Worker Kit.

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The lab 🧪

It's been an interesting week. The last promo offer did quite well, and you are now 12 paid subscribers. It's not life changing yet, but I like to celebrate all my progress, no matter how small ;-)

On the development side, I've improved the Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian. It now uses HTML comments instead of Markdown comments. I've also proposed the plugin, and am now waiting for feedback on the Pull Request.

Meanwhile, my "Update Time" plugin has been accepted:

I've started using GPT4o to extract text and quotes from images. It works surprisingly well. It made me think about creating an Obsidian plugin to do just that.

New articles

I've published an article discussing the gradual ROI of Personal Knowledge Management. PKM requires reaching a critical mass of notes before the value it provides compounds:

The Gradual Return On Investment of PKM

Discover why the true value of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) takes time to manifest and how patience can yield long-term leverage.

Sébastien DuboisSebastien Dubois

New published notes

I've published many more notes this week:

Recently added - DeveloPassion

Recently added - DeveloPassion

DeveloPassion

The graph view is becoming scary:

There's a ton of notes about note-taking and PKM in there. Hopefully, this will prove valuable over time.

Note of the week

Quotes of the week

• Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value — Albert Einstein
• Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune

Thinking and learning

Should we forget about book summaries? I think so too, unless if you want to share those to help others grow:

Forget Book Summaries: This Note-Taking Method Will Change How You Read Books

Unpopular Opinion: You don’t need to create a book summary from your notes to make them useful.

MediumEv Chapman

Real-time video translation and captioning. Cool!

Microsoft Edge will translate and dub YouTube videos as you’re watching them

Translate spoken content in real time.

The Verge

Turn Obsidian into a full-blown outliner:

Outliner.md - Supercharged outliner plugin

A supercharged outliner plugin for Obsidian

Supercharged outliner plugin

Tiago Forte has shared an interesting video about content curation:

Current LLMs don't know semantics:

João Victor Pessoa Rocha on LinkedIn: #datascience #linguistics #llms #promptengineering #semantics… | 146 comments

Stop saying "semantics"! I've been to many lectures and read posts (especially from computer scientists) saying that LLMs learned the semantics of… | 146 comments on LinkedIn

LinkedInJoão Victor Pessoa Rocha

GPT4o seems better at math:

I'm very curious about Google LearnLM:

How generative AI expands curiosity and understanding with LearnLM

LearnLM is our new Gemini\u002Dbased family of models for better learning and teaching experiences.

GoogleBen Gomes

Hosting AI locally is quite cool:

Go Further

10 Knowledge Management Methods Every Professional Needs

Stop drowning in information. Master these 10 proven knowledge management methods and methodologies to transform scattered thoughts into organized, actionable knowledge.

Sébastien DuboisSébastien Dubois

Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity

Discover why Obsidian isn't just another note-taking app, but a complete system for managing your knowledge, tasks, projects, and digital life.

Sébastien DuboisSébastien Dubois

Obsidian for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Getting Started

The complete guide to getting started with Obsidian for beginners. Learn the basics, set up your vault, discover essential plugins, and build a personal knowledge base that grows with you.

Sébastien DuboisSébastien Dubois

Want to go deeper?

Knowii Community - Master Knowledge Management + AI | From €4.99/month

Join 400+ members mastering Knowledge Management AND AI. Community + Courses + Tools integrated. €500+ value in Knowledge Master tier.

Knowledge ForgeSébastien Dubois

About Sébastien

I'm Sébastien Dubois, and I'm on a mission to help knowledge workers escape information overload. After 20+ years in IT and seeing too many brilliant minds drowning in digital chaos, I've decided to help people build systems that actually work. Through the Knowii Community, my courses, products & services and my Website/Newsletter, I share practical and battle-tested systems.

I write about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, Productivity, and more. I also craft lovely digital products and tools.

If you want to follow my work, then become a member and join our community.

Ready to get to the next level?

If you're tired of information overwhelm and ready to build a reliable knowledge system:

• 📚 KM for Beginners — 10+ hours of structured video lessons
• 🚀 Obsidian Starter Kit — Ready-made vault with 40+ templates
• 💼 Knowledge Worker Kit — Complete guides + lifetime community
• 🦉 1-on-1 Coaching — Personalized guidance
• 🎯 Join Knowii — Community + ALL courses & tools