Newsletter Archive

DeveloPassion's Newsletter 193 - Mission Statement 🛣️

A newsletter discussing Knowledge Management, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!

Sebastien Dubois

24 May 2025 — 13 min read

A newsletter discussing Knowledge Work, AI, Knowledge Management, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!

Welcome

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

I'm truly relieved that the bulk of the work to launch the Knowledge Management course and Knowii are behind me. Now I can focus on growing and serving the community, which is what I'm most excited about. I'm actually willing to spend the next coming years focusing on this.

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

This Week's Highlights

My mission statement
The official launch of Knowii - my complete knowledge system
Major milestones with the Knowledge Management for Beginners course
New free resources and alignment of all my offerings
Community building progress and exciting growth

Before You Go Any Further

I want to reach more people. Got 60 seconds? Then share the link with one friend/colleague who would benefit from joining us!
Bought some of my products or courses? Then please leave a review. It really helps a lot ❤️

The Lab 🧪

This has been an incredible few months of building and launching. I've continued working intensively since October 2023 without paying myself a single dime from the business. It's now time for me to grow this business so that it becomes truly sustainable.

The centerpiece of all this work has been creating something I've been thinking deeply about for years: a unified knowledge ecosystem that connects everything together. And that's Knowii. It has already become the center of my business' universe and my core offering. And it's just the beginning. I'll share more about my plans below.

On other news, the launch of the Knowledge Management for Beginners course has been a real success. So far, I've sold 69 copies, and received really positive feedback. One thing I'm particularly proud of is the comprehensive AI coverage in the course. I included detailed videos on leveraging various AI tools for knowledge management:

ChatGPT, Claude, Deepseek, Gemini, and other major language models
NotebookLM for research and synthesis
Google AI Studio
Perplexity for research and fact-checking
Model Context Protocol (MCP) for advanced integrations
How to use your existing notes to get better AI results

This isn't just theory - I show exactly how to leverage your knowledge base to make AI tools dramatically more effective.

A few updates:

I've reduced the price from $179.99 to $149.99, and revenue doubled in a few days
I've published the course on my store, as part of Knowii, and it was recently approved on Udemy as well 🚀

I've also shared a few videos from the course on YouTube:

Tagging recommendations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqBwFJgiUc
Live queries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2q6OF5XFUc
Single vs multiple knowledge bases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbgHAsjOANM

In the coming weeks, I'll publish a few more, such as the deep dive I've recorded about the Obsidian Web Clipper

Other milestones/news

I recently migrated the entire user guide of the Obsidian Starter Kit to my own public notes. It's a perfect example of "dogfooding" my own approach to knowledge management. This migration demonstrates exactly what I teach: moving from isolated documents to connected, living knowledge. I also took the opportunity to add a much needed "Getting Started" guide
I released a new version of the Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian
I hit 100 Substack subscribers

My Mission

I want to share something important with you: my mission statement and why I do everything I do. So far, I didn't express it clearly.

My Mission: Leading the movement to transform mental chaos into clarity, helping knowledge workers break free from information overload.

My Main Value Proposition: I help leaders, knowledge workers, solopreneurs and content creators build knowledge systems that turn scattered and overwhelming information into knowledge they can leverage. I help them remain relevant and thrive in the age of AI.

The Enemy I'm Fighting

The real enemy isn't technology or information itself - it's information chaos. The overwhelming flood of scattered thinking, constant noise, and the resulting stress, inefficiency, and missed potential that plagues modern knowledge work.

Symptoms include: information overload, forgetting important ideas, lacking mental clarity, feeling overwhelmed, being unproductive despite working hard, constant context switching, mental clutter, reinventing the wheel, and work-life imbalance.

This chaotic approach leads to stress, missed opportunities, poor decision-making, imposter syndrome, time poverty, professional vulnerability, and ultimately, unfulfilled potential.

Who I Serve

I focus on five core audiences, each facing unique but related challenges:

Leaders (Founders, Executives, Team Leaders) who need to convert information overload into actionable insights, make great decisions under pressure, and drive innovation while staying on top of everything.
Knowledge Workers (Managers, Researchers, Academics) who struggle with information fragmentation, need reliable systems for complex work, and want to build expertise while managing multiple projects.
Solopreneurs (Consultants, Freelancers, Coaches) who manage knowledge without organizational support systems, juggle multiple domains, and need to turn expertise into valuable content and services.
Content Creators (Writers, Course Creators, Podcasters) who face idea overabundance, need systems for consistent high-quality output, and want to transform knowledge into compelling content efficiently.
Learners (Students, Lifelong Learners) who deal with information overload, want to accelerate learning, retain more knowledge, and connect ideas across domains.

My goal is to help them become Knowledge Masters, systematic thinkers who easily navigate information chaos, leverage AI to the full extent, connect ideas effortlessly, make confident decisions, and achieve both professional excellence and intentional living.

My Content Framework

Everything I create is organized around six strategic pillars that explore the different areas of Modern Knowledge, from foundation to mastery.

Knowledge Management Foundations: Transform how you capture, organize, and leverage information through proven systems and principles. This pillar provides the "why" and "how" behind Knowledge Management, helping you understand its importance and set up initial frameworks that reduce information anxiety and create clearer thinking.
Tools & Systems for Modern Knowledge Work: Master the tools and workflows that transform your knowledge management practice from theory to daily reality. This includes Obsidian mastery, AI integration for knowledge enhancement, advanced workflows, and future-proofing your knowledge system.
Strategic Thinking, Better Writing & Decision-Making: Use writing and systematic thinking to clarify ideas, generate insights, and make better decisions consistently. This covers writing as a thinking tool, building mental models, critical thinking methods, and AI-enhanced reasoning.
Professional Knowledge Work Mastery: Apply knowledge management principles to excel in your professional role, becoming more valuable and effective. This includes transforming information into workplace advantage, documentation best practices, team collaboration, and leadership through knowledge facilitation.
Zen Productivity & Intentional Living: Integrate knowledge management into a holistic approach to work and life that prioritizes clarity, focus, and wellbeing. This covers mindful work practices, energy management, mental decluttering, and sustainable productivity without burnout.
Content Creation Systems: Build reliable systems to transform your knowledge into valuable content consistently and efficiently. This includes knowledge-to-content pipelines, research workflows, content ideation systems, and sustainable creation practices.

Each pillar builds on the others, creating a comprehensive framework that serves you whether you're just starting your knowledge management journey or looking to master advanced techniques. And all of it is now part of Knowii, which is now consider as a growing Knowledge System.

Focus for the coming months

With Knowii launched and the Knowledge Management course successful, I'm focusing the rest of 2025 across multiple fronts. This roadmap represents my commitment to building something truly transformative. Each initiative feeds into the others, creating a comprehensive ecosystem that serves knowledge workers at every level of their journey.

Expanding the Knowledge Ecosystem

A few of you have asked me when to expect updates for the Knowledge Worker Kit. And I have good news: **now that Knowii has launched, I can finally resume working on the Kit 🎉.

To me, the Knowledge Worker Kit has more meaning than every. It is the underlying knowledge base of the Knowii Knowledge System I'm busy building. As such, it is key for me to invest more time and energy into it.

In the coming weeks/months, I'm going to significantly expand the Kit with new guides, frameworks, templates and systems. This will include advanced (Zen-)productivity strategies, project management approaches, cutting-edge AI techniques, and more.

My vision for the Kit remains the same, with 13 fundamental building blocks, covering the most important aspects of modern Knowledge Work (yes, including how to better leverage AI):

The Kit will become the definitive resource for knowledge workers looking to operate at the highest level.

To fully understand my vision, consider the following schema I shared in the previous edition of this newsletter. That schema represents the pillars of my business:

As you can see there, all my course, products (and actually services) are now part of Knowii. Specifically, the Knowledge Worker Kit is now part of the "Knowledge Master" tier of Knowii. It's thus part of my core offer, the one thing I'm going to dedicate the most energy to. Nothing changes for those who already bought the Kit. For new customers, I recommend subscribing to Knowii to get access to my other products and courses as well.

The beauty of this approach is that it creates a Virtuous circle: the community helps identify what knowledge workers need most, I develop solutions through the Knowledge Worker Kit and other products, then those solutions get tested and refined by the community. Everyone benefits from this collaborative approach to solving real knowledge work challenges.

Last but not least, I also intend to continue working on the Obsidian Starter Kit. It remains something important, since I do all my work using this system. I've used it to build the entire Knowledge Management course, to write all my newsletters and articles, and I don't intend to stop using it anytime soon. In addition, I'm thinking very seriously about building a paid plugin for Obsidian, to provide something much more powerful than what the Obsidian Starter Kit can deliver today. More on this in a future edition!

Live Events and Workshops

Another area I want to invest time into is organizing and recording live events for the paid subscribers of the Knowii community. I have multiple ideas in mind. First, office hours for Knowledge Builders and Knowledge Masters, during which I'll answer all your questions. Second, I want to organize sessions with domain experts.

This newsletter is and will remain important to me. For a long time it has been the main communication channel between me and you. And I know that there are many lurkers in the community, people who prefer to remain silent, but do have a strong inner voice. And I also care about you all. That's why I'll continue publishing this newsletter.

My goal for 2025 is to reach $1K MRR with the newsletter by the end of 2025. That means convincing ~100 of you to subscribe and support my work. To reach that goal, I will do my best to be more consistent with the publication, deliver more value, and offer more unique benefits.

We'll see how that goes; I'm counting on you ❤️

Knowii News

As most of you know already, I launched Knowii this month, and it's been a real blast.

LINK: https://www.store.dsebastien.net/l/knowii

Think of Knowii as the glue of the virtual world I'm building. It connects my articles, newsletters, products, courses, templates, coaching, and community into one cohesive experience. It's a space that I designed for leaders, knowledge workers, solopreneurs, content creators. Innovators who want to break free from information overload.

I invited 2,300 people from my network to join Knowii. So far, 111 have joined (about 5%), and I've got my first paid subscriber at $40/month 🎉. I expect another 5-10% will join once I send reminders. Many invitations likely ended up in spam folders or were forgotten.

What Knowii Includes

I've created three membership tiers for Knowii:

Explorer Tier (Free): Access to general discussions, Knowledge Management spaces, and foundation resources.
Knowledge Builder Tier ($19.99/month): Access to additional spaces, events & workshops, community challenges, premium resources and bonuses such as the Obsidian Starter Kit ($49.99) and Obsidian Starter Course ($69.99).
Knowledge Master Tier ($39.99/month, $400/year, or $999.99 lifetime): Complete access to ALL community spaces, courses, products, masterminds, and exclusive content. Includes the Knowledge Worker Kit, the Knowledge Management for Beginners Course, and more as bonuses.

Note that there are multiple way to become Knowii paid subscribers:

Directly within Knowii: https://www.knowii.net (offers all the payment options)
From my store: https://store.dsebastien.net (limited to monthly and yearly payment options)
By becoming paid newsletter subscribers (Knowledge Builder and Knowledge Master tiers only)

Exciting News: First Knowledge Builders Session

I'm busy organizing a first exclusive session for Knowledge Builders, presented by Zsolt Viczián, the author of "Sketch Your Mind" (https://sketch-your-mind.com). Zsolt is not only a visual thinking expert, but also a Knowledge Management expert, and a very active Obsidian contributor.

More details coming soon, but this is exactly the kind of high-value content I want to bring to the community.

Knowledge Management System Checklist

I launched a new free resource: The Complete Knowledge Management System Checklist. It's available here:

This checklist covers everything you need to build a reliable knowledge management system, from tool selection to workflow design. This checklist has been created based on what I covered in my Knowledge Management course.

Latest Articles

I published two pieces recently:

The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Knowledge Management - What You're Missing Out On (Article): This article dives deep into the real impact of poor knowledge management on professional performance and personal growth. It's not just about organization. It's about unlocking your full potential.

10 Essential Knowledge Management Methods Every Professional Should Master (Article): A practical guide covering the core techniques that transform how you capture, organize, and leverage information. These methods form the foundation of any effective knowledge system.

Both articles reinforce the core message:

Knowledge Management isn't about adding more work to your day. It's about transforming how you handle the work you already do

Going Further

The future of knowledge work isn't about consuming more information. It's about building systems that transform information into wisdom, chaos into clarity, and scattered thoughts into powerful insights. Whether you're just starting your knowledge management journey or looking to take your system to the next level, Knowii provides the community, courses, and tools you need to succeed.

Ready to transform your relationship with information and knowledge?

Join Knowii: Get access to the complete knowledge transformation system at https://www.store.dsebastien.net/l/knowii
Take the course: Master Knowledge Management fundamentals at https://knowledge-management-for-beginners.com
Free resources: Download the Complete Knowledge Management System Checklist at https://www.dsebastien.net/free-knowledge-management-system-checklist/
Stay connected: All the latest updates and resources at https://dsebastien.net

That's it for today! ✨

About Sébastien

I am Sébastien Dubois. You can follow me on X 🐦 and on BlueSky 🦋.

I am an author, founder, and coach. I write books and articles about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, and Zen Productivity. I also craft lovely digital products.

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

Ready to get to the next level?

To embark on your Knowledge Management journey, consider investing in resources that will equip you with the knowledge you need. Check out the Knowledge Management for Beginners course, the Obsidian Starter Kit and my other products. These will give you a rock-solid starting point for your note-taking and Knowledge Management efforts.

If you want to take a more holistic approach, then the Knowledge Worker Kit is for you. It covers PKM, but expands into productivity, personal organization, project/task management, and more: