Welcome to the PKM weekly newsletter. My goal is to round up good resources in the PKM space so you don’t have to.

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Bigger Ideas

Platform agnostic ideas that may help your PKM process. They may feature a software, but I think they apply to more than a single platform.

If you don’t care about some piece of paper and just want to learn something 1-on-1 learning is very powerful. (newsletter)

What are your thoughts? Should you rea-read books? (reddit) I’m in favour of reading books a second time for books that are really good. You’ll likely pull more information out a few years later once you’ve stewed on the ideas more.

Surfacing the things you need. (web) I like the idea that capture is often too easy, and then too permanent.

Taking notes with speech. (reddit)

Any book recommendations for a programmer starting PKM? (reddit)

Digital vs Handwritten notes. (youtube)

Where should you start if you have 0 note-taking experience? (reddit)

How to connect a Zettelkasten with a Commonplace Book. (youtube)

The why and how of “Org Mode” as a writing tool. (web)

Suggestions for digitizing notes from books. (reddit) I think you should type them out manually so that you filter them again and think about the notes.

Is Zettelkasten intellectual masturbation, or useful? (reddit) I think for lots of people it’s masturbation. For some it’s for creation, but they don’t worry about the “right” way to do everything all the time. Nor do they try every new tool that comes out.

Sebastien Dubois offers PKM coaching if you’re looking for some. (web)

Morgan goes over a physical note system. (youtube)

There is a new PKM book available for pre-order called Personal Knowledge Graphs. (amazon/affiliate) Unfortunately it’s only available on Kindle so I’ll be skipping it. I find I read less and less on Kindle so a book has to be amazing for me to bother.

Ten PKM Practices to Explore and Master. (web)

Something Interesting

Because we’re all looking to expand our minds a bit.

I wrote a post on the Myth of Canadian Exceptionalism. (web) This is usually a members only post, but it’s up for everyone this week.

Software

Scanning with DEVONthink. (web)

Quantum Author is a new macOS app for long form writers. (web) I’ve put my name in for the beta so I can check it out.

How Beth uses Capacities as a Masters Student. (youtube)

Selects and Fixed Sets in Capacities. (youtube)

Using duplicates and replicants in DEVONthink. (web)

Some praise for Mem and it’s AI. (youtube)

If you’re wondering about unscheduling tasks in NotePlan check out this thread. (reddit) The DEV weighs in with ideas and future features that may support the functionality.

What about a note app with spreadsheet support? (reddit)

Remnote

A look at the PDF annotation features in Remnote. (youtube)

logseq

logseq will be adding in-app support access. (Twitter) Making access to support easy is awesome.

logseq or Obsidian? (reddit) Some good discussion here.

Seems like logseq whiteboards aren’t that stable yet. (reddit)

Craft

Numeric Citizen on his evolving uses of Craft. (youtube) I too was impressed by Craft, and then it continued to not have, and not get, the features I wanted.

I don’t think there is a chance that Craft will refocus and build a solid core before looking at teams more. (reddit) Craft is not the same tool it launched as. It’s a VC funded tool now, that means it needs huge growth and team functionality is a path towards that.

Is Craft even listening to its users? (reddit)

Obsidian

If you’re a Medium person, follow Obsidian Observer. (medium) There are a bunch of good articles there every week.

I did a post/video on Adding Direct Zotero links to Obsidian. (web/video)

How Zsolt organizes everything in his Zettelkasten. (youtube) This is a very detailed video with lots of examples. It’s long, but great.

Obsidian 1.3.4 is out with a revamped PDF Viewer. (twitter)

Danny on the Metadata Menu plugin. (youtube)

Are you finding Obsidian on mobile slow? (reddit) I’ve been finding it very slow on my M1 iPad Pro, which is crazy since it’s got a really fast chip and I bought the expensive one with as much RAM as my 13″ Air had. I tested recently on that Air, which has been given to my wife, and I see none of the issues on the Air I see on my iPad.

Use Obsidian and Omnivore to read and take notes on research papers. (medium)

Making a note persistent. (reddit) I too would use Workspaces for this. You can see my video on Obsidian Workspaces here. (web/youtube)

Bryan goes over his Zotero and Obsidian setup. (youtube)

Excalidraw 1.9.2 has a new color picker. (youtube)

Roam

Despite trying other tools, some people just keep coming back to Roam. (reddit) I say use what works for you and don’t feel bad about it.

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