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Hypothetical Ideal Systems

RJ Nestor has a great article on the hypothetical systems we create. This is the videos/blog posts showing you all the needed folders in your note system or the “best” way to set up GTD.

The second major problem with traditional productivity systems is that they don’t align with the real-life actions you need to take. These systems, no matter how well-designed or popular, are inherently generic. They’re created with a hypothetical user in mind, not you specifically. And because of this, there’s often a significant disconnect between the system’s structure and the reality of your daily tasks and workflow.

I still advise a few folders for Obsidian, then figure out how to customize things for your needs.

• Inbox – where things start if they don’t have a place
• Notes – for all notes
• Tags – for tagnotes
• zz - Templates – for templates
• zz - Assets – for images and the like

After that, use the system and see where you go. I now have a Sources folder for notes I take on books and keep my Notes folder for my thoughts ideas based on the stuff in Sources. Any other folder in my system is legacy at this point.

zz is there simply to get my Assets and Templates folder to sort to the bottom of my folder list, though I almost never show the sidebar so it really doesn’t matter.

How much radium should go up your ass?

Cory Doctorow takes a look at DRM and collusion from the lens of the old practice of radium suppositories. While Doctorow is sometimes a bit too militant for my taste, you can’t argue with his examples of companies doing the exact things he’s been warning about for over a decade.

I’m moving more and more to entirely open software and hardware stacks because I want to be able to do what I want with my computing life without a big company looking over my shoulder.

The slow theft of women’s rights

This short article dives into the loss of women’s rights in Afghanistan and Iran and takes it the next step looking at how the overturning of Roe vs Wade is a similar foot in the door to a reduction of women’s rights in the United States.