DeveloPassion's Newsletter #170 - Safe and Sound

Welcome

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

Summer is here. Well in theory... It's still raining over here in Belgium. Apparently we keep breaking bad weather records. I'm not the type of guy that feels depressed because of the weather, but I must admit that the rain is starting to annoy me 🤣

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

The lab 🧪

My free PKM resources have more and more success. I'm glad that those do provide value and help newcomers find their way in the PKM jungle and to get started with Obsidian:

You are ~45 new members, and I'm really glad to have you here. As I always say, I'm here to help of you need. I'm in for the long game, not just to make quick sales. I want more and more people to discover, and leverage PKM to make the progress they need, be it personal organization, work, personal development, learning, etc.

This week, I haven't worked on the KM course. I felt tired, and had a hard time finding the motivation I needed. I will resume my work on it next week.

Business

No progress on the business side this week:

We're still at $73MRR. It probably means I'm not giving you enough value, so I will try harder. I'm all ears if you have questions, need help, recommendations, or anything else around PKM, note-taking, or knowledge work.

And if you want this little space on the Internet to stay around, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber ❤️

New articles

I have published a few articles this week.

In the first one, I have extended the "3 places" metaphor (home, work and communities) with a fourth one: a place where you can be with yourself, and think. And I'm sure you need one:

You Need a Fourth Place: A Space to Think

You need a place for deep thinking, a personal “sanctuary”. A Fourth place. Here’s why.

Sébastien Dubois •Sebastien Dubois

In the second one, I have argued about the benefits of writing things down, as a way to free your mind:

How To Free Your Mind and Enhance Your Memory: Write To Forget, Not To Remember

Write more. Free your mind, and reduce cognitive load. Learn why writing to forget can help you remember what truly matters. Explore the benefits and techniques of building a personal knowledge base.

Sébastien Dubois •Sebastien Dubois

In the last one, I have described how I currently synchronize my notes across devices, and how I backup everything. It's long and a bit technical, but might be useful to some of you:

How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian Notes

Discover effective methods to synchronize and backup your Obsidian notes. This comprehensive guide covers using Syncthing, Google Drive, GitHub, Backblaze, and local backups to ensure your notes are secure and accessible from any device.

Sébastien Dubois •Sebastien Dubois

A few people have told me that my approach is complex, and that there are alternatives (e.g., Obsidian Sync). It's true. It's not perfect, and it's not the only option. It's just the option that makes the most sense for me. And yes, my backup system is overkill, but it's important to consider that my notes are highly valuable to me. I don't want to lose a single one. Ever.

I'm also working on an article called "How I Organize My Work As a Solo Founder". I hope to publish it at the beginning of next week.

New published notes

I have published dozens of notes this week. Most are evergreen, and they'll improve over time. There are many ones about PKM and note-taking:

Recently added - DeveloPassion

Recently added - DeveloPassion

DeveloPassion

Notes of the week

Quotes of the week

• No one sees the world the same way you see it. Remembering this can give you a little more patience and compassion toward your fellow earth travelers - Anne Scottlin
• Once you learn to read, you will be forever free - Frederick Douglass

Thinking and learning

LLMs are here to stay. I personally rely a lot on those, and they're now part of my PKM process as well:

For instance, you can easily integrate GitHub copilot in Obsidian:

GitHub - Pierrad/obsidian-github-copilot: A bridge between Obsidian and Github Copilot

A bridge between Obsidian and Github Copilot. Contribute to Pierrad/obsidian-github-copilot development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub •Pierrad

But also many others such as OpenAI's GPT, Claude, Llama 3, Gemini using Brian Petro's wonderful Smart Connections plugin:

GitHub - brianpetro/obsidian-smart-connections: Chat with your notes & see links to related content with AI embeddings. Use local models or 100+ via APIs like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT & Llama 3

Chat with your notes & see links to related content with AI embeddings. Use local models or 100+ via APIs like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT & Llama 3 - brianpetro/obsidian-smart-connections

GitHub •brianpetro

A cool Obsidian plugin that displays note headings within the File Explorer. Really cool to quickly navigate to a certain part of a note:

GitHub - patrickchiang/obsidian-headings-in-explorer: This Obsidian plugin makes headings first class concepts in the file explorer and consolidates navigation to a single panel.

This Obsidian plugin makes headings first class concepts in the file explorer and consolidates navigation to a single panel. - patrickchiang/obsidian-headings-in-explorer

GitHub •patrickchiang

An epic categorized list of Obsidian plugin. Very useful to discover plugins:

GitHub - marekbrze/categorized-obsidian-plugins: Easily find Obsidian plugins!🚀

Easily find Obsidian plugins!🚀. Contribute to marekbrze/categorized-obsidian-plugins development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub •marekbrze

Useful tips about backlinks in Obsidian:

Use Backlinks The Right Way With Obsidian

I’ve made mistakes using them

Medium •D. Dave

Becoming an indistractable reader might change your life. Do you take enough time to read? I personally reserve multiple time blocks throughout the week to be sure that I read enough:

How to Become an Indistractable Reader

Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Nicholas Hutchison, founder of BookThinkers and author of Rise of the Reader.

Psychology of Stuff •Nir Eyal

An introduction to the Modal Form plugin:

One more piece explaining the benefits of building a second brain:

Maximize Your Learning Potential: Boost Your Creativity and Idea Generation with a Second Brain

Guide to Building a Personal Knowledge Management system with Readwise, Snipd and Obsidian

Medium •Rajasekar Elango

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