Why use a PKM system
Video example of graph view 44:15 Graph view
What is it?
PKM stands for personal knowledge management. Many “getting organized” self help systems refer to this, there isn’t any one way that is perfect.
Why?
Structuring our notes in a way that mimics how we associate information in our minds extends our ability to recall things and more importantly, use them! Conceptual mapping!
Also it externalizes our own ideas in a way that we can look at them as an outside observer, which is helpful in gaining insight and connecting it with other external information.
Thirdly, it can be a way to practice continuous offloading- that is to say, always writing down decisions we are facing, our feelings about the possible outcomes, what decision was made and finally review the result - continuously through the process.
How Obsidian facilitates creating a knowledge base
Obsidian helps you to create, manage, and visualize the links between various ideas that you collect and put into their own note files. It is like creating a wiki site of the things that you know and are learning, and beyond that it has powerful ways of parsing the data that you input so you can more easily — and sometimes spontaneously — link the concepts and ideas you have input together. Not only helping you gain knowledge and insight, but create from what you have learned.
What are some other apps that people use?
just a few examples 💰= Freemium 💲= one-time payment 💳= subscription
- Roam 💳
- Notion💰💳
- Zettlr
- Dendron - vscode
- OneNote 💰💳
- EverNote 💰💳
- MilaNote
What a PKM is not
Its not just a catalogue of source information.
The Collector's Fallacy
Collecting information about a topic isn’t the same as having knowledge of it.
Gaining insight by connecting things we collect is how we gain our own knowledge - and synthesizing new information from what we have learned is how we apply it.
Its important to not get caught up in always collecting and filing away information and never using it!
Some examples of a PKM systems
- PARA method - Projects Areas Reference Archive
- LYT - Linking your Thinking
- Zettelkasten - “slip box”
- Atomic Note taking