my break-up with Obsidian
I was very fortunate that my first exposure to the personal knowledge management world was through Obsidian. I didn't have to learn much because of the simplicity and I was able to add complexity piece by piece due to the incredible amount of plug-ins.
I bought Readwise so that I could import my kindle highlights, I learned about PARA, BASB, CODE and the Zettelkasten method. I discovered some incredible YouTubers, and read some great books around note-taking and productivity.
I thought I'd be the second coming of Niklas Luhmann, being able to produce content that spans across topics and weaves in and out of these incredible ideas.
Boy, was I wrong on that...
I tried to blame it on the systems I kept tinkering with, I blamed it on the fact that I wasn't reading the right books, or just needed a different plug-in or system. I even blamed it on the app and started looking at alternatives.
I was caught in productivity procrastination. I wrote a few notes that I never looked at again, or I deleted them because they didn't work in the new system I was using.
Perhaps I shouldn't worry if I write something down and then never come back to it, but when my intention is to do it for the sake of it, that's a problem. It becomes more information storage than knowledge management.
There's this fabulous video from JA Westenberg with reasons around deleting the second brain and wow I can relate to this.
I realise now that I was talking part in productivity theatre. Hoarding information in the hope that I'll be able to appear smarter or that I'll come back to it at some point knowing full well it'll remain unused until I finally decide to do a digital detox and remove it.
I could build a system that allows me to do all the things a Zettelkasten promises, but I don't believe that's what I want anymore. In truth, I'm not even sure that's what I ever really wanted, I was never much of a note-taker when I was younger, and that hasn't changed much as I've got older.
Essentially, I like the thought of it but not the follow-through.
I have MyMind that acts as my digital dumping ground, and I am now starting to journal using my iPhone's journal app. Both of which help me archive what I find, but that isn't what I believe a PKM system is for.
I appreciate a lot of people claim that you need to be a lot more forgiving when it comes to things like personal knowledge management and trying to build the perfect system, but the truth is that I have not been able to find a way that fits in with my life.
And that's the most important part of this, is it not?
So, while my love for Obsidian remains, my brain has told me it's time to walk away, not just from Obsidian itself, but from PKM systems and the productivity hype that surrounds them.