December 2023 - January 2024 Digest
A brief recap of the first month and a half of this newsletter and a few early thoughts.
Occasional New Year’s jingles still playing here and there make it hard to believe we’re already one month into 2024, making this newsletter roughly a month and a half old.
Naturally, there are not too many of us yet in absolute numbers. However, I was astonished by the relative percentage-wise growth of this free resource in a natural, organic, slow-and-steady fashion. The fact that some consider it worth their hard-earned cash by pledging support amazed me even more.
Mucho LUV, knowledge engineers!
So far, we’re a tight circle of people who read, write, organise, plan, time-track and think. I didn’t invite friends or family members to flatter my ego with a larger followership. This place is not about that. If you’re reading this email, you appreciate that knowledge management will yield a high return on investment if you stick to it.
Why Writing a Newsletter About PKM?
“The Mechanics of Knowledge Management” is not a mainstream publication, and this is by design.
I’m biased because I see so much Personal Knowledge Management-related information left and right that I (incorrectly) assume that everybody’s into it and everything has already been told, also known as “The Curse of Knowledge”. But one thing I always knew this newsletter would never be is a remix of other people’s remixes. The world hardly requires more of the same rephrased through ChatGPT. I think I have another edge.
The uniqueness of this newsletter is that it reveals the fundamentals behind good information management and thought processing from an engineer's standpoint without jargon. If you want to squeeze the most out of something, you need to understand the mechanics of it. It’s the only way to make educated decisions that fit you rather than trying to “massage” your workflow into someone else’s template.
People who publish online, sooner or later, learn one crucial truth: the only way to persist is to think of writing as a catharsis–writing because you feel the urge to crystalise and share burgeoning thoughts in words. Not because you need traffic.
I think it hits the nail on the head, and I hope this approach transpired in all of the published issues I list below as a monthly digest.
See you in February.
The pleasures and dangers of consuming more of the same, and what we can do to counteract the effects of a local maximum.
Tabletop staples to add to your collection you’ll never regret.
You can have something done good, fast or cheap. Pick two. Those picks will be very personal, making your PKM setup different from mine.
The absence of information is information, too. Learn to read between the lines of your connected notes.
Your note-taking and sense-making have more similarities with data engineer’s bread and butter than meets the eye. There’s a lot of inspiration to be had.
The consensus is that a quickly-captured “Fleeting” note could be more than an earmark for a thought. A caterpillar could turn into something much bigger.
Thank you for letting me into the intimacy of your mailbox. It’s a pleasure and an honour to geek out together.