📓 An amazing spring day for a bike ride 🚴Weather is shifting between sunny and overcast, extremely pleasant. Rode through Helsinki’s central park North-South axis - 20k of 100% bike-friendly route. Pit stop at my ex-local bar for a non-alc beverage and looping back.

📓 I inhaled Running Point over the last 2 evenings. 📺 Helped me decompress after relatively hectic work days. Laughter is the best medicine.

At the beginning of the year I started working on improving my note taking setup in Obsidian. I dove (again) into personal knowledge management systems, Zettlekasten, atomic notes, etc. I’m not too dogmatic about any of these topics but enjoy learning about them and incorporating what resonates in my note taking.

I haven’t posted on my blog in a bit. So, I decided to dip into my Zettlekasten-ish cards and lower the barrier for posting by sharing what I’ve already written.

🗃️ Easy entry points to a PKMS are key to engagement

Engaging with a Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS), e.g. one based on Zettlekasten, could be overwhelming. Once a PKMS grows it can be challenging to decide how to work on it, as it may feel like a giant unorganized mess. The creator of Zettlekasten used index cards with potential entry points to his system. The index cards were not excessive, as once you enter the system you could quickly traverse it in unexpected and expanding directions via links.

Thus the main idea here is that easy entry points to the PKMS are key to engaging with it. Having many threads to grab and enter the system removes a huge point of friction and potential procrastination.

In my personal system, potential entry points include:

• 🏠 Home note which aggregates a lot of the following entry points
• 📔 Daily notes in Journal
• 🌐 Maps of Content (MoCs)
• ⛵ Boat notes - floating notes of unshaped thoughts, ideas, questions, etc.
• 🗂️ Unreviewed sources, such as articles, podcasts, etc.
• 🌱 Sprout cards in need of more fleshing out to become evergreen notes

📓 A few days ago I stopped drinking coffee for a while to give my sleep quality a boost. I’m bummed at how brutal caffeine withdrawal is. This is only strengthening my resolve to skip coffee for longer. Eventually I’d to return to a cup a day. ☕️ Right now I sleep better and function worse. 🤦🏻‍♂️

📓 I’m the kind of person who’ll remember a couple-of-years-old Reddit thread and go post an update. It ain’t much but it’s honest work.

📓 The moral superiority of stowing your hand luggage under the seat in front of you as well as putting your jacket on the hook. 🛫

📓 Came across a post in my LinkedIn feed advertising a role which requires “12+ years of experience”. Fair enough, but such a specific number. What happens in these magical 2 years after 10? Eh, maybe it’s an Illuminati thing.

📓 I don’t think about the Roman Empire often. But what I’ve realized crosses my mind almost daily is that we’ve destroyed old forests and the quality of hardwood is not what it used to be a couple of centuries ago. 🤷🏻‍♂️

📓 Just finished the 3 Body Problem season on Netflix 📺 I want to like it a lot more than I do. I have unusually many “why don’t they do this” kind of questions. Not sure if the novels are more thorough and set better limits to what is possible and why (or why not).

📓 It’s OK to take your time with hobbies. Sure, some concrete goals could be helpful guides. But it’s a journey and it’s OK to go down the occasional rabbit hole. Get completely off track, stop and smell the flowers. Hobbies give us this rare luxury if we only allow ourselves to grab it.

📓For about 2 years I’ve managed to keep brief journals almost daily, with a weekly review. It’s been paramount to keep it simple. No overthinking, a short stream-of-thought account is infinitely better than nothing. Now, I’m ready to deepen my practice with more structured and deliberate sessions.

📓 PSA. If you are enjoying a webcomic for free - give back. Buy the artist’s book, support them on Patreon, etc. Today I was reminded how much I like Adam Ellis’s work and ordered Bad Dreams in the Night.

📓 Cleaning before the party, cleaning after the party, but it was worth it. Sending off our summer vacation in style and with a bang.

📓 Long time no Pien bar 🍺