Thinking with your Zettelkasten 🧠 an intro to Obsidian’s local graph view
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
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I finally understand the power of Obsidian's graph view for brainstorming new ideas and connecting across existing ideas in my zettelkasten. So I had to show you how I'm using it! Let me know if you'd like more examples or have any questions. I found this note-creation process really hard to articulate, so maybe you can help each other in the comments as well!
✨OTHER MEDIA MENTIONED✨
My previous video: • The FUN and EFFICIENT ...
Linking Your Thinking's video: • Think Better with the ...
✨TIME STAMPS✨
0:00 - welcome!
0:17 - the problem at hand
2:57 - making zettelkasten notes
3:52 - local graph view in Obsidian
5:28 - forming connections
7:08 - finding new ideas
11:55 - when there's too many links
12:30 - when there's too few links
13:02 - a final example
15:02 - thanks for watching!
#zettelkasten #notetaking #obsidian
You’re changing my academic life for the better,one video at a time. I have never been as productive and creative as I am now, ever since I watched your super popular obsidian video. I can’t thank you enough 🙏🙏
Yay, that's awesome!! Congrats!
Same here, the day your channel was suggested to me marks a new era. Blessed be the algorithm for knowing more about me than I do myself 😂
Thank you, this finally made the atomic note taking idea clear to me and how to use it. It all clicked. So your "failures" succeeded perfectly in teaching me about why I was failing to use Obsidian effectively. Subscribed.
A very engaging and inspiring approach to teaching these skills. Walking us through what you mean leaves us thinking, “I could do that!” I particularly appreciate you pointing out how too few connections are not inspiring and too many connections are overwhelming. You’re on to something about cognition, perception, and self-confidence. Thank you!
Ah, I'm glad this worked for you! It's so hard to articulate something that usually happens entirely in my head in really quick bursts!
I really like that you keep the system simple. I think many of the youtubers explaining Zettelkasten overcomplicate it.
Thanks, yeah, I am not a programmer or anything, I barely understand Markdown, I just really need a way to store ideas that I can understand and access and get inspired by. And this does the trick! No added plugins or tags or anything (yet)!
This was a really excellent example of how to use the local graph; thank you so much for all the effort! Failure might be a wonderful teacher, but so are you!
D'aww 🥰 Thank you for watching!
I cannot describe how helpful you have been in my zettelkasten journey. Thank you so much for all the useful information and inspiration!!!!!!!
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your videos on this topic! There are many creators focusing on knowledge management, Obsidian, and Zettelkasten, but I haven't found any who provide the content in a way that jives as well as within your videos.
Your videos are quite compelling. Better than just good enough. We don't see all your failures, just the successes.
Thanks, Morgan. And by the way, by using the wonderful plug-in Graph Analysis, by SkepticMystic & Emile, you can see the values of 'cousin notes' without opening the Graph View's 2nd layer. I use it all the time, usually in Academic Adar mode. Happy Z-ing.
You're amazing, TYSM for this! I literally just discovered zettelkasten and Obsidian *today*, and I've spent about 6 hours watching tutorials on different approaches to getting started, sorting, building, and more. I've watched a tonne of content from FromSergio, Linking Your Thinking, Martin Adams, John Mavrick, and more. Your content is BY FAR the best for getting started because you're simply talking about the basics; mostly the stuff that goes on in our brains as opposed to the 8,001 different ways you can organise information and use plugins. So happy I found you. Keep up the fabulous work!
Thank you! Yeah, those other channels are super useful when I have very specific questions, but I'm not a huge techie person! So, I try to keep things simple! I honestly just need it to work, I'm not trying to do very fancy things. Just write and remember stuff!
I learned about zettelkasten just 2 days ago and am fascinated, am learning how I can set this up for myself. Your videos are very hepful. In this video you refer to fear of failure and perfectionism, etc. Ironically, I have been studying this in regard to daytrading in commodity futures markets. Watching many trading videos and have learned that most rookie traders like myself struggle with these things, and that mindset and psychology are so very important to success as a trader. I have many pages of handwritten notes about trading and psycholgy accumulated over the past year, many of them are my own insights. I wish I had known about zettelkasten and Obsidian a long time ago. Thanks for your videos.
FOR THE NERDS:
As I see it, making a ghost-note for words you use often is the same as using tags. The only difference is that a tag can appear at the end of a note, and be a phrase or word which isn't present in the note already, making it more open-ended. S. Ahrens talks about this in How to Take Smart Notes, ch. 12.1 "Develop Topics." Here he says that tags should not be made looking at notes in isolation, quote: "Good keywords are usually not already mentioned as words in the note." Broader, open-ended keywords and topics that inform the questions we ask about our notes result in more interesting thought.
Of course you look at multiple notes when deciding on a keyword, but they are still relatively closely related as I understand it.
I also think there's an important difference between actively creating a tag, and choosing a pre-existing word. There's a difference in how open-ended our thinking can be.
I'm sure your method works well for you, I am certainly doing the same thing and it is opening many links (though I'm using tags instead - same same but different), but I also think it's good to be aware of the pitfalls, such as more walled off thinking, with ideas potentially living in gated communities of familiar neighbours.
All the best :)
The new note that connects ideas to each other is like a Map of Content. It makes sense now I’ve watched your video. Thank you
I can't even begin to thank you for these videos! I'm a 43-year-old pre-med student with massive ADHD who needs all the help I can get! This just clicks-- and thank you for being so enthusiastic about it! Your excitement of "OMG, I FOUND THE THING!" is so motivating. I appreciate you very much-- and I know many others do too. Thank you, again, for sharing this method!
Wow, and I appreciate you! Going into pre-med at 43 can't be easy! Congratulations on taking that path and I hope you find it extremely fulfilling!
Your videos are always a breath of fresh air when it comes to learning about Obsidian. You go straight to the point, show us your mindset and aren't preachy about the Zettelkasten method.
Thank you. This is very insightful on how to think through common obstacles when using Zettelkasten in Obsidian.
I'm definitely a notetaker but was at a loss as to how to ideate off of it. The walkthrough was SO helpful, thank you for sharing!
F.A.I.L. is really an acronym First Attempt In Learning. Great Video, thanks!
Really good chat. I looked at your other videos and can't believe I wasn't subbed before now as I have a lot of authors in my lists.
I really appreciate how clear and concise you communicate. Recommended your videos to a dozen fellow knowledge seekers.
THANK YOU for this! In addition to the previous video this has helped me understand how, as I TAKE the notes, I can include things to link thoughts later on. This system has so much potential and I'm trying to think too far ahead.
I have watched a lot and I mean really a lot of youtube video's on Obsidian. Most of the time they are all about methods, frameworks and so on. This is the FIRST that really shows how to work with Obsidian. I love the way you explained the local graph stuff. And especially your thoughts about how faillure helps you getting better. A life lesson! Thanks!
Nothing comes from nothing: "Nihil ex nihilo fit" Lucretius, 'De re natura' (1st century BCE) (inspired by the smiling philosopher). Great video, thanks.
i've never seen something like that. thank you very much!
So much to learn here, but you have a great teaching style. I'll be back for more. Thanks.
I'am so, so glad for your work. Thank you a lot.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you! Just when I need it. Graph view can be overwhelming but now I can see the advantages of using it properly. Greetings from Perú.
This is the 4th video of yours I’ve watched and I’m hooked. I read Sonke Ahrens book on Smart Notes several months ago, but only started using Obsidian two weeks ago. So your vid’s are timely and so informative. Thank you for sharing your story this way. It inspires me to share mine as a blogger.
Very straightforward and easy-to-apply videos! You stand out compared to other channels because you do not get lost in the tools but show us how to use the tools for our research! Keep it up!
Thanks! If I dipped my toes any deeper into the tools I would definitely get lost 😂
Hi Morgan! I've really enjoyed your videos on your Zettelkasten and the details you go into about how you actually use it. So many videos want to dive into the nuts and bolts of all the features of Obsidian, or just talk about the workflows used in very general terms, so I wanted to say thank you for the time and attention you put into sharing your actual workflow.
I have been trying to learn how to make a zettelkasten, and your videos are helping me a lot. Thank you!!
this video is so great! thank you for sharing your process, its not only interesting but also very useful! i always wanted to learn to make notes consistently and to not forget about them. definitely will try your method!
This is just what I needed to see!! I really like how you notes are very theme drive. This is very different from my notes. Im a Software Developer by day and Aspiring Content Creator / Game Designer. I have a lot of notes from classes and things I have learned in the past. As well as process written down that when dealing with work. For example I might need to update a database every week but I might not remember all of the steps so I have a note created that has those exact steps I need. I also import a lot of what I read on my kindle from readwise into obsidian. But I haven't really known what to do with my highlights! I thinking out going through them and trying your approach when making connections. My hope is to be more inspired by my second brain! I like see these types of videos! Keep it up!!!
Interesting way on how we see failure - in a positive way. Thanks for the insight Morgan!
This content is as good asv an obsidian tutorial as a therapist session on perfectionism leading to procrastination. I have to learn juggling! Thanks!
thanks to your videos, I began using Obsidian & the Zettelkasten method. By now, so many notes have amassed that I need a way to sort them and make the knowledge stored there accessible. This video makes me want to try sorting the content via nodes, so far I have been trying to sort it using folders, but as you say, the linear display can only get you so far. thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you once again. You sure *don't* need to be perfect, and more videos from you are better than fewer! I feel significantly less intimidated when I view one of your presentations.
Excellent video … as always! Thank you for sharing!
I love love love your videos. They are so inspiring and helpful. Thanks for that.
Brilliant!! Such a precise wonderfully expressed video that really feels like you are in the process of coming across connections. You are very engaging..
Thank you. That was very good and quite helpful.
Excellent walking into "note making", with tangible 'garage door open' example which touch 'zero' of mine, just... productivity, and basic growing the knowledge base.
"Fun time indeed"...
Hi. Thanks for sharing your experience with graph view. Watching it, I constantly thought of "the gift of failure" from Jessica Lahey and all the works about shame from Brené Brown. Best of luck with your thesis.
I LOVE Brene Brown! I'm planning a future video on her work about shame! But I've never heard of Jessica Lahey, I'll check that out, thanks!
Perfection and scarcity are extreme , middle path is always practical in any situation.
Thanks for another video on your note -growing! Your show-&-tell us and clear.
Your example of the idea of failure is especially interesting, and I guess it prompted me to comment. A lot of folks say failure is a great teacher, but failure in itself doesn't do anything unless you let it - and that has to do with your relation to failure. The difference is subtle but important. I wish I'd realized that sooner, but the point came from Michelle Segar's work on motivation to exercise: she found that people's concept of exercise is affected by their experience with it, which amounted to their relation to exercise (No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring A Lifetime of Fitness). It's that whole mindset thing, only with the relation part brought to the foreground.
I wish I'd had the Zettelkasten when I was writing my dissertation, but better late than never. One of your videos introduced me to it, so thanks very much!
Yeah, I'm also in the 'better late than never' camp, having found it halfway through my PhD... It would've been nice to have during my comprehensive exams. And yes, absolutely about the reaction to failure!
I have you listed as a note in my ZK
Omg, I am so honoured! :O
I think that combining mind mapping with this system is a great innovation!
Yay!! Thank you for this video 💛
You are great with Zettlekasten and it's potential. I think it'll be great niche for you!
I really like what you are doing, thanks for your work!
Thanks for commenting! 🙂
You are an absolute rock star for posting these videos! This is the second video of yours I've watched, and I so appreciate your documenting your own note-taking skills. Working the filter on Local Graph and thinking through the related notes is spectacular! I am curious why you wouldn't make "failure," say, a #tag. Since it feels like you're already kind of doing that. But I also get everyone develops their own techniques that work.
Anyway, what a great subject (failure) for this video. I teach writing, and one of the main lessons I'm trying to teach is the willingness to fail with writing. And the importance of going back to try again. Thanks for being so open with your process!
The answer of "I am curious why you wouldn't make "failure," say, a #tag" you can get it in here video "3 ways I organize my PhD notes" in ruclips.net/video/Wiol2oJAh6c/видео.html in 7:20s
Thank you!
@@boxador Thank you!!
I love your Obsidian video 🥰
Thank you. Good info.
Excellent! This is what I needed!
Woohoo! I'm glad that worked out! 😄
Can I just say I am so curious to know about your subject! It seems so interesting and you sound very passionate about it. Best of luck!
Thank you! One day I'll share more about my specific project. Definitely after I successfully defend, if nothing else!
@@morganeua best of luck! You will defo ace it! Btw, thank you for everything you share here. Love xx
Very good content. Thank you!
For someone just starting out w/ Obsidian this seems super complicated. I can follow your train of thought however can't imagine doing this with my own notes yet. Probably because I don't have enough notes to link these ideas together. Seems like the linking your thinking game is only for super smart people :D
Where were you during my PhD!!! This is brilliant stuff, do you have any comment on integration with Zotero or other citation manager?
Excellent video. Too few of these in the PKM community. Thanks.
Thanks! I've found a bunch of videos about graph view, but the only one I really "got" was that one I mention by Linking Your Thinking. So, I thought I'd try to make my own!
I love the videos you’ve done on obsidian and note taking. They are some of the most concise, to the point and useful for a beginner videos I’ve ever seen on the topic.
Do you mostly keep your notes local or do you use the sync feature? If you do, do you pay for obsidian sync or have another way of achieving it?
Awesome content, really well put together. You are doing a great job.
Personally, I zip my vault periodically and back it up in Google Drive. So at any given time, I'll only lose a few notes I've taken since I last backed it all up.
And... Obsidian's features and plugins allowing to turn them 'on/off' relatively easily... I am still playing with what arrangement works best for which element of note capture, note making and content thinking to content finalish drafting works for me. Once worked through I can see the "Workspace" feature to be able to give me effectively 3 or 4 different desks to be a must. Six months maybe to find those minimal work needs - rather than everything on all the time as with most normal office apps...
Good videos.
Hi Morgan, one issue I've been having is wanting to make huge, long notes on one particular topic. I'm struggling with knowing how to break them up into individual thoughts. Do you have any tips on this?
Your videos are great! I'm sure you have a long list of ideas for videos, but I would love it if you ever make a video about not self censoring ideas. Specifically, for example, I tend to self censor or down play the thoughts that come into my head because of a strong voice that says things like "that's not an original thought, others have gone down this road and done way better so why should I even start, etc". Logically I know these voices aren't useful and are beside the point, but in practice I have a very hard time getting around them. Ever experienced anything like this?
I kind of actually had a similar RUclips video idea recently because I wrote a Medium article sort of on this topic of feeling unoriginal. I totally get that, so I can think about my thought process around it! The main thing is just that storing all potentially useful information, even if it feels small or silly, is how you can start connecting ideas to get deeper thought. We need the little and pre-thought ideas present to be able to have larger epiphanies!
I Just saw your short form link! I would love a review or blog post? I have used it in the past but Im not sure if it better to read the book! Any insight on how you use it would be great!
A review of the app is a great idea, actually. I've been trying to think of ways to integrate it into RUclips content!
I really appreciate your simple way of going at all this. Though now I need to go sit with a cup of coffee and re-think my tags...should they be notes?
That's my preference, I still haven't found a good use for tags, but others use Obsidian totally differently than me, so maybe don't give up on tags yet!
One question that popped up a few times while i was taking notes for uni: how do you know which words to put in brackets before creating it? and if you do it later on (like you did with youtube) how do you find the other notes about youtube before it was important enough to get it's own potential page?
tremendous
Do you use folders too? Or just use the graph as an entry point?
Also, does perfectionism impact your notemaking? I sometimes get stuck being afraid that I will mess up my system instead of just taking notes
Hi Morgan, Thank you so much for this video! I'm now starting with a new line of thought in my research and with obsidian. I have two questions: how do you NOT lose unconnected notes? For example how do you find them in order to connect them? And do you use folders (and can one link to folders?)? I trying to start the system going but I want to do it right so I don't lose some idea... Thanks again!
On finding unconnected notes: one thing you can do is to use a tag, like #connectme or something. That way, even if you made a note and it's totally unconnected, you at least have a list of those notes that still need connections in your tags tab in Obsidian. Another thing you can do is just ensure it's connected to at least one other thing. Even if that thing doesn't exist yet, or you haven't made the connection deeply. I've started making notes for individual words that come up a lot in my zettelkasten. So, everytime I use one of those common words I'll just [[bracket]] it, even if that word's note doesn't have anything in it yet. Because at the very least, it's got backlinks and that will help me find notes related to that word. And then finally, just setting aside some time to sift through your notes, just for pure curiosity. You'll find things you totally forgot about and that's lovely.
This is not a bad idea for a video, so maybe I'll make a video about how to ensure you don't lose notes one day!
I do also use folder, but only to divide different types of content (like, my daily notes all go in a folder because I don't want them cluttering up my vault). You can connect notes to each other, even if they're in different folders, and I do, frequently! I don't think you can link to the folder itself, though
Thank you for this amazing video… I wanted to ask you for some clarification: I still don’t get it how through literature notes, you make your own notes… how do they become your own? Don’t you still cite them…?? How do they become yours? Please clarify this a bit more….thanks
I do have a question about how you handle capturing questions that you have while reading something. Do you capture questions in your Zettelkasten as well?
intersting, thanks a lot. Question why your note titles are filled with dashes rather than space?
Sorry for the delay, but I actually answer that question thoroughly in this video!: ruclips.net/video/FkB5FmgUY1I/видео.htmlsi=dFl9Lui1cwhAovDY
I really enjoy your Zettelkasten videos! I have a question about generating new ideas. I have been trying to write in my own words, but too often I feel like I'm not saying anything that someone hasn't already thought of before. Sometimes, I think I have a really great idea, but then later, I read a book that has said the same thing I thought was original! How should I as an academic deal with the anxiety of never feeling like I truly have an original idea because of all the humans to have ever existed, someone surely should have thought of what I thought? Thank you for the video!!
Great question! I totally get that fear. Oftentimes that very concern prevents me from moving forward in my research because I get so defeated, feeling like I just can't contribute anything new. But it's not until we think through what's already been done that we'll arrive at something new. So, my advice would be to see those moments as successes - you've arrived somewhere you haven't been before (even if someone else has) and you're on your way to even deeper truths that haven't been revealed yet! Practically, I recommend connecting the idea you had to the source where you've now found it so you can find it again. And, you can always connect other people's ideas to your own experiences, ensuring you're at least providing new context to old ideas!
@@morganeua Thank you so much for your response!! This helps my mindset on it :)
... in YOUR wander through this forest that is the 'subject' or 'topic', it is YOUR first time at this note or tree, I may have been there before you, but I came at it from the left... it is YOUR journey, not the unique map co-ordinates of where you stand but how you get there. AND just as importantly, where your next step moves you on - guarantee it will be different from mine, we have different goals, different biases and different experiences up to this point, where we both happen on "THIS" tree...
THIS tree or note, might be very core to your project and very peripheral to mine - I seriously doubt I'll ever talk of "juggling" for instance - except - now I have this very clear metaphor of a task that is totally open to failure at any moment, unlike so much that we do, and that is OK with failure - as small corrective actions and help can only be after that ball being dropped... otherwise juggling outside of Morgan's tubes has come up once in the last 12 months - and that is the guy who juggles 3 Rubic Cubes whilst solving them in mid air... ... freaky.
Can I please ask if you can make a video on how to extract our notes from obsidian… with their links like when we are ready to put our project all together? Thanks
Hm, I can try to respond with a video. I'm not sure how to do that specifically, because Obsidian does the linking - so if you pulled notes somewhere else, the linking would stop. However, I do want to make a video showing how I write a paper based on my Obsidian notes. So, that might help?
Great video Morgan (: I have 2 questions.
1. In this video when you decided to add the [[failure]] to various notes that deal with it (03:27), does that note act as a structure note?
2. are you still using tags to distinguish between notes that need to be rewritten as permanent notes, notes requiring connecting, and structure notes? from your other video that is ruclips.net/video/Wiol2oJAh6c/видео.html .
Thanks😀
Do you do anything in particular with ideas that you had, and captured in your Zettelkasten, but upon further reflection, you disagree with. Do you leave it in, edit it somehow, or what?
Hi! I responded to you on another video about how to reach me, but maybe I can just respond here! I leave it all in. Sometimes I edit notes to add connections. For instance, maybe I have a note that said "the sky is green." When I learn the sky is actually blue, I might go back there and add "While I used to think this, I've since learned that [[the-sky-is-blue]]". So now both conflicting thoughts exist in my zettelkasten. I don't like the idea of removing thoughts because so much of the world does conflict with itself. Holding two opposing views at the same time is okay and Obsidian offers a way of documenting the conflict and helping us understand it.
I couldn't find an answer in the comments below. Why do you use kebab case for naming your files? It isn't very aesthetic. Why is it practical for you? Thanks for the videos!
Sorry for the delay in response, but so many people asked me this that I made a whole video about it!: ruclips.net/video/FkB5FmgUY1I/видео.htmlsi=3nFDKZszHYiiTZCa
why do you use dashes in the note titles? I assume this is something to do with the way windows makes file paths?
I'm actually going to make a video about this when I learn a bit more myself, but it's just a file naming case called "kebab case." In programming (which I admittedly don't do, but maybe I will in future), spaces can make your program crash because it interprets each word separately. So, it's a safe option to remove spaces. And instead of spaces, I find dashes a good alternative, very readable, and I don't have to worry about whether I capitalized something because it's all always lower case.
but i wonder how to secure all this notes, how to back them up?
I back my vault up on Google Drive occasionally. So, GDrive won't keep the connections in tact, but I'll still have all my notes if my Obsidian fails somehow!
I wonder if Mac and PC versions of Obsidian are different. There is no Local Graph option for me, and no 'Neighbour Links' function (it's on by default)
Omg no local graph?! I don't know what I'd do! So you're on a Mac then?
@@morganeuaIḿ going to have to check. I'm on PC, but away from my main computer right now. Local Graph exists in the Chromebook app and my Android phone app (both of which are essentially Android apps) but I couldn find it in the menu you use when I first saw this video... I'll get back to you. (it may be that it exists as a hotkey but isn't in my menu... which would be weird, but could be a workaround).
@@morganeua okay I haven't solved it but... Local graph is there, but not in the three dot menu? I couldn't find a way to add it to the 3 dot either. I had to go looking in the command palette for the keystroke, and now just have it pinned.
@@SamuelWebster Huh, I do think there was an update recently that changed the way things looked for me, so I'll have to check if that got moved around!
Ditto
Thank you again! 😊
„Graph of Failure“
Why is your voice breaking? Are you okay
Very young looking for a fifty year old PhD student