Feel free to continue discussion here in the YT comments, but fyi I also made a discord where there's some good chat about PKM strategies in general! discord.gg/NKeEgVWhpz
This I think is one of the best and most genuine videos on notetaking, PKM etc. as it's about principles that can be implemented according to own needs and not about "the perfect way of notetaking"! Thanks
You became beautifully philosophical at min 8:30 where you transmitted the phrase: ~”There are no disciplines, only one universe”, and then explore how the linkage of ideas are there to be connected and get there the 1 million dollar idea. It’s a harmonious application to your video, as it connects a fundamentally important general conception of concepts, to the topic of making connections. Good work, and thanks for sharing.
As a mechanical engineer, I wish I had the technology when I was studying. Your notes are what I have in my head, but oh boy, I'd love to have them out of my head in case I forget them! I did practice active listening, as I struggle to recall things. Everything I know, is because of first principles, and I derive all my working from there every single time (and Roarks). Having had something like this would have helped so much in making the links I needed for my understanding and even highlight new ones! Keep at it, you'll be able to effect change in any industry.
Our Control Systems professor gave us this lecture about 'power of abstraction' at the start of semester. To try to abstract away the 'application' and focus on the idea / structure, and try to apply / relate it to other courses we are taking. I like to study about behaviour psychological and how it is used in politics and media, so I started relating engineering concepts / topics to psychological techniques and human behaviour in general, and they started to feel more intuitive. It was the turning point in my life, when studying starting to feel fun rather than a burden. My study group buddies often compliment me that I explain topics in very easy to understand way, and also correct me where I am wrong, so it works best if you have 2-3 people to discuss/test your ideas with.
Really inspiring! I've been using Obsidian for 3 months to take notes as psychology student and wow, that "Wikipedia already exists" hit me hard. The desire of making shiny notes is so strong in me. This video is exactly what I needed to start a little revolution in my vault. I'm really interested to know more about your workflow to create evergreen notes
@@AlvaroALorite I switched from Notion to Obsidian for the ease of Obsidian to link everything together using just a pair of square brackets. Psychology is highly connected subject: the same concept can be studied by cognitive psychology, social psychology, dynamic psychology, developmental psychology... and by sociology, neuroscience, anthropology and so on. Obsidian gave me the possibility to link all this knowledge and it's really satisfying
@@knowine_ I really took a liking in the idea of taking conceptual notes, but one problem I have with it, is how do I learn for the exam? If it doesn’t have any sequential structure how do I know I‘ve learned everything for passing the exam? What’s your way?
I started using Obsidian recently, and you basically addressed all the difficulties I had while taking notes in it. I now see that "treating my personal knowledge system as a project in itself" is one of the main reasons why I didn't felt motivated to do it more often. Great video!
It would be amazing if you made a Obsidian tutorial with a more complete demonstration like do you use map of content how you setup your notes uses of links and tags
I've never in my life unironically commented on a YT video -- until now. This video was the missing piece in my knowledge journey that I never knew I always needed. Thank you!!
"The goal is not to learn, but to do as much as possible" hits home. Thanks for this video! I'd love to see more of this coming, it seems to me that we might learn a lot from you in the PKM field. Let's keep this conversation going 🙌🏻
HOW is this content free. WOW dude this is literally how i remember stuff the best but never knew there could be software to help/aid in that, the way you explained everything is amazing. Thanks man!
"your focusing on the same connections as everyone else in the world, which is the fastest way to never have an original thought" incredible video, bravo we appreciate that you are selling something as a product of ethos rather than logos. 👍
Thinking and taking notes in terms of concepts is a good approach and one I've done for many years, but there's still many reasons why sequential note taking is popular and one that I still use as well. 1. Lessons often follow a narrative structure. 3Blue1Brown, an amazing teacher on youtube, talks about how great teachers are great storytellers. And the thing about narratives is, they're mostly linear. Lessons are the same way, ideas brought up later in the lecture related to ones brought up earlier. When you start to break up your notes into loose concepts spread out over many pages, you risk losing that context. 2. Organizing notes is not easy, and takes time. Trying to do so while learning concepts in real-time during a lecture is an almost impossible feat. Ideally your classes should be challenging you, and you should be struggling to keep up just trying to understand the concepts in class. If the class were easy enough that you could immediately identify key concepts and structural patterns, then you are probably not learning much from that class anyways. In a difficult class, if you try to organize your notes while still trying to grasp the material, you risk making a big mess out of your notes. It is far easier to just write down as much as you can. And once you do that, you can always go back home and then re-organize it into concepts when you better understand it. The lecture only happens once. At home you have all the time you need.
In my chemistry class, we were allotted a standardized printed periodic table that we could use as a cheat sheet. Notes were to be written on the table side only. So in lecture, I took notes linearly, and at home, I organized the information, as small as I could write, on to the periodic table. I ended up reprinting it several times as I often felt I'd ruined it. In order to save space I devised simple color coding and symbols, and colored in the different categories of elements. I also wrote things I knew I wouldn't be able to perfectly memorize, such as the rules for sigfigs and some cation/anion names. It wasn't perfectly organized but I was well prepared for tests and didn't even have to reference it as often as I thought I would need to.
The assessment system need to revamp to not test us on memory of terms but concepts(ie. connection) of how things work. Else we will always incline to take note in the fear that we might "forget" certain factual knowledge.
@@vservicesvservices7095 There is one incredibly simple and effective way of modifying a test so that memorization is less of an issue. Multiple choice. It has saved me many times, it draws the answer out of my memory more effectively.
I agree, his system looks like a great fit for him and it looks really cool, but every your point stands correct(losing context, takes time). You can promote active learning with much less things, all you have to do is to stop copy line-by-line lecture notes. You try to grasp material, while simultaneously writing it as chaotic as possible under the note of one lecture, and then back at home, or at downtime you have time to refactor and link notes together. I can't imagine atomizing my notes so much, relating to topics that I study, I am studying DS & Algorithms, and I can't even imagine how would I apply things that author said to my note taking, where I try to follow Zettelkasten and basically this is my connections at the moment: Recursion -> (Head Recursion, Tree Recursion, Tail Recursion, Tree Recursion, Static and Global Variables in Recursion, Time Complexity of a Recursion -> ( Time And Space Complexity -> ( Algorithms and Data Structures ). And most of them are very solid, having code snippets, diagrams with activation records/tree tracing, analyze of time/space complexity, conclusions. And the only downside, that on average lecture which lasts ~17 minutes, would take me like ~25 to write down chaotically, and then another ~10 minutes to organize and link everything properly.
This is definitely the best video out there on conceptual note taking. No bloating topics, no complex templates or MOCs, just raw value that is vague enough to apply to everyone, and not so specific that your ideas only apply to a few people.
Felt like I intuitively knew this but needed someone to spell it out for me. So wish I had this during my university but I still love learning so better late than never. Thank you much.
Discovered Obsidian recently as I was tired of OneNote feeling limiting and now Obsidian is my primary note taker. Your video really resonated with me, my notetaking/learning has a clear NEW perspective. I look forward to learning and growing on all my endeavors! Thanks!
Great video! 11:57 well, this two you describe are _two_ different kinds of declarative memory (conscious recall of information): semantic (concepts) and episodic memory (events and stories). There is a thir one on this branch, spatial memory. Combining the three can be better. Another tip, emotional related memories are more easily consolidated, so try to engage emotionally with what you are learning. Also, very high stress and very low stress hinder learning; this is related to cortisol levels. Keep in mind having your own personal "second brain" is useful, however the brain is obviously better at combining knowledge in the fly than Obsidian, so "memorizing" is also useful. The best way to retain knowledge on memory is to practice active recall, make connections to what you already know, and (this VERY important) good night sleep after study sessions (7-8 hours, that "5 hour sleep a day is enough for me" is more of a myth than anything; it's more likely that you are hit by a lightning than having the biological hability to sleep with
Ah, I'm getting flashbacks to AP Psychology :) Good advice all around. Actively using the stuff you learn (on practice problems, for example), is definitely the way to get good at using any concepts.
DUDE! YES! I've been taking conceptual notes for a while now. I thought that I was just weird that needed to take notes in a "graph-like structure" because "that's how it works on my brain". Glad to know that I'm not a freak and this is actually something formalized (?). Seeing people on the same path I'm making but further into it is a great feeling. Also, this feels to me like an evolution to Zettelkasten.
My old high school notes are now ash, I burnt it due to the fact that we are forced to copy what the teacher wrote on the board, and we aren't encouraged to write our own notes in our own understanding, for they check the notebooks and add them to our grades. If we miss one note, our grades will be deducted. I just relearnt concepts and topics online, luckily I jotted down everything in my head before I burnt the notebooks. I am loving this video, it is amazing, I learnt a lot from it and gave me a sense of hope. Thank you.
That system makes me kind of.... angry is probably the best term for the loss of human potential that might have resulted from such a strict system - glad you could find a way through and eventually think about your notes freely! I think people can fear that if they've finished high school/college, then it's too late for them. But you're a great example of how the best time to start thinking about things conceptually is right now, and like compound interest, those notes will just pay dividends over time. Thank you very much for the kind words! Makes a big difference.
3:36 uh no no no nooooo! "If you just feel like you don't need to write it down then you are probably right" That is the biggest mistake I was making. YOU WILL FORGET IT. Even if it is perfectly reasonable and memorable on the spot. Well - it is... But just because you were listening to a guy for one hour and he was building whole tower of context in your brain. One week later you won't even remember what the lecture was about. Let alone specific concepts. You don't need to write absolutely everything. But you have to take time to build your intuition about what is actually worth remembering. And at the beginning you won't be able to distinguish those things - and you can't trust yourself. At least this is what I learned during my studies in STEM field. Maybe for less technical studies it will work.
Wow, thanks for this video. People who master a subject write books about it, with this method we are writting a book about all our knowledge in our own way, so we are really mastering concepts
This video was really interesting to me. This is my first exposure to these ideas. Although, I was familiar with links enhancing material. So I used to have a little paper chart of shared elements between classes. So I occasionally was able to use older notes. But it was generally too hard to find. And old textbooks tended to be more useful.
This really hits home, I thought a few time about something like this but never implemented it, about to enter my 3rd year of mechanics after struggling last year, it's better to have a realization like this later than never I guess, thanks.
I remember this video as the one that first that got me to *really* think about how and why I take notes when I'm trying to learn something. It introduced me to the concepts of a "Second Brain" and a "Personal Knowledge Management" system. I just rewatched it and you do an amazing job of breaking down and explaining the "why" behind all of these ideas. I will definitely be recommending this video to anyone who asks me about why I use Obsidian and take notes the way I do. Great job!
Everything that I had in my brain without a single vision you've told in this video with such a great effort! Now everything is connected. Thank you for it!
Everything you shared in this video is one long, continuous, slow-mo mic drop! Your observations have helped me to back away just a little bit, and helped me to begin to see the forest from the trees! And for that, I am grateful.
I truly didn't realize the value of this video until I familiarized myself with obsidian first and then watched the video. The note-taking ideas stick more now that you aren't wondering what the heck obsidian is. And this idea really works well with obsidian. Great video.
Thanks for the video and your effort. One problem I still have with "mastering" Obsidian is how to store the notes. After researching, creating a lot of directories with multilevel subdirectories isn't the right way of using Obsidian, but I am guilty of doing this often and have a hard time finding any other way.
Jeez. This has got to be the best video on note taking (or rather information/concept management) I've ever seen. I've been using Obsidian for a couple of weeks now but I never really "got it" until now, that is. Apparently a lot of people would have liked a more in depth tutorial regarding the use of tags/links etc... However, I don't think that's what you were aiming to accomplish here. I feel you wanted to explain the core ideas and principles behind conceptual note taking and didn't want to impose your personal note taking system onto others, since, as you stated in your video, everyone's brain and thought process is different. It's not a one size fits all kind of deal, and I really appreciate that. Anyways, have a good one! I'll subscribe in case you decide to upload a new video some day, haha.
Awesome video, never thought about how my approach to note taking might be totally flawed. It’s easy to forget how these tools should be constructed in a way that mimics our own though processes in order to be legitimately useful later on. Thank for putting in the work to make these ideas public and easily digestible.
I feel like the best way of doing this is first take every note possible. Then go home and refine the notes. That both helps you learn (spaced repetition) as well as give you the best possible notes
I think we can agree that, aspirationally, it would be nice if we only had to record the information once - that is, if we could sit in class/wherever, apprehend the information, somewhat split it into concepts, and then have it recorded in some way. At least, this is the aspiration since it would take the least amount of time/effort. But you bring up a good point that that might not always be feasible, and there's an advantage to memory from revisiting these concepts, so perhaps the true optimal path lies somewhere in between, depending on the person, or even the topic. Personally, I find that a lot of times when people present things, especially after I got further into this conceptualization project with Obsidian, a lot of the information presented is a *repeat* of what I already knew/took notes on, so it's simply not worth writing down - this gives time to more closely attend to what *is* new and think about *how* it's new and how it should fit in with what you already know. But I also definitely do go back and redo my notes after thinking about them more later on - I think that's kinda the nature of truly coming to grips with a concept is the constant revision of it in your mind/in Obsidian, and this act itself is a kind of spaced repetition. It also depends on how much you care about apprehending *every* piece of information presented to you. Towards its end, I tended to start losing interest in college, and so wasn't really that motivated to take down *everything* these people were saying, but rather sit back and think about things not particularly worrying about losing a few details here or there. As mentioned, it's highly dependent on the topic, the particular lecture, the professor, the individual, and what the individual's goals with this information are. I think the approach you suggested has obvious benefits among all the possible strategies with their own advantages. Honestly whatever works for each individual - that's all I care about ;)
So inspired by this. Currently studying engineering in CS and it's so funny that this video talks about connecting concepts when this video could easily be more generally linked to memory management and movement of data/information. Obsidian also lets you have plugins that you can create scripts for to actually USE the data that you have accumilated?? This is just a dream come true. If I just saw a random ad for this I probably would have just thought it as a really fancy note taking tool but when you put it in the perspective of linking concepts I realized this is exactly what I need to visualize what im learning and keep connecting my knowledge the further I advance my studies. This is literally the best of ALL worlds. Huge props!
This is the best explanation of the concepts behind Obsidian and that whole domain of note-taking I've seen so far. Great job and thank you for making this video!
Why oh why have I just discovered this now. I have recently graduated and am already taking the licensure exam this May 2023 and here u were.. I guess it's never too late to start but damn, this would have been very useful during my college days
Thank you! This is hands down the clearest and most succinct video on how to make atomic notes. I went down the PKM rabbit hole a few months back and was really struggling to get away from what you call sequential notes. Now it all makes perfect sense. Thanks for the awesome video!
Whoa, this video was awesome. I was expecting this to be a huge channel and was surprised that there were no uploads in 7 months. You have the skills for a great YTber!
I have recently been studying through the use of mindmaps so the method of conceptual notes has been the core of my success these past 2 years. It is great for putting together bigger concepts but can be limiting when designing something complex as you need a number of mindmaps which can start to become overwhelming. This tool is amazing and your video is absolutely mindblowing. I am still in the middle but needed to post this comment.
I wish I had this kind of approach during my years at college. Note taking was a pain and a the lack of coherent material to study from was a source of great stress and anxiety for me. This system would not only have me learn more effectively, but also preserve the key knowledge for basically forever. The way I am, just a year out of college, I already don't know more than 80% of what I have been studying. It's extremely depressing. If you can, follow this approach and don't fall into the trap of "paper is superior, you'll remember better if you write it down".
Whatever you do them on (and a follow up would be great), I hope you keep making videos. This would be impressive for someone who had a page full of uploads. Great thoughts (and then subsequent edits!).
My man... I've been trying to apply Zettelkasten and PKM approached for a whole year, and your video is the first one to explode my Lil' Brain senses this hard Thank you so much, this is a treasure
fun fact: I got through university basically applying your 'steps', but without the "real" notetaking. I rather sat in in classes and made a point to listen to the prof, only making miniscule notes of important things. As this was around 2015, there weren't as many great note apps around - I tried using ORGMode, but it just felt.. weird to me. I never was one to take notes, because it just felt like repetitive work without a real gain. I remembered things from before; I could internalize concepts from attentively listening to the prof. With Obsidian, I am now taking notes of the important stuff, and linking it together to the other important things that come to mind; no 'filler' notes, no writing notes for the purpose of writing notes, and it's absolutely great. Don't write down everything in your notes - only write down the stuff you cannot remember, and you realize at the time of hearing you won't be able to remember.
I always wanted to make conceptual notes in class and have tried to.. several times but I always returned to making sequential notes since its the only way to keep up with the class since my irl writing speed sucks. What sucks more is the realization that the notes could have been organized better after you are done taking sequential notes. You could always do it at the time of revision if you study regularly. But during the pandemic I lagged quite a bit in watching the recorded classes our school put out, meaning lack of revision time hence forgetting the ingenious connection I made when I finally have time for revision. But this seems to be the answer I was searching for during these desperate times. Thank you for the gem of a video :D
What the hell? I am just about to start working on a D&D setting, and I was going to ask a friend how they take their notes, and then this video shows up in my feed completely unprompted like some sort of divine gift from the RUclips algorithm. I’ve never even heard of PKM before. Guess I’ll try obsidian then!! Very helpful video.
Comrade, you will not believe but I have a gift to memorize a lot of information for a long time. Only because of this, almost always problems with remembering the right information. Because I can remember something unnecessary, such as the tactics of combat that is winning, but slow and has risks.
I managed to get the early bird discount for Obsidian sync because the concept of building a knowledge graph seemed pretty cool for remembering stuff and discovering things, but I wasn't totally sure about how to "correctly" use it. Your video showed me a nice way to use it now, thanks!
This is an excellent video. I've recently started using Obsidian and I love the concept of calling it a "second brain". Your points here about concept-based learning are wise. I've often said the most powerful form of memory is associative. Associating concepts with each other rather than following a strict set of curriculums really is the key, and it makes learning a lot less boring. In IT, this is really important. Trying to fully understand all these incredibly complicated system/networking concepts without associating them with one another is impossible.
This is the best video about Obsidian I watched until now. I would love to see a video about how to write notes in general with more details. If you have informations from a book or video for example and you have to take notes. How you write a good note for studying and learning if details matter. But thank you anyway for this video!
I used to use folders to organise everything under categories, but thinking of everything not as within a displine, but as a concept has changed a lot about how I think about things Btw, As a Physics major, I absolutely love how you interconnect your topics.
Thank you so much for sharing these information! I’ve been using Obsidian for over a year already and I’ve never properly figured out how to use it to maximize its potential. Looking forward to watch more videos from you.
I love these videos which genuinely help those who want to change, but seem too open ended for those who just seem like they want to change. Love the video!
This is the best video on Obsidian I have watched. I was intrigued by it, but every video I watched made it look like more work than neccesary and quite unorganized. Your video showed how well all the information goes together, perhaps it's just you and how you use it, but now I think I could give it a try. Thanks! (also, I feel called out as I am a data hoarder)
One of the best video on learning and note taking. First principles thinking and importance of conceptual note taking, Knowledge is not disciplines rather a universe are golden advice. Thanks.
There needs to be a "❤️" button. Great presentation, great voice, and straight to the point! I've seen so many videos on note taking using a similar idea, but you really packaged it well in this video. Thank you!
I have been struggling to take quality notes and this video is great! Notes should be actionable, it is not about hoarding information that is easily searchable, but rather collecting concepts that we will use.
this is among the best advice I've got on note taking ever. You've truly mastered to put things straight too and illustrate ideas. Highly motivated to pursue the idea of conceptual note taking from now on. Thanks a lot!
I agree with you that you shouldn't focus on remembering the dry facts that are just variables, but one problem to that approach is that schools usually test on exactly those things which means that it forces me to write them down anyway. This unfortunately also leaves my notes feeling less appealing for my future self to look back at. With that being said, this was a great video. I recently swapped from making a million notepad files per class to using Obsidian. What you said about how it's not supposed to be a "wikipedia project" but a learning pursuit really resonated with me since I've kept feeling unsure about what to include and not include.
10 out of 10 for the quality of content, keep up with this standard I'm curious about how you memorize the stuff you want to memorize, is there another tool/technique or you review the concepts through obsidian Btw, I came here to watch how different people use obsidian, but got so many new ideas to improve my learning process. Thanks for sharing this.
These days almost all of what I have to memorize for school is just *how* to do things (like how to solve problems), which is made drastically easier by knowing *why* something works, which conceptual note are good at making clear. From there all I need to do is a little practice (apply the knowledge to the real world), and it seems to stick pretty well. For things that aren't school related, I don't find myself worrying too much about memorizing the actual thing (though it would be great if I could very easily), but instead trying just to memorize that something exists. If at one point I learned that something existed and how it worked (like a certain method to solving a problem), then later on in life when faced with a new problem I can just remember that there was this one solution, and then I could go look it up in more detail. So the emphasis there is more on drawing lots of light connections, and then drilling down deep when I have to. I think this is the most practical way to achieve success in most careers. Glad you liked the video!
You are correct about connection i call it associations . Sometimes seemingly completely unrelated information complement each other inside one's brain, enforce remembering and understanding. One of these connection that is often overlooked are mnemonic aids. e.g. after 20 years i still remember rough shape of phase diagram of technical steels simply due to having above and beyond teacher who came up with mnemonic aid of a jumping ball. I've never seen or used that diagram ever after. I forgot most of the other diagrams that i have never needed.
Have you ever got that feeling that things could be done better, you get the vague issues and some solutions... And the BOOM! Got yourself a RUclips videos that describes exactly your concerns and how to fix them. I'm 2 months away from finishing the semester, i'll probably follow some of this advice and come later to comment my results Great video!
An incredible video. Thank you. You have a very cool presentation of information. I hope you continue to make videos and get a deservedly large audience.
Awesome, conceptualizing notes. I started doing something like this because it lets ideas grow instead of being spread out all over from trying to take notes on a bunch of different courses all organizing stuff a different way when there tends to be a lot of cross over that we aren't taking advantage of. This video helps to give pointers on doing it way better than my trial and error try and figure out a method and in much frustration, rewriting stuff which really ruins my calm demeanor. I also realize I really need to work on my obsidian css presentation. I like your notes.
Feel free to continue discussion here in the YT comments, but fyi I also made a discord where there's some good chat about PKM strategies in general!
discord.gg/NKeEgVWhpz
"You're not here to hoard data. You're here to pursue whatever it is you want to do with your life." Very insightful.
r/datahoarder would differ
This I think is one of the best and most genuine videos on notetaking, PKM etc. as it's about principles that can be implemented according to own needs and not about "the perfect way of notetaking"! Thanks
You became beautifully philosophical at min 8:30 where you transmitted the phrase: ~”There are no disciplines, only one universe”, and then explore how the linkage of ideas are there to be connected and get there the 1 million dollar idea. It’s a harmonious application to your video, as it connects a fundamentally important general conception of concepts, to the topic of making connections.
Good work, and thanks for sharing.
As a mechanical engineer, I wish I had the technology when I was studying. Your notes are what I have in my head, but oh boy, I'd love to have them out of my head in case I forget them! I did practice active listening, as I struggle to recall things. Everything I know, is because of first principles, and I derive all my working from there every single time (and Roarks). Having had something like this would have helped so much in making the links I needed for my understanding and even highlight new ones! Keep at it, you'll be able to effect change in any industry.
Our Control Systems professor gave us this lecture about 'power of abstraction' at the start of semester. To try to abstract away the 'application' and focus on the idea / structure, and try to apply / relate it to other courses we are taking. I like to study about behaviour psychological and how it is used in politics and media, so I started relating engineering concepts / topics to psychological techniques and human behaviour in general, and they started to feel more intuitive. It was the turning point in my life, when studying starting to feel fun rather than a burden. My study group buddies often compliment me that I explain topics in very easy to understand way, and also correct me where I am wrong, so it works best if you have 2-3 people to discuss/test your ideas with.
Really inspiring! I've been using Obsidian for 3 months to take notes as psychology student and wow, that "Wikipedia already exists" hit me hard. The desire of making shiny notes is so strong in me. This video is exactly what I needed to start a little revolution in my vault. I'm really interested to know more about your workflow to create evergreen notes
Yeah, that's a really strong desire in me too - takes a lot of reminding to avoid rewriting Wikipedia :)
And how has that been going? I'm also a psychology student, and I'm thinking about switching from Notion to Obsidian
@@AlvaroALorite I switched from Notion to Obsidian for the ease of Obsidian to link everything together using just a pair of square brackets. Psychology is highly connected subject: the same concept can be studied by cognitive psychology, social psychology, dynamic psychology, developmental psychology... and by sociology, neuroscience, anthropology and so on. Obsidian gave me the possibility to link all this knowledge and it's really satisfying
@@knowine_ I really took a liking in the idea of taking conceptual notes, but one problem I have with it, is how do I learn for the exam? If it doesn’t have any sequential structure how do I know I‘ve learned everything for passing the exam? What’s your way?
@@TheGamestime Really interesting point. I create a note in which I copy exam syllabus, just to be sure I don't miss anything
I started using Obsidian recently, and you basically addressed all the difficulties I had while taking notes in it.
I now see that "treating my personal knowledge system as a project in itself" is one of the main reasons why I didn't felt motivated to do it more often.
Great video!
It would be amazing if you made a Obsidian tutorial with a more complete demonstration like do you use map of content how you setup your notes uses of links and tags
He had me convinced in the first few min and I was waiting for the tutorial to start😭
Can someone ping me if/when this guy decides to make a tutorial on this? Thanks
Learn the markdown syntax, it’s pretty easy actually :P
learn markdown. Its really simple
I don’t think that’s going to happen :(
I've never in my life unironically commented on a YT video -- until now. This video was the missing piece in my knowledge journey that I never knew I always needed. Thank you!!
"The goal is not to learn, but to do as much as possible" hits home.
Thanks for this video! I'd love to see more of this coming, it seems to me that we might learn a lot from you in the PKM field. Let's keep this conversation going 🙌🏻
HOW is this content free. WOW dude this is literally how i remember stuff the best but never knew there could be software to help/aid in that, the way you explained everything is amazing. Thanks man!
"your focusing on the same connections as everyone else in the world, which is the fastest way to never have an original thought"
incredible video, bravo
we appreciate that you are selling something as a product of ethos rather than logos.
👍
Thinking and taking notes in terms of concepts is a good approach and one I've done for many years, but there's still many reasons why sequential note taking is popular and one that I still use as well.
1. Lessons often follow a narrative structure. 3Blue1Brown, an amazing teacher on youtube, talks about how great teachers are great storytellers. And the thing about narratives is, they're mostly linear. Lessons are the same way, ideas brought up later in the lecture related to ones brought up earlier. When you start to break up your notes into loose concepts spread out over many pages, you risk losing that context.
2. Organizing notes is not easy, and takes time. Trying to do so while learning concepts in real-time during a lecture is an almost impossible feat. Ideally your classes should be challenging you, and you should be struggling to keep up just trying to understand the concepts in class. If the class were easy enough that you could immediately identify key concepts and structural patterns, then you are probably not learning much from that class anyways. In a difficult class, if you try to organize your notes while still trying to grasp the material, you risk making a big mess out of your notes. It is far easier to just write down as much as you can. And once you do that, you can always go back home and then re-organize it into concepts when you better understand it. The lecture only happens once. At home you have all the time you need.
In my chemistry class, we were allotted a standardized printed periodic table that we could use as a cheat sheet. Notes were to be written on the table side only. So in lecture, I took notes linearly, and at home, I organized the information, as small as I could write, on to the periodic table. I ended up reprinting it several times as I often felt I'd ruined it. In order to save space I devised simple color coding and symbols, and colored in the different categories of elements. I also wrote things I knew I wouldn't be able to perfectly memorize, such as the rules for sigfigs and some cation/anion names. It wasn't perfectly organized but I was well prepared for tests and didn't even have to reference it as often as I thought I would need to.
The assessment system need to revamp to not test us on memory of terms but concepts(ie. connection) of how things work. Else we will always incline to take note in the fear that we might "forget" certain factual knowledge.
@@vservicesvservices7095 There is one incredibly simple and effective way of modifying a test so that memorization is less of an issue. Multiple choice. It has saved me many times, it draws the answer out of my memory more effectively.
I agree, his system looks like a great fit for him and it looks really cool, but every your point stands correct(losing context, takes time).
You can promote active learning with much less things, all you have to do is to stop copy line-by-line lecture notes. You try to grasp material, while simultaneously writing it as chaotic as possible under the note of one lecture, and then back at home, or at downtime you have time to refactor and link notes together.
I can't imagine atomizing my notes so much, relating to topics that I study, I am studying DS & Algorithms, and I can't even imagine how would I apply things that author said to my note taking, where I try to follow Zettelkasten and basically this is my connections at the moment:
Recursion -> (Head Recursion, Tree Recursion, Tail Recursion, Tree Recursion, Static and Global Variables in Recursion, Time Complexity of a Recursion -> ( Time And Space Complexity -> ( Algorithms and Data Structures ).
And most of them are very solid, having code snippets, diagrams with activation records/tree tracing, analyze of time/space complexity, conclusions. And the only downside, that on average lecture which lasts ~17 minutes, would take me like ~25 to write down chaotically, and then another ~10 minutes to organize and link everything properly.
2 minutes into this video and I already love how well it's made, great job !!
yeah, it's just insane what value this video has, and how clean it's made in general!!!
This is definitely the best video out there on conceptual note taking. No bloating topics, no complex templates or MOCs, just raw value that is vague enough to apply to everyone, and not so specific that your ideas only apply to a few people.
Felt like I intuitively knew this but needed someone to spell it out for me. So wish I had this during my university but I still love learning so better late than never. Thank you much.
The time lapse feature in Obsidian is the best thing ever. Imagine seeing what you learned in whole middle school for example.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loved this feature!
Discovered Obsidian recently as I was tired of OneNote feeling limiting and now Obsidian is my primary note taker. Your video really resonated with me, my notetaking/learning has a clear NEW perspective. I look forward to learning and growing on all my endeavors! Thanks!
Great video! 11:57 well, this two you describe are _two_ different kinds of declarative memory (conscious recall of information): semantic (concepts) and episodic memory (events and stories). There is a thir one on this branch, spatial memory. Combining the three can be better.
Another tip, emotional related memories are more easily consolidated, so try to engage emotionally with what you are learning. Also, very high stress and very low stress hinder learning; this is related to cortisol levels.
Keep in mind having your own personal "second brain" is useful, however the brain is obviously better at combining knowledge in the fly than Obsidian, so "memorizing" is also useful. The best way to retain knowledge on memory is to practice active recall, make connections to what you already know, and (this VERY important) good night sleep after study sessions (7-8 hours, that "5 hour sleep a day is enough for me" is more of a myth than anything; it's more likely that you are hit by a lightning than having the biological hability to sleep with
Ah, I'm getting flashbacks to AP Psychology :)
Good advice all around. Actively using the stuff you learn (on practice problems, for example), is definitely the way to get good at using any concepts.
I think obsidian has a plugin for spaced memorization/recall.
DUDE! YES! I've been taking conceptual notes for a while now. I thought that I was just weird that needed to take notes in a "graph-like structure" because "that's how it works on my brain". Glad to know that I'm not a freak and this is actually something formalized (?). Seeing people on the same path I'm making but further into it is a great feeling. Also, this feels to me like an evolution to Zettelkasten.
My old high school notes are now ash, I burnt it due to the fact that we are forced to copy what the teacher wrote on the board, and we aren't encouraged to write our own notes in our own understanding, for they check the notebooks and add them to our grades. If we miss one note, our grades will be deducted.
I just relearnt concepts and topics online, luckily I jotted down everything in my head before I burnt the notebooks.
I am loving this video, it is amazing, I learnt a lot from it and gave me a sense of hope. Thank you.
That system makes me kind of.... angry is probably the best term for the loss of human potential that might have resulted from such a strict system - glad you could find a way through and eventually think about your notes freely!
I think people can fear that if they've finished high school/college, then it's too late for them. But you're a great example of how the best time to start thinking about things conceptually is right now, and like compound interest, those notes will just pay dividends over time.
Thank you very much for the kind words! Makes a big difference.
3:36 uh no no no nooooo!
"If you just feel like you don't need to write it down then you are probably right"
That is the biggest mistake I was making. YOU WILL FORGET IT. Even if it is perfectly reasonable and memorable on the spot. Well - it is... But just because you were listening to a guy for one hour and he was building whole tower of context in your brain.
One week later you won't even remember what the lecture was about. Let alone specific concepts.
You don't need to write absolutely everything. But you have to take time to build your intuition about what is actually worth remembering. And at the beginning you won't be able to distinguish those things - and you can't trust yourself.
At least this is what I learned during my studies in STEM field. Maybe for less technical studies it will work.
Exactly what I was thinking
is no one gonna mention how insane this guys' graph view is, it looks beautiful
Purely life changing video, no drama, no clickbait , right into the point. Thnak you
Wow, thanks for this video. People who master a subject write books about it, with this method we are writting a book about all our knowledge in our own way, so we are really mastering concepts
This video was really interesting to me. This is my first exposure to these ideas. Although, I was familiar with links enhancing material. So I used to have a little paper chart of shared elements between classes. So I occasionally was able to use older notes. But it was generally too hard to find. And old textbooks tended to be more useful.
This really hits home, I thought a few time about something like this but never implemented it, about to enter my 3rd year of mechanics after struggling last year, it's better to have a realization like this later than never I guess, thanks.
Good luck!
I remember this video as the one that first that got me to *really* think about how and why I take notes when I'm trying to learn something. It introduced me to the concepts of a "Second Brain" and a "Personal Knowledge Management" system. I just rewatched it and you do an amazing job of breaking down and explaining the "why" behind all of these ideas. I will definitely be recommending this video to anyone who asks me about why I use Obsidian and take notes the way I do. Great job!
I can't believe I found this during my last semester of my masters, brilliant video.
Bravo, great thinking, keep 'em coming!
Everything that I had in my brain without a single vision you've told in this video with such a great effort! Now everything is connected. Thank you for it!
Everything you shared in this video is one long, continuous, slow-mo mic drop! Your observations have helped me to back away just a little bit, and helped me to begin to see the forest from the trees! And for that, I am grateful.
I truly didn't realize the value of this video until I familiarized myself with obsidian first and then watched the video. The note-taking ideas stick more now that you aren't wondering what the heck obsidian is. And this idea really works well with obsidian. Great video.
I just understood why I should take notes not only at school but everywhere and how to take notes the best way.
"You're not here to hoard data". So true. Thanks for clearing that up and making sense of it.
definitely one of my favourite videos i've seen recently even the timing is perfect as i will start my first semester studying physics next week
Watched this video for the second time now. You should keep doing more stuff like this. Really enjoyed it
Wish I hadn't become so depressed after highschool, my industriousness and productivity goals were just as remarkable as this brilliant video, thx.
Thanks for the video and your effort.
One problem I still have with "mastering" Obsidian is how to store the notes.
After researching, creating a lot of directories with multilevel subdirectories isn't the right way of using Obsidian, but I am guilty of doing this often and have a hard time finding any other way.
Jeez. This has got to be the best video on note taking (or rather information/concept management) I've ever seen. I've been using Obsidian for a couple of weeks now but I never really "got it" until now, that is.
Apparently a lot of people would have liked a more in depth tutorial regarding the use of tags/links etc... However, I don't think that's what you were aiming to accomplish here. I feel you wanted to explain the core ideas and principles behind conceptual note taking and didn't want to impose your personal note taking system onto others, since, as you stated in your video, everyone's brain and thought process is different. It's not a one size fits all kind of deal, and I really appreciate that.
Anyways, have a good one! I'll subscribe in case you decide to upload a new video some day, haha.
Bingo. I don't have much interest in making a tutorial, but I may have some future videos in the works. No promises on timelines, though ;)
Awesome video, never thought about how my approach to note taking might be totally flawed. It’s easy to forget how these tools should be constructed in a way that mimics our own though processes in order to be legitimately useful later on. Thank for putting in the work to make these ideas public and easily digestible.
I feel like the best way of doing this is first take every note possible. Then go home and refine the notes. That both helps you learn (spaced repetition) as well as give you the best possible notes
I think we can agree that, aspirationally, it would be nice if we only had to record the information once - that is, if we could sit in class/wherever, apprehend the information, somewhat split it into concepts, and then have it recorded in some way. At least, this is the aspiration since it would take the least amount of time/effort.
But you bring up a good point that that might not always be feasible, and there's an advantage to memory from revisiting these concepts, so perhaps the true optimal path lies somewhere in between, depending on the person, or even the topic.
Personally, I find that a lot of times when people present things, especially after I got further into this conceptualization project with Obsidian, a lot of the information presented is a *repeat* of what I already knew/took notes on, so it's simply not worth writing down - this gives time to more closely attend to what *is* new and think about *how* it's new and how it should fit in with what you already know.
But I also definitely do go back and redo my notes after thinking about them more later on - I think that's kinda the nature of truly coming to grips with a concept is the constant revision of it in your mind/in Obsidian, and this act itself is a kind of spaced repetition.
It also depends on how much you care about apprehending *every* piece of information presented to you. Towards its end, I tended to start losing interest in college, and so wasn't really that motivated to take down *everything* these people were saying, but rather sit back and think about things not particularly worrying about losing a few details here or there.
As mentioned, it's highly dependent on the topic, the particular lecture, the professor, the individual, and what the individual's goals with this information are. I think the approach you suggested has obvious benefits among all the possible strategies with their own advantages. Honestly whatever works for each individual - that's all I care about ;)
So inspired by this. Currently studying engineering in CS and it's so funny that this video talks about connecting concepts when this video could easily be more generally linked to memory management and movement of data/information. Obsidian also lets you have plugins that you can create scripts for to actually USE the data that you have accumilated?? This is just a dream come true.
If I just saw a random ad for this I probably would have just thought it as a really fancy note taking tool but when you put it in the perspective of linking concepts I realized this is exactly what I need to visualize what im learning and keep connecting my knowledge the further I advance my studies. This is literally the best of ALL worlds.
Huge props!
The algorithm may suck most of the time but I'm glad for absolute gold like this
Thank you so much
Will give it a try
This is the best explanation of the concepts behind Obsidian and that whole domain of note-taking I've seen so far. Great job and thank you for making this video!
Why oh why have I just discovered this now. I have recently graduated and am already taking the licensure exam this May 2023 and here u were..
I guess it's never too late to start but damn, this would have been very useful during my college days
You literally took the words out of my mouth, I think of the exact same things all the time! Sick video btw
Thank you! This is hands down the clearest and most succinct video on how to make atomic notes.
I went down the PKM rabbit hole a few months back and was really struggling to get away from what you call sequential notes. Now it all makes perfect sense.
Thanks for the awesome video!
Whoa, this video was awesome. I was expecting this to be a huge channel and was surprised that there were no uploads in 7 months. You have the skills for a great YTber!
Man, I really gotta thank the algorithm for showing me this..
And naturally I am also really grateful to the author of this video too!
I have recently been studying through the use of mindmaps so the method of conceptual notes has been the core of my success these past 2 years. It is great for putting together bigger concepts but can be limiting when designing something complex as you need a number of mindmaps which can start to become overwhelming.
This tool is amazing and your video is absolutely mindblowing. I am still in the middle but needed to post this comment.
I wish I had this kind of approach during my years at college. Note taking was a pain and a the lack of coherent material to study from was a source of great stress and anxiety for me. This system would not only have me learn more effectively, but also preserve the key knowledge for basically forever. The way I am, just a year out of college, I already don't know more than 80% of what I have been studying. It's extremely depressing.
If you can, follow this approach and don't fall into the trap of "paper is superior, you'll remember better if you write it down".
Whatever you do them on (and a follow up would be great), I hope you keep making videos. This would be impressive for someone who had a page full of uploads. Great thoughts (and then subsequent edits!).
This is literally the best flipping thing I've heard in my entire life. Never before have I felt so validated. Thank you.
Finally found a video that showcase learning while showing a tutorial for Obsidian. Much love
My man... I've been trying to apply Zettelkasten and PKM approached for a whole year, and your video is the first one to explode my Lil' Brain senses this hard
Thank you so much, this is a treasure
How does this channel only have 1.6k subs? You deserve more man. Cheers to you, and good luck with your future videos.
fun fact: I got through university basically applying your 'steps', but without the "real" notetaking. I rather sat in in classes and made a point to listen to the prof, only making miniscule notes of important things. As this was around 2015, there weren't as many great note apps around - I tried using ORGMode, but it just felt.. weird to me. I never was one to take notes, because it just felt like repetitive work without a real gain. I remembered things from before; I could internalize concepts from attentively listening to the prof. With Obsidian, I am now taking notes of the important stuff, and linking it together to the other important things that come to mind; no 'filler' notes, no writing notes for the purpose of writing notes, and it's absolutely great.
Don't write down everything in your notes - only write down the stuff you cannot remember, and you realize at the time of hearing you won't be able to remember.
I always wanted to make conceptual notes in class and have tried to.. several times but I always returned to making sequential notes since its the only way to keep up with the class since my irl writing speed sucks. What sucks more is the realization that the notes could have been organized better after you are done taking sequential notes. You could always do it at the time of revision if you study regularly. But during the pandemic I lagged quite a bit in watching the recorded classes our school put out, meaning lack of revision time hence forgetting the ingenious connection I made when I finally have time for revision. But this seems to be the answer I was searching for during these desperate times. Thank you for the gem of a video :D
This was a better video than most of the top productivity youtubers’ garbage content. Deserves more recognition.
this was de video that got me started in PKM. Thanks. And that's all I have to say, really, thank you
What the hell? I am just about to start working on a D&D setting, and I was going to ask a friend how they take their notes, and then this video shows up in my feed completely unprompted like some sort of divine gift from the RUclips algorithm. I’ve never even heard of PKM before. Guess I’ll try obsidian then!! Very helpful video.
One of the best youtube videos I’ve watched in a while. You truly have a gift. Please make more videos and share your knowledge.
Commenting so that the algorithm recommends this to more people :)
Comrade, you will not believe but I have a gift to memorize a lot of information for a long time. Only because of this, almost always problems with remembering the right information. Because I can remember something unnecessary, such as the tactics of combat that is winning, but slow and has risks.
I managed to get the early bird discount for Obsidian sync because the concept of building a knowledge graph seemed pretty cool for remembering stuff and discovering things, but I wasn't totally sure about how to "correctly" use it. Your video showed me a nice way to use it now, thanks!
juat amazing style of explaining how complicated Obsidian is❤
This is an excellent video. I've recently started using Obsidian and I love the concept of calling it a "second brain". Your points here about concept-based learning are wise. I've often said the most powerful form of memory is associative. Associating concepts with each other rather than following a strict set of curriculums really is the key, and it makes learning a lot less boring. In IT, this is really important. Trying to fully understand all these incredibly complicated system/networking concepts without associating them with one another is impossible.
This is the best video about Obsidian I watched until now. I would love to see a video about how to write notes in general with more details. If you have informations from a book or video for example and you have to take notes. How you write a good note for studying and learning if details matter.
But thank you anyway for this video!
I used to use folders to organise everything under categories, but thinking of everything not as within a displine, but as a concept has changed a lot about how I think about things
Btw,
As a Physics major, I absolutely love how you interconnect your topics.
Thank you so much for sharing these information! I’ve been using Obsidian for over a year already and I’ve never properly figured out how to use it to maximize its potential. Looking forward to watch more videos from you.
This is amazing. It could have saved me years of my life if I knew it before. I'm implementing this from now on. Thank you!
This video is a true gem. Insightful and funny. I'm excited for more.
I love these videos which genuinely help those who want to change, but seem too open ended for those who just seem like they want to change.
Love the video!
This is probably the most brilliant RUclips video I’ve ever seen. Nice job
This is the best video on Obsidian I have watched. I was intrigued by it, but every video I watched made it look like more work than neccesary and quite unorganized. Your video showed how well all the information goes together, perhaps it's just you and how you use it, but now I think I could give it a try. Thanks! (also, I feel called out as I am a data hoarder)
One of the best video on learning and note taking. First principles thinking and importance of conceptual note taking, Knowledge is not disciplines rather a universe are golden advice. Thanks.
Ill rewatch this for sure, i got it on my feed and im so thankful, ive been wanting to find something like this for ages! Thanks man :D
OKG THIS IS SO GOOD THANK YOUUUUUU AND HOLY SHIT YOUR OBSIDIAN NETWORK IS CRAAAZY WOWOWOWOW
There needs to be a "❤️" button. Great presentation, great voice, and straight to the point! I've seen so many videos on note taking using a similar idea, but you really packaged it well in this video. Thank you!
Seriously, one of the best videos I've seen on the topic
This is one of the best youtube videos I've seen this year, and I watch a LOT of youtube.
I have been struggling to take quality notes and this video is great!
Notes should be actionable, it is not about hoarding information that is easily searchable, but rather collecting concepts that we will use.
this is among the best advice I've got on note taking ever. You've truly mastered to put things straight too and illustrate ideas. Highly motivated to pursue the idea of conceptual note taking from now on. Thanks a lot!
I agree with you that you shouldn't focus on remembering the dry facts that are just variables, but one problem to that approach is that schools usually test on exactly those things which means that it forces me to write them down anyway. This unfortunately also leaves my notes feeling less appealing for my future self to look back at.
With that being said, this was a great video. I recently swapped from making a million notepad files per class to using Obsidian. What you said about how it's not supposed to be a "wikipedia project" but a learning pursuit really resonated with me since I've kept feeling unsure about what to include and not include.
Dude I love you for this. Starting uni soon and I feel 100x more prepared after watching this video
wow, i first saw your sub count as 1.64m and was shocked when it was only 1.64k, this video was amazing and informative. thank you so much!
HA, yes, walking on a hill in nature to make a hit home point is where we’re at in RUclips. This is such a well made video and a great explanation.
10 out of 10 for the quality of content, keep up with this standard
I'm curious about how you memorize the stuff you want to memorize, is there another tool/technique or you review the concepts through obsidian
Btw, I came here to watch how different people use obsidian, but got so many new ideas to improve my learning process.
Thanks for sharing this.
These days almost all of what I have to memorize for school is just *how* to do things (like how to solve problems), which is made drastically easier by knowing *why* something works, which conceptual note are good at making clear. From there all I need to do is a little practice (apply the knowledge to the real world), and it seems to stick pretty well.
For things that aren't school related, I don't find myself worrying too much about memorizing the actual thing (though it would be great if I could very easily), but instead trying just to memorize that something exists. If at one point I learned that something existed and how it worked (like a certain method to solving a problem), then later on in life when faced with a new problem I can just remember that there was this one solution, and then I could go look it up in more detail.
So the emphasis there is more on drawing lots of light connections, and then drilling down deep when I have to. I think this is the most practical way to achieve success in most careers.
Glad you liked the video!
Anki
this video really helped me, since i was confused whether i should take notes digitally or not
You are correct about connection i call it associations . Sometimes seemingly completely unrelated information complement each other inside one's brain, enforce remembering and understanding.
One of these connection that is often overlooked are mnemonic aids.
e.g. after 20 years i still remember rough shape of phase diagram of technical steels simply due to having above and beyond teacher who came up with mnemonic aid of a jumping ball. I've never seen or used that diagram ever after. I forgot most of the other diagrams that i have never needed.
god tier youtube video right here. I am totaly switching obsidian from notion
Have you ever got that feeling that things could be done better, you get the vague issues and some solutions... And the BOOM! Got yourself a RUclips videos that describes exactly your concerns and how to fix them. I'm 2 months away from finishing the semester, i'll probably follow some of this advice and come later to comment my results
Great video!
I need more of this, Please make more videos about this subject. Really inspiring and informative, while not getting stale :))
An incredible video. Thank you. You have a very cool presentation of information. I hope you continue to make videos and get a deservedly large audience.
Awesome, conceptualizing notes. I started doing something like this because it lets ideas grow instead of being spread out all over from trying to take notes on a bunch of different courses all organizing stuff a different way when there tends to be a lot of cross over that we aren't taking advantage of. This video helps to give pointers on doing it way better than my trial and error try and figure out a method and in much frustration, rewriting stuff which really ruins my calm demeanor.
I also realize I really need to work on my obsidian css presentation. I like your notes.
This is the best material about the organization of knowledge of all that I have met.
Very inspiring.
Thanks.
This channel will blow up fast if quality content like this keeps being released
Thank-you brother for making this video. You are truly gifted/ skilled. And thank-you so much for the "linking your thinking recommendation"!