DeveloPassion's Newsletter 186 - PKM System Handbook
A newsletter discussing Knowledge Management, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!
Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨
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Welcome
Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩
I'm slowly recovering from the lumbago. It's not the funniest of experiences, and I'm glad I'm slowly getting better.
Still, this week has been quite exciting. I've made great progress on my Knowledge Management course, hit a new sales record, and ordered 96GB of RAM to experiment with running Large Language Models locally. More on all of this below! 🚀
Alright, let's gooooo 🚀
Before You Go Any Further
I want to reach more people. Got 60 seconds? Then share the link with one friend/colleague who would benefit from joining us!
The Lab 🧪
First, I'm thrilled to share that I hit a new sales record this month, crossing the $2K mark! This shows that my products are really helping people, which is exactly what I aim for 🎉
On the technical side, I've been busy improving my systems:
First of all, after almost losing some of my notes last week, I've created a new backup script for my vault using PowerShell (and AI of course :p). It creates a compressed archive of all the content, independently of Obsidian. I've scheduled it to run multiple times per day, as well as each time I lock my desktop computer. This will ensure that I always have fresh backups available in case a problem occurs. The script is available here: https://gist.github.com/dsebastien/dbff841a773be4ecdb61e5233e104feb
I will later include it in the Obsidian Starter Kit.
I also setup a custom domain for my products on Gumroad, which can now be accessed at: https://www.store.dsebastien.net. I've already updated the link on my Website, but still have to update it everywhere else. This will make it easier for me to later get rid of Gumroad and reduce my costs (Gumroad takes 10+% of all the sales I make).
Today, I ordered 96GB of RAM to experiment with running larger LLMs locally (can't wait to try this out!). I've ordered this: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 96GB (2x48GB) CL40-40-40-77 1.25V (CMK96GX5M2B5600C40).
Lastly, I'm planning to the Post Webhook plugin for Obsidian plugin to trigger n8n workflows, turning my Obsidian vault into a real command center. I have many ideas around that, and I'll write more about it once I got something interesting in place.
Knowledge Management Course Progress
I've made significant progress on Module 7 - "Building your PKM System" of my upcoming Knowledge Management course . This module is particularly special because it ties together everything covered in the previous modules, providing actionable guidance to build a solid PKM system.
The detailed structure of module 7 is ready, and I've documented all the steps to help learners build their own Personal Knowledge Management System.
That module covers:
- Core characteristics of a reliable system
- Essential components you need
- Tool selection criteria and recommendations
- What I use
- System design and documentation
- Overview of my PKM system
- Basic setup and configuration
- Workflow design
- Advanced topics like avoiding vendor lock-in, removing busywork, automation strategies, data synchronization, backups, etc
There's a last module I'd like to develop, to cover more advanced concepts, such as how to leverage GenAI and Large Language Models, how to manage projects in a PKM system, how to leverage your PKM system for productivity and "life management", and more. I think that I'll do a "freestyle" recording session for that one, and I'll go through the ideas one by one, showcasing the "how" as part of my own system (i.e., how I actually do it for myself).
I'm getting closer and closer to be able to release this course. I hoped to be done by the end of January, but my lumbago and perfectionist side prevented me from getting there. I don't regret my approach and choices. This course is really valuable, and I'm sure people will benefit from it, avoiding the main traps that so many fall into while trying to build their systems. This course is also a great showcase of the value of PKM, and will clearly show how to leverage the accumulated knowledge to capturing and develop valuable ideas. There's one BIG task remaining: actually recording and editing the videos, now that I have the slides and scripts.
Speaking of the course, I have some news! 🚀 While the course is still in pre-order, I plan to organize a free live workshop for early birds who pre-order, soon after launch. Plus, pre-ordering locks in the current price, which will increase after launch.
👉 If you're interested, check out the course here:
PKM System Design and Documentation
While working on Module 7 of my Knowledge Management course, I thoroughly documented my own PKM system. Before this, I only had visualizations, a few articles giving the gist of it, and scattered notes, with many details living solely in my head.
This documentation effort led me to create something that I think will be really valuable: a PKM System Handbook template. This template covers all essential aspects of a Personal Knowledge Management system:
- Tools, platforms & hardware requirements
- Core principles that guide system design
- Content types and their management
- Special notes and their purposes
- Naming conventions and organization rules
- Folder structures and organization
- Tagging strategies
- Metadata management
- Templates and their usage
- Data and information flows
- Key workflows
- Habits and routines
- Automation opportunities
- Synchronization approaches
- Maintenance procedures
- Backup strategies
The beauty of this template is that it forces you to consciously design every aspect of your system. Nothing is left to chance. It helps you create a system that's not just functional today but maintainable and scalable for years to come.
This handbook will be included as a bonus with my Knowledge Management course.
The Future of PKM
This week, I discussed with Martin Adams, author and founder of Flowtelic, an upcoming PKM app with strong focus on integrated workflows. We ended up having a discussion about the impact of AI on PKM, and how the future of PKM should look like.
My main takeaways are that:
- The more we can hide and even remove the tedious aspects of knowledge management, the easier it will be for people to integrate it in their lives and to get value out of it
- AI is an enabler for automating many of those aspects
- We need tools that deeply integrate systems thinking and workflows
- We need tools to enable us to connect all the dots automagically, while letting us go from one idea, down to the specific bits and pieces it was "extracted" from
Communities Reboot
As I mentioned at the end of last year, I plan our community, and actually to regroup all of my existing communities, currently on Slack, Discord, etc into a single one. I've used AI to help me come up with a name, knowing that it will cover various topics such as Knowledge Management, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity, Content Creation, and how to leverage AI for it all.
Claude and Deepseek came up with cool ideas such as:
- Knowledge Catalyst
- Knowledge Forge
- Knowledge Stream
- Knowledge Amplifier
- Knowledge Flow
- Knowledge Flow Academy
- Knowledge Flow Catalyst
- Knowledge Flow Accelerator
- Knowledge Flow Circle
- Knowledge Flow Community
- Flow Masters
- Flow Mind
- Flow Academy
- Mind Catalyst
- Brain Forge
- Thought Amplifier
- Mind Accelerator
- Mindii
But then Claude proposed "Knowii"... And it got me thinking. Knowii is the name I chose for my open source Community Knowledge Management platform. I resumed working on it in August last year, but decided to put it on hold again to focus on more reasonable goals.
Right now, even if the server is up and running, the platform is not evolving at all, and it's far from ready for prime time. Instead of continuing to waste money on something I'm not focusing on right now, I've decided to reuse the name for the community reboot.
Deepseek also came up with nice titles, taglines and acronym meanings for this new community space:
Titles
- Knowii - Knowledge, Ideas, Impact
- Knowii - From Information to Insight
- Knowii - Connect, Learn, Master
- Knowii - Knowledge in Motion
- Knowii - Transform Information Into Knowledge
- Knowii - Beyond Information Overload
- Knowii - The DeveloPassion Knowledge Network
- Knowii - DeveloPassion's Knowledge Hub
Taglines:
- Never Lose Important Information Again
- Transform Information Overload into Knowledge Power
- Stay on Top of What Matters
- Where Knowledge Finds Its Flow
- Master Your Information, Amplify Your Knowledge
- From Information Chaos to Knowledge Control
- Remember Everything, Access Anything
- Your Knowledge, Always at Hand
- Tame Information Overload, Master Knowledge Flow
- Turn Information into Impact
Acronym meanings:
- Knowledge Now Operationalized With Immediate Impact
- Knowledge Network Of Wise Individuals & Ideas
- Knowledge Naturally Organized With Intelligence & Insight
- Knowledge Naturally Organized With Intuitive Integration
- Knowledge Naturally Organized With Iterative Improvement
- Knowledge Naturally Organized Without Information Isolation
- Knowledge Network Optimized, Welcoming Information Integration
- Knowledge Naturally Ordered With Infinite Intelligence
- Knowledge Now Organized Without Important Information-loss
- Knowledge Now Organized With Infinite Interconnections
I don't yet know which ones I'll use, but I like many of these! ❤️
My vision for the future of Knowii as a community platform is still the same. But now, I think that the community reboot I want to focus on after I launch the Knowledge Management course will actually become step 1 of that community knowledge management journey.
In a first stage, given my time constraints, Knowii will reboot as a new community, probably hosted on circle.so. It will regroup all my communities in one place. I'll also invite all my present and past customers to join (eg Obsidian Starter Kit users). There will be different spaces to explore and discuss specific topics, help each others out, share ideas, systems, processes, tools, AI techniques, etc. It will allow us to create a safe space for sharing ideas, experimenting, and learning together. I will also try and regroup all my content and courses in there.
Later on, I still intend to work on the Knowii platform, and once it has evolved enough, to migrate the community onto the platform, integrating means to curate content as a community, similar to what Hacker News does, combined with ideas from the long-gone del.icio.us: Content curation + Voting + Tagging + Discussions. This second stage should also integrate AI features to help extract and summarize key concepts, and store those in the community knowledge base, forever linked to the source material. This is where more value will be added and amassed through community "efforts", leading to the creation of value and leverage for community members. That's also where more communities should be able to join the platform, to cover other any topic (e.g., a community for PHP developers, for AI Marketers, for Data Scientists, etc).
And the long-term goal is to bring it all together, as a web of knowledge, letting everyone find/reuse/connect/... community knowledge with their own knowledge bases (or just integrating it all together). A sort of Web in the World Wide Web, but focused on ideas and valuable community knowledge and insights.
Exciting times!
If you have ideas about the reboot of our community, then please don't hesitate to reach out to me, I'm all ears!
Solopreneur Foundations course
My friend Jenn Simpson has just released her new course! 🎉
If you're feeling stuck, and want to try starting a business around what sets you apart, then go check her content. She's a wonderful human being and coach, and I have no doubts that she has great insights to share, having been doing this for many years already.
Predictions and Roast
This week, I tested an AI tool that analyzes Hacker News user profiles and generates predictions for that person as well as a roast of their profile and activity. I found the results quite accurate and fun:
I agree with most of what the tool generated for me. And it's quite impressive that it predicted that I want to expand the Obsidian Starter Kit, further leveraging AI. There's so much potential to tap into!
Latest Articles
This week was focused on the course and system documentation, so no new articles to share. However, I've got some interesting ones in the pipeline!
Quotes of the week
- Knowledge Management needs to be a first class citizen in your work and life if you want it to have an impact
- Stop starting over. Start building on what you know
- Knowledge compounds over time. But only if you have a system
- Most notes are write-only. Created once, never read again. Smart notes are building blocks. Created once, used forever
- Every great system starts with thoughtful design
Meme of the week
New & Interesting Links
Obsidian 1.8.2 is here. Check out the release notes:
An interesting discussion about PKM Systems Bankruptcy:
Anyone else go through PKMS bankruptcy?
by u/co-cube in PKMS
Interesting insights about trying to move from Roam to Obsidian:
Martin Sauter
A thought-provoking piece about the dangers of getting too caught up in PKM tool optimization instead of focusing on actual knowledge work:
Neil Hawkesford
An interesting contrarian view that challenges us to think about how we use our tools and whether we're actually being productive:
Josiah Brown
A comprehensive guide to Obsidian Properties that clarifies how to leverage metadata effectively in your notes, something I'm also covering in the KM course:
A detailed discussion about the pros and cons of different periodic note approaches in PKM systems: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1dt47w9/daily_notes_versus_weekly_notes_whats_your
Keep it Simple, Stupid:
Ev Chapman
That's it for today! ✨
About Sébastien
I am Sébastien Dubois. You can follow me on X 🐦 and on BlueSky 🦋.
I am an author, founder, and coach. I write books and articles about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, and Zen Productivity. I also craft lovely digital products . You can learn more about my projects here.
If you want to follow my work, then become a member.
Ready to get to the next level?
To embark on your Knowledge Management journey, consider investing in resources that will equip you with the tools and strategies you need. Check out the Obsidian Starter Kit and the accompanying video course. It will give you a rock-solid starting point for your note-taking and Knowledge Management efforts.
If you want to take a more holistic approach, then the Knowledge Worker Kit is for you. It covers PKM, but expands into productivity, personal organization, project/task management, and more:
If you are in a hurry, then do not hesitate to book a coaching session with me:
