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.
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
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.
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!!
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?
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.
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!
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!
"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. 👍
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 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 🙌🏻
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
You saying "trust yourself" about what to take notes on in this video changed my life a year and a half ago. It's a totally different mindset than copy-paste notes, and it even improved my self awareness in other aspects of my life. I'm not just more efficient after applying that, I'm a better person. Ironically it was a concept that applied to more than just note taking Thank you Chris. I mean it.
Appreciate it! Glad you could get out of this as much as I did. Some have criticized the "trust yourself" line as bad advice as it causes you to miss important details you'll inevitably forget later, but I've found that in trusting myself I've gained a much better read on my abilities and can therefore leverage *my* intelligence more rather than constantly needing to reference my Obsidian library for information which - in the alternate framework they suggest - is unmemorizable to mere human brains and therefore we shouldn't even try. I think if we trust ourselves, then we get to know ourselves, which allows us to leverage the cognitive power we have available to us. If we axiomatically see the mind as untrustworthy, then we'll always need Obsidian there as a constant crutch rather than a tool meant to aid the real brains we walk around with everyday. Or, at the very least, we would then need to *always* sit down an think about things in Obsidian rather than being able to think on our feet.
@@chrispomeroyYT Absolutely. There's a separation of concerns between thinking and efficient information referencing that you are getting at there too. It was that ability to measure the capacity and intuitions of my mind as well as gain trust and confidence in it in the process that was so life changing while I was just searching for Obsidian tips -- deeply appreciate it 🙏
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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 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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
10:05 so what is your practical solution to the problem of the “random order of concepts”? I personally write all in a note, and then in a second phase I link or connect to atomic concepts.
When I'm learning stuff, I usually try my hardest to split it into concepts in real time. Sometimes it's obvious that something will be its own note, but other times it's less obvious and I'll have to go back and edit it later when I review the notes/do the homework (if applicable). But the goal for me is always to minimize time spent in the reviewing stage - I find that parsing out where the individual concepts are in real time is actually a skill that gets better with me over time. But I will admit, if I'm wrong about the organization initially, it can be more difficult to reorganize when all the note are separated versus taken in one note to then be split out (like you suggested). So I find myself doing a little bit of both, trying to walk the line between both extremes, probably biased towards the former, though.
Hey, what ive found useful is to note everything in one note but use [[potential note title]] instead of things like headers for different sections, so i still get the overview and when im set on what i want to put in notes i just open these blank notes and copy and paste
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 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!
What a beautiful lesson on information management! i wish i came across this 20 or even 5 years ago...Thank You Chris... Now how do i apply this to learning German!? Hmmmmm....
Chris, that was an amazing presentation. Great voice, fast (but not rushed!). Really spoke to me. Thanks. Looking into your channel now (and subs) I have a huge problem...come across so many disparate things I want to integrate and learn more about... Obsidian looks great. Linking... fantastic.
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 TH-cam algorithm. I’ve never even heard of PKM before. Guess I’ll try obsidian then!! Very helpful video.
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
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.
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)
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!
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.
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
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.
I love the way you used metaphors to explain what you meant! As a educational sciences student I can vouch that everything you said is completely correct 😊
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!
3 ปีที่แล้ว
Man this is the best video I've watched in a long time. And I watch TH-cam videos all day long everyday. So, yeah, I liked and subscribed. Thanks for your amazing work!!
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.
Thanks for making a great video! I love the shift from conceptual notes rather than trying to capture everything word for word in sequential order. Looking forward to future videos on ideation as well.
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
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.
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!
I really like your note taking method! After watching the video, I realize having individual notes for specific topics and linking them together is similar to how wikipedia articles are structured.
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.
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 :(
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.
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!!
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
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.
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!
Purely life changing video, no drama, no clickbait , right into the point. Thnak you
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!
"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.
👍
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.
Bravo, great thinking, keep 'em coming!
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!!!
"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 🙌🏻
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.
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 ;)
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
Watched this video for the second time now. You should keep doing more stuff like this. Really enjoyed it
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!
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.
You saying "trust yourself" about what to take notes on in this video changed my life a year and a half ago.
It's a totally different mindset than copy-paste notes, and it even improved my self awareness in other aspects of my life. I'm not just more efficient after applying that, I'm a better person. Ironically it was a concept that applied to more than just note taking
Thank you Chris. I mean it.
Appreciate it! Glad you could get out of this as much as I did.
Some have criticized the "trust yourself" line as bad advice as it causes you to miss important details you'll inevitably forget later, but I've found that in trusting myself I've gained a much better read on my abilities and can therefore leverage *my* intelligence more rather than constantly needing to reference my Obsidian library for information which - in the alternate framework they suggest - is unmemorizable to mere human brains and therefore we shouldn't even try.
I think if we trust ourselves, then we get to know ourselves, which allows us to leverage the cognitive power we have available to us. If we axiomatically see the mind as untrustworthy, then we'll always need Obsidian there as a constant crutch rather than a tool meant to aid the real brains we walk around with everyday. Or, at the very least, we would then need to *always* sit down an think about things in Obsidian rather than being able to think on our feet.
@@chrispomeroyYT Absolutely. There's a separation of concerns between thinking and efficient information referencing that you are getting at there too.
It was that ability to measure the capacity and intuitions of my mind as well as gain trust and confidence in it in the process that was so life changing while I was just searching for Obsidian tips -- deeply appreciate it 🙏
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!
is no one gonna mention how insane this guys' graph view is, it looks beautiful
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.
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!
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
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
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.
"You're not here to hoard data". So true. Thanks for clearing that up and making sense of it.
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!
You literally took the words out of my mouth, I think of the exact same things all the time! Sick video btw
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!).
How does this channel only have 1.6k subs? You deserve more man. Cheers to you, and good luck with your future videos.
I can't believe I found this during my last semester of my masters, brilliant video.
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!
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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!
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!
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 probably the most brilliant TH-cam video I’ve ever seen. Nice job
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.
This video is a true gem. Insightful and funny. I'm excited for more.
Great video. That walk on the hill gave me major CPGrey vibes. Please make more videos, you have a talent you might not have known about before.
10:05 so what is your practical solution to the problem of the “random order of concepts”? I personally write all in a note, and then in a second phase I link or connect to atomic concepts.
When I'm learning stuff, I usually try my hardest to split it into concepts in real time. Sometimes it's obvious that something will be its own note, but other times it's less obvious and I'll have to go back and edit it later when I review the notes/do the homework (if applicable). But the goal for me is always to minimize time spent in the reviewing stage - I find that parsing out where the individual concepts are in real time is actually a skill that gets better with me over time.
But I will admit, if I'm wrong about the organization initially, it can be more difficult to reorganize when all the note are separated versus taken in one note to then be split out (like you suggested). So I find myself doing a little bit of both, trying to walk the line between both extremes, probably biased towards the former, though.
Hey, what ive found useful is to note everything in one note but use [[potential note title]] instead of things like headers for different sections, so i still get the overview and when im set on what i want to put in notes i just open these blank notes and copy and paste
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!
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!
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!
this was de video that got me started in PKM. Thanks. And that's all I have to say, really, thank you
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
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
What a beautiful lesson on information management! i wish i came across this 20 or even 5 years ago...Thank You Chris... Now how do i apply this to learning German!? Hmmmmm....
I need more of this, Please make more videos about this subject. Really inspiring and informative, while not getting stale :))
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!
This was a better video than most of the top productivity youtubers’ garbage content. Deserves more recognition.
Chris, that was an amazing presentation. Great voice, fast (but not rushed!). Really spoke to me. Thanks. Looking into your channel now (and subs)
I have a huge problem...come across so many disparate things I want to integrate and learn more about... Obsidian looks great. Linking... fantastic.
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 TH-cam algorithm. I’ve never even heard of PKM before. Guess I’ll try obsidian then!! Very helpful video.
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
Seriously, one of the best videos I've seen on the topic
Thank-you brother for making this video. You are truly gifted/ skilled. And thank-you so much for the "linking your thinking recommendation"!
Still waiting for that follow-up video, definitely one of the best videos on the topic. Thank you for making this
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 is one of the best youtube videos I've seen this year, and I watch a LOT of youtube.
Dude I love you for this. Starting uni soon and I feel 100x more prepared after watching this video
HA, yes, walking on a hill in nature to make a hit home point is where we’re at in TH-cam. This is such a well made video and a great explanation.
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.
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)
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!
Not even half way through but had to pause to comment and say this is brilliant. Thank you
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.
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
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.
Wish I hadn't become so depressed after highschool, my industriousness and productivity goals were just as remarkable as this brilliant video, thx.
I love the way you used metaphors to explain what you meant! As a educational sciences student I can vouch that everything you said is completely correct 😊
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
Excellent EXCELLENT delivery. Your clarity is inspiring mate.
Cool video. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a walkthrough of your Obsidian setup.
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!
Man this is the best video I've watched in a long time. And I watch TH-cam videos all day long everyday. So, yeah, I liked and subscribed. Thanks for your amazing work!!
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.
Thanks for making a great video! I love the shift from conceptual notes rather than trying to capture everything word for word in sequential order. Looking forward to future videos on ideation as well.
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
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.
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
I really like your note taking method! After watching the video, I realize having individual notes for specific topics and linking them together is similar to how wikipedia articles are structured.
This is an incredibly valuable video on note-taking, please make more.
god tier youtube video right here. I am totaly switching obsidian from notion