How to Write Mini Essays (in Obsidian)

[@odysseas__]

Hey Nick, thanks for the shoutout! I loved your take on the essays, especially how practical the advice was, like the pointers of how to begin the writing. Great stuff overall man

[@linkingyourthinking]

You bet!

[@NathanLatton]

Home on a sick day, I've literally been scrolling with a headache for the last eight hours. This has been a wonderful, thought-provoking snippet of serendipity. Thank you.

[@linkingyourthinking]

I scroll too, so I know the feeling. I hope you enjoyed :)

[@MaxwellBuba]

You can take a photo of what you have inspired during the day and then write a text about it. I have noticed that these photos are something very special and lead to many insights.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Ooo, I love this!

[@andrewchen7530]

+1, I also highly recommend the google photos plugin if you use their service, great for journal and remembrance, plus it's size efficient

[@AlexPinegger]

I totally did discovered that 3 days ago. That while I took pictures I had so many ideas

[@Greg_Wheeler]

Dude, this is great. "How do I know what I think til I see what I link". Brilliant. Thanks for sharing this man.

[@Sandalia98]

Love it! I can’t agree more, I’ve experienced as well to discover the title at the end of my essay/ note … it’s so amazing when it appears naturally. Feels so great haha. Thanks a lot for this video

[@linkingyourthinking]

Love that the "discovered title" resonated with you, it's really the way so much of my ideation happens

[@paulgallinato9736]

Awesome content… and glad to see props to Odysseas’ vid!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thank you, and yes, Odysseas is a wonderful voice.

[@severine_aurelia]

Agreed, I watched Odysseas' video first (about a week ago or so), and I was worried he wouldn't get credit. Nick is a class act as usual, though.

[@cblackall21]

Watched Odysseas vid. This is also an excellent riff on this new genre. Thank you.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Glad you enjoyed this one. Odysseas vid is great too.

[@elnabz4731]

Hey Nick, thank you for your awesome work and the impactful insights you give us. I want to suggest a content that I think would fit your phrase Linking Your Thinking. It's about Effective communication and the ability to articulate our thoughts, and you are a perfect example for that. It was your style of communication that made me finish the obsidian beginner series and got me hooked to your channel, the speed of your communication is not too fast and slow either which can easily capture anyone's attention. Mastering this skill will work wonders in our relationships, work e.t.c. Basically it would make our lives better. I believe a lot of people here would agree that a content like that would highly be beneficial and fit your channel niche. Once again thank you for the helpful information and keep up with the amazing work.

[@Gokuderka]

WOW, just honestly WOW! I am literally mind-blown (my head is tingling) because this is something very new and interesting to me as an idea to try. It feels very inspirational and creative. I've been doing journaling for several years now, and this year I aim to add 'intent' into my writing instead of just general things. I also do creative writing and write poems, but I had never thought about something like writing mini essays. I actually need to sit on this info for a little bit and then rewatch the video because I now really want to incorporate this into my journaling routine. This gave me some solid ideas as well that I wanna explore. Thank you very much for this video and for sharing your flow and examples! All the best to you and good luck!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Glad you found the video inspiring!

[@beckyn9338]

I’m fairly new to your channel, Nick, and you seem to have all your stuff in one sock. Strong work.

[@Change-1820]

This was a great video. I loved the airplane analogy when thinking about magical to mundane. Every time I fly, I work hard to get that window seat on Southwest (unless traveling with my kids) because it is still, and hopefully always will be, amazing to me.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Love that!

[@linkingyourthinking]

What are some of your mini essays? Do you have a sticky headline for them?

[@thoughtfulgandalf]

"Sparks to remarks" makes me realize I've been doing it all wrong

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@thoughtfulgandalf Nice!

[@medicussapiens]

This will help me in getting started. Great content, thank you so much!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Happy to help!

[@Adam.3313]

You are amazing. Thank you for your video. I will now begin to check your channel, hopefully to find videos like this. Your eyes tell me that you are a very conscious, kind, attentive person, who pays attention what moves things in life.

[@extremeintelligence]

Wow this is so powerful, I’m going to start doing this every week

[@AlexPinegger]

Wow thank you so much for this! I'm at the point where I apply many of the LYT concepts you teach, also inspired by the amazing community around LYT. And at the same time stuck on how to get the whirlwind of thoughts out there. The goal of structured content between 100-300 words is unthreatening enough to be inspired. And the process, you presented seems simple enough to follow (intentionally didn't write easy). It gets me really excited about actually doing it. Thank you!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thank you for your kind words! It's great to hear that you're finding inspiration and motivation in applying the LYT concepts.

[@luisbrito1960]

Interesting video, Thanks.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Glad you liked it :)

[@jpborth]

Great technique! Thank you

[@linkingyourthinking]

Glad it was helpful Jan!

[@Gurungsiddharth]

Thank you man.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thank you too

[@febilogi]

For quite some time I wanna know more about the concept of zettelkasten's permanent notes. What I understand from permanent note is similar to this! We just have to mix some of this mini essays, mininum of 2 or 3 mini essays, and it's done. This is my way to use my card notes into more useful context, to warm up my brain before I take it into the next level: longer permanent notes or more mature permanent notes. Thanks for sharing this! You give me confidence to explore my thoughts :D

[@RodneyDaut]

I love this video. It's great to see the techniques all used to produce a specific result - writing. I'm looking forward to taking your workshop. I'd love to know the price point although I have a sense what it will likely cost.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Awesome, thank you! Looking forward to having you in the workshop!

[@EliasKlemedsson]

How many hours a day do you find energy enough for to write? I am experiencing real struggle most days gathering (or even finding) the energy to actually sit and write, think. It always seem like from watching your videos and other similar to you that you guys have unlimited energy, just always writing, thinking and doing. How does a typical day/week of knowledge work look like for you?

[@insecurejezza]

It’s naturally going to look this way given that Nick’s business and content is focused on this very thing. I think the answer is to do this stuff as much as it makes you happy with the time and energy you can afford. Don’t fall into a trap of feeling guilty.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Elias, please listen to Jezza's reply and please don't feel guilty. When I stopped editing TV shows, I started full-time with Linking Your Thinking, which incentives me to make videos about things I find helpful and that I think may help others. That said, the other parts of the LYT business take up enough time (and more) than a regular job, so it's still hard to find time to read and write, but it's also the lifeblood of everything I do. What I'm trying to get at, unsuccessfully, is that I have good "alignment" right now. Writing and thinking is 100% aligned with what I have to do anyways, so I don't have to find the time, because it's both what I love doing, and what I have to be doing. It took me 33 years to get to most of this alignment, and even then it was an accident really. But I'm grateful for it. I'll end with a Victor Frankl quote, paraphrased from a Nietzsche quote that "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." My "whys" are aligned and have made it easier for me to spend time in these areas. The last thing you should feel is guilty, and I hope this reflection helps to show why.

[@EliasKlemedsson]

​@@linkingyourthinking Thank you Nick for the thorough and kind (,and honest) response! It's very much appreciated. I'll take that quote to heart, btw. I should look over my why's...

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@EliasKlemedsson 🙏

[@cathrynwha]

To add to the Experience point, see Harry Dry’s tip on Time Place What’s happening

[@74rocka]

Great Video Nick. Given you have thousands of notes, how do you keep track of and resurface 1) your sparks, and 2) your ideas/thoughts/remarks to create the links and build novel insights?

[@linkingyourthinking]

This is the core of everything I do and it's hard to just answer. There are technical answers. But the short answer is to make links. Make links. When I make a link I solve for both of your questions: I am keeping track of ideas by the power of "relationships", which our brains are naturally honed for; and I am building novel insights as I think about what to link.

[@Caroline_Creative]

Do you have a video where you talk about what “Atlas” means? I see it in your file path

[@linkingyourthinking]

Yes I do, check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIfPZHyIfLSKrM0

[@crispywings9066]

Hey nick, I’m 15 and wanna start my idea verse but don’t know where to start, I over think and over complicate structures and I don’t know which vids are beginner friendly. Could you give me some tips?

[@DrDigitalIncome]

Is it possible to make an analogue LYT system?

[@CabooseAhNotMyFault]

big same with the dune experience, went 3 times in dune 2 actually. that's a spark right there

[@linkingyourthinking]

Nice!

[@Scott-Loftesness]

Technique 3 in the description and the chapter titles isn't Experience - it's Event.

[@mostlynotworking4112]

Thank you

[@linkingyourthinking]

You're welcome

[@artbillcorner]

Thank you so much for sharing. Hi Milo. Perhaps some day might see you talk about how to use Obsidian to expand, understand, learning....... teaching of Edward De Bono.

[@linkingyourthinking]

I believe that day is already here, serendipitously enough, in this video that even features Edward De Bono: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYi1maOPiMiinM0

[@indianhorror]

Fantastic

[@oktinaa]

so funny that i put off watching this video for weeks because i didn't feel like i was in a good head space to get off the hamster wheel and start writing yet

[@ElectrikMe]

Two music tracks are playing. Has anyone else noticed that?

[@linkingyourthinking]

Hmmm, just a brief overlap, or throughout?

[@ElectrikMe]

@@linkingyourthinking No, not the entire video. Sorry about that!😅 It kicked in around @4:50, I thought you did it to mask copyrighted music or something lol

[@Steerpikey]

Very interesting. Reservation: let's be careful not to GPT-3-ifiy our own thoughts into the closed-capsule format of the mini-essay (beginning, middle, end), or any format that is easily digestible.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Yes much better to write in forms that take months and that are illegible to others.

[@Steerpikey]

​@@linkingyourthinking That's not what I meant. It was just food for thought. And yes, I'll write a mini essay about it to elaborate the thought better :)

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@Steerpikey Ah gotcha. Essays have been around a bit longer than GPT so from my perspective writing essays is the exact opposite of everything GPT is about. Maybe we should be careful on the "essayification" of our own thoughts, but if we're writing in our own words, we have to be as worried about sounding like GPT as we should be about looking like a cliff or a patch of concrete.

[@AlexPinegger]

The beginning, middle, end structure let's me hope that I actually get my point across.

[@jefframirez1]

Could you turn down the background music just a bit next time? I’m all for it, but this one, for some reason, was scrambling my brain as I tried to pay attention

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely consider adjusting the background music for future videos.

[@AmeeliaK]

The music in the background is disturbing

[@linkingyourthinking]

Someone else mentioned that. I agree I don't like the music being too loud. I thought we found the right balance, but maybe not?

[@FAFash-wo9yg]

OMG, I was literally going to say this. I love what he's saying but the music is distracting/a little too loud

[@FAFash-wo9yg]

​@@linkingyourthinkingnot at all sir. Great content though

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@FAFash-wo9yg Okay, thanks for confirming!

[@Rotwood]

The music at the start is the same music used by That Chapter KZbin videos, so I kept expecting him to summarize a terrible murder case to me... Weird brain connection through music.

[@example4ever]

Hi 👋 😊😘

[@linkingyourthinking]

Hi

[@bobbyv3]

JK Rowling's spark: Boy is a wizard. Doesn't know he's a wizard. Goes to wizarding school.

[@bc4198]

Wait, isn't this what everyone does? 😅🫣

[@linkingyourthinking]

Sadly, most people mindlessly consume. Others just highlight the words of others. We must help light the way to get more people to start writing their own stuff because...it's how to learn better, remember more, and accidentally create stuff we're proud of

[@marcelberes469]

No, just people who take notes.

[@bc4198]

Though admittedly, the "mini essays" here are more _mini_ than I expected 😊🤔