Idea Emergence Q&A Part 1: How to Create MOCs, How to use Tags & Folders

[@vanderstraetenmarc]

A light at the end of my PKM tunnel... that’s what Nick Milo showed me! A course everyone involved with Personal Knowledge Management should take!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thanks Marc! I really appreciate hearing this already :)

[@Wingedmagician]

You played a role in evolving my idea of pkm/note taking systems. Sönke Ahrens was the first with how to take smart notes, the MOC idea unlocked something big for me thank you

[@linkingyourthinking]

High praise Rob, thank you!

[@noobyproduction]

Thanks so much for making this video. This is exactly what I need at this time. You saying "structure needs to be earned" hits the spot!

[@spacefolder]

Amazing! After watching several LYT videos, this one made things come together to fully appreciate your workflow. Thank you!

[@linkingyourthinking]

🚀 Want to build a custom PKM System? Join the Linking Your Thinking Workshop starting on February 8th, 2022.. Click the link below and join the waitlist today. »» linkingyourthinking.com ««

[@erukei_]

Love your answer on 16:57. Home structure is earned by gathering notes. This defeats the idea of getting stressed with building MOCs (which is honestly my problem now). Thanks, Nick!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Exactly! Unearned structure ends up getting torn down anyways. Have patience, self-compassion, and a smidgen of faith in the Process :)

[@quickben2090]

Not only do I like your structure, but your topics / interests as well. Would love to see a deeper dive into some of your MOCs.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Thanks Ben! I was just perusing my MOCs on Hormesis, Posture, Breathing, and Rhetoric yesterday and having a lot of fun.

[@LinkEX]

26:40 I have a similar approach for "previous versions": - Generally, I recommend using a VCS like GIT for your Zettelkasten, so each revision is visible by default. - However, if the change reshapes it into a 'divergent idea', I do "branch" the change into a new note rather than overwriting the old one: The old one gets: - a link to the 'current version' (optional: reason for branching) - an #outdated tag - a "-v(Integer)"-prefix as signifier in the title. That way: - Outdated versions are easily recognized (starting with "-v1", "-v2" etc) - Searchable with the #outdated tag - Latest versions are recognized despite the growing number (they are the only ones without a "-") The value of doing all that: - Future ideation: 'Abandoned ideas' are still easily accessed and can be used for comparison.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Well thought out, and a valuable solution presented!

[@thorirbjornsson8658]

Thank you for an outstanding presentation. I had seen it a year ago or so, but didn't quite get it, but now, the second time, it makes total sense!

[@alexpaster686]

A very systematic approach!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Exactly! When you use notes, these patterns almost naturally reveal themself

[@cornifigo]

Thank you for all your contents! 🙏 From Italy

[@linkingyourthinking]

My pleasure!

[@feliperlouro]

Hey great help as always. You're a great teacher, very calm and patient. Thanks! I have two questions though if you could answer: 1 - how do you get those lines connecting the bullet points? Is it a community mod or more complicated? And how could you move bullet points around, is it like notion/roam or a little harder? 2 - I've been trying to decide (as many I guess) between roam and obsidian for some weeks already and obsidian is better at practically everything (offline, desktop app, fluid, free, community, customizable, beautiful, etc) But for example - when I want to reference a block that is a bullet point its "child" blocks don't appear, is there any way to do this? If i were referencing a subtitle would the whole paragraphs underneath it be referenced?? - The way you're able to see the whole block of references on the references page is also very good - the way you can drag and drop whole paragraphs to other pages, etc. Do you feel like these are important at all since you've had months of experience with obsidian? You think any of those will come to obsidian? I'm very unskilled at these apps so I might be saying something dumb haha Thank you!

[@linkingyourthinking]

1 - The "bullet line" is at the bottom of the CSS for Cybertron. You can copy and reuse (that's what I did). Yes, there's a hotkey you can set up for moving bullets up and down quickly. 2 - Great questions. They CAN be important, but they can also be unneeded distractions. Some of the features mentioned may eventually be added to Obsidian, or already be possible, or might become a 3rd-party plug-in.

[@feliperlouro]

@@linkingyourthinking thank you as always!

[@abhinavmukherjee2001]

This is a great video Nick. Can I get the Figma prototype somehow?

[@Obsidian-v2e]

This video is fire !

[@TheIllerX]

I just discovered Obsidian and your beginner videos were most helpful. Right now I am trying to understand exactly what an MoC is and how it works. Yes, I understand it is some higher lever index for some subject area, but how is the linking configured? Are you supposed to link to all subnotes and notes regarding the subject area in the MoC note? Should all the notes in the area link back to the MoC note? Or should you only link to some greater sub areas from your MoC? I know there is no strict right and wrong here, but I just try to figure out how it is usually done.

[@linkingyourthinking]

No right or wrong way, but go closer to only the greater sub areas (basically, just don't get into a mindset of "having to add everything all the time to keep it perfect")

[@TheIllerX]

@@linkingyourthinking Thanks, I will try that. I guess the most important thing here is that the use of the program should not feel like a burden.

[@cklester]

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm intrigued and want to learn more. Where does a complete n00b start? Any videos/blog posts that will help me get started with MOCs and Obsidian? Also, do you use Dynalist also, or does Obsidian do what Dynalist does?

[@linkingyourthinking]

Hey C.K., two places: this starter kit...just click around and try to figure out how I choose to structure things: publish.obsidian.md/lyt-kit/_Start+Here But then go to the community for more: obsidian.md/community

[@acalsmo]

Where do you get this infographic? Is it obsidian plugin? Thank you for your great videos!

[@RameshBaburbabu]

Video summary [00:00:00] - [00:27:27]: This video discusses the creation of Maps of Content (MOCs), the use of tags and folders, and the importance of linking notes in knowledge management systems like Obsidian and Roam. Highlights: + [00:00:00] **Introduction to MOCs** * Steps to create a Map of Content * Importance of bottom-up thinking * Comparison with top-down thinking + [00:01:29] **Using Maps of Content** * Spending time in a map * Ideation acceleration * Mental squeeze point and chunking + [00:05:04] **Inspiration from Dewey Decimal System** * Major categories and numbering * Personal aesthetic preference * Sorting and flexibility + [00:09:03] **Folders vs. Links** * Constructing emergence levels * Avoiding rigidity with folders * Using fewer folders with links + [00:10:05] **Naming System and Tags** * Strong naming system pattern * Tags as relationships * Avoiding over-tagging Video summary [00:27:29] - [00:32:14]: Part 2 of the video talks about how to create MOCs (Maps of Content), use tags, and organize notes effectively. The speaker shares personal preferences and methods for versioning notes, appending names or numbers, and managing ideas. Highlights: + [00:27:29] **Versioning notes** * Use different versions for iterations * Append names or numbers to keep old versions * Personal preference, not necessary + [00:28:42] **Organizing notes** * Break notes into sub-notes * Keep aspects of the original note * Add new information to existing notes + [00:30:00] **Managing ideas** * Use hotkeys to quickly create new notes * Append tags like "seed" or "tk" * Access and organize ideas later + [00:31:12] **Graph view** * Different colors for new ideas * CSS magic for visual differentiation * Link to uncreated ideas for future access

[@Sean.Vosler]

Synthetic vs analytical thinking is another way to look at it

[@RubenGarciaMarrufo]

damn, your process has really evolved

[@RubenGarciaMarrufo]

from this to ACCESS

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@RubenGarciaMarrufo process is the same, folders are non-essential icing on the cake

[@RubenGarciaMarrufo]

@@linkingyourthinking I can see that but still, it good to evolve, change, learn and even think differently!

[@harunjonuzi]

Where can we get that Art view of your LYT Kit?

[@hemanthreddy2534]

Sir,I have two questions, 1. how do we create a note in a particular subfolder? 2.How do we put notes in the particular directory when we generate a new note by [[]]] ?They seem to just prop up on main window.I am trying to build more of an index system as you have rather than more toggle based

[@linkingyourthinking]

Go to Settings > Files & Links, then change the settings under "Default location for new notes"

[@hemanthreddy2534]

@@linkingyourthinking Thank you for the help,do u also dumb all of the notes in same subfolder?

[@juliennewsome8573]

Does anybody know what theme he is using in this video?

[@huggingpuppy2613]

What do you think about Notion? Do you think it should interact with Obsidian?

[@linkingyourthinking]

Notion is good for teams and fairly static knowledge bases. It's clunky and slow though, so it's just flat out painful to attempt to use as a serious PKM app

[@huggingpuppy2613]

@@linkingyourthinking I feel that, I think I'm gonna use Obsidian for PKM. What's your threshold for creating a new note? Should I create a note for each piece of media (book, article, video, etc)?

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@huggingpuppy2613 That's a great question that requires a ton of other questions to be answered. lol. Long story short: we are being led astray by the majority of public PKMers out there to "capture everything" and it's leading us to be bad thinkers who always feel inadequate... It's really upsetting. Sorry I can't get into it more in the comments here. I'm softly launching a membership community, and later on it will have a free section exactly for excellent questions like yours. Best!

[@huggingpuppy2613]

​@@linkingyourthinking Thank you so much for that helpful answer! I'm not completely sure what to put, but I'm sure I'll learn eventually!

[@magnuslysfjord1209]

Those explanations diverged a little too much.. What are the steps to creating an MOC? This was not answered. I cannot identify any steps in your answer. Very hard to follow.

[@JPxKillz]

Is there a place that I can view this figma of the 5 levels? Or an article / place where they are written out, thanks!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Just for the workshoppers now but eventually it'll be free. In the meantime, go here lol: www.notion.so/linkingyourthinking/LYT-Graphics-fe7dfa5758a147a8af0c0487fb26817b

[@peterlilley6819]

Thanks for these awesome videos! Just a comment at around 14:50 it is suggested that the ID is perhaps a little less important. As someone who has worked extensively in this space, I would encourage you to keep them. Why? Obsidian stores files locally on your PC in text readable markup files. If at any stage you wanted a third party app to consume this information then it will have no way of identifying if something has changed, it will just see that one note doesn’t exist anymore and a new one does. When in fact it is the same note that has been updated. If there is an ID that never changes then it will have a way to do this. Of course there are other ways of doing this. But, I’ve got say, two weeks in and 100 KZbin’s later this is one of the best “thinking” apps I have come across, Edward De bono would have loved this!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Great suggestion! Thanks for sharing, Peter!

[@Ericuf]

Can I view those lovely info graphics of the 5 levels?

[@MuhammadArnaldo]

will LYT works well with Logseq?

[@om6418]

What would be the downside If i Create mocs with Tags and Data View instead of links?

[@jeremiahbaxter6887]

If links are like blood relationships and tags are like acquaintanceships or shared hobbies, then what would you say about two notes in the same file folder? That they live in the same town, but might not know each other?

[@SoroushTorkian]

Folders are another layer of metadata. It may not be super obvious on obsidian but you can colour notes from certain folders in graph view because obsidian looks at folder location information like it looks at tags.

[@jumino4565]

Can we get the figma link you made! Thanks.

[@linkingyourthinking]

Right now and for the foreseeable future all downloadable graphics are available to members only. I just secretly launched a membership area www.linkingyourthinking.com/community but I won't be talking too publicly about it until sometime next year. Feel free to join early!

[@jumino4565]

@@linkingyourthinking Would love to take this course!

[@shahjahanravjee8639]

What if your MOC exceeds 3 digits (you use for organising your notes)

[@stevepinckney7998]

Anyone know the CSS to get the outline to look like the Home Maps screen at 0:32?

[@trap_musiicssj]

do you know any way to have kanban to manage tasks in obsidian?

[@linkingyourthinking]

Many people manage tasks with Obsidian right now. I don't, but it's very possible. Kanban with probably become a 3rd-party plug-in at some point. Maybe...

[@guo7043]

@@linkingyourthinking I think we don't need to put everything in Obsidian. ToDo Apps, Todoist for example, are much better at managing tasks.

[@linkingyourthinking]

@@guo7043 I agree!

[@SoroushTorkian]

There is a kanban plug-in you can install.

[@nirsavs]

bottom up workflow!

[@linkingyourthinking]

Bottom up changes things because it's finally so fast and easy

[@danceswith7wolves]

If you don't have any notes... "Then, you haven't earned the notes yet" I'm learning

[@danceswith7wolves]

Sub folders 📂

[@danceswith7wolves]

Imaging when YT gets this, then maybe we can collect ours thoughts #tag

[@danceswith7wolves]

##idea Obsidian MOC meld.... [[😅No where]] ✅️ take over YT

[@danceswith7wolves]

Maybe a screenshot

[@jrRim]

Whats your theme?

[@cynthia333]

👋

[@linkingyourthinking]

Hi

[@EmouAcademy]

It seems better to say Craft Emergence instead of Idea Emergence. People get confused with the idea emergence and levels.

[@linkingyourthinking]

I’m confused. Craft emergence?

[@shahjahanravjee8639]

What is MOC ?

[@shahjahanravjee8639]

Ah MOC is MAP of Contents 😀