Solving The Folder, Tags, Links Debate With MOCs (Maps of Content) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00folders tags or links folders tags or
2. 0:05links folders tags or links folders tags
3. 0:09or links folders tags or links when you
4. 0:12first start using obsidian organizing is
5. 0:16easy you just create some notes and let
6. 0:18your future self do with your problems
7. 0:20just like in real life but if you're
8. 0:22migrating from another program or you're
9. 0:24starting to get hundreds of notes in
10. 0:26your Vault you simply will have to start
11. 0:28organizing your vault in some way and
12. 0:31when this happens you can run into the
13. 0:34classic folders tags and links dilemma
14. 0:38now I'm here to finally solve this issue
15. 0:42I have found for me the most effective
16. 0:45easy to understand and interesting way
17. 0:47to organize my notes is through maps of
18. 0:51content mocks in this video I will
19. 0:53explain what a mock is the five levels
20. 0:56of mock emergence how you can create
21. 0:59them with a whole bunch of notes already
22. 1:03in your system because you're migrating
23. 1:05from somewhere else or over time slowly
24. 1:09as you create notes and how you can
25. 1:11assimilate them into a home note which
26. 1:13will serve as your navigational home
27. 1:16page before we start the video I want to
28. 1:18preface that this is my own process for
29. 1:20organizing things in my Vault make sure
30. 1:22this type of organization works for you
31. 1:25before you do it and in addition don't
32. 1:28discount the power of folders or tags I
33. 1:31use both of them extensively in my
34. 1:33system which I will make a video about
35. 1:35on some point finally the original term
36. 1:38mock isn't actually mine it came from a
37. 1:41fantastic obsidian Community member Nick
38. 1:43Milo who is also a YouTube channel that
39. 1:46I have Linked In the description down
40. 1:47below so what is a map of content or
41. 1:50mock a map of content is a summation of
42. 1:53a bunch of other related notes it's
43. 1:56quite literally just a normal note in
44. 1:58your obsidian Vault that links out to
45. 1:59about bunch of other notes you can link
46. 2:01out in paragraph form as a bullet list
47. 2:04through numbers whatever floats your
48. 2:06boat they can serve as dashboards or
49. 2:08overviews in your system and can also
50. 2:10serve as Hub spots for all your research
51. 2:12on a given topic so here's some example
52. 2:15mocks in my system I have my happiness
53. 2:18mock which is all of my notes related to
54. 2:21happiness so as you can see I have them
55. 2:24in a bullet less structure so if
56. 2:27happiness isn't a goal then what is it
57. 2:28and then I have all of these things that
58. 2:31happiness is that I've done research on
59. 2:33how can we better practice the activity
60. 2:35of happiness and then I have all these
61. 2:37ideas on things that are related to that
62. 2:39these are all notes in themselves that
63. 2:42are linked to other notes and other
64. 2:45things that my personal Knowledge
65. 2:47Management mock just a bunch of notes in
66. 2:49here related to personal Knowledge
67. 2:51Management and then I also have my
68. 2:54encounter box which serves as an
69. 2:56overview of my encounters you these are
70. 3:00the most recent notes from my encounters
71. 3:04folder which is a folder that collects
72. 3:06all the notes that I create in my system
73. 3:08it automatically when a note is created
74. 3:11puts it in the encounters folder and
75. 3:14this is a data view query that pulls all
76. 3:17of the most recent notes in my
77. 3:19encounters folder right now it's a
78. 3:21little bit broken as you can see it says
79. 3:22days live 6 and 31 I will fix it usually
80. 3:25it would just have the most recent notes
81. 3:27and I can go in here and flesh out notes
82. 3:30that I've recently created and I'm still
83. 3:32thinking about so what are the benefits
84. 3:34of mod creation what mock organized
85. 3:37systems reduce the need for folders and
86. 3:39tags instead you can use links as your
87. 3:42primary organization feature they also
88. 3:44allow you to see the relationship
89. 3:45between seemingly unrelated ideas as
90. 3:48notes connect you assemble them together
91. 3:50and this only becomes more magical once
92. 3:52mocks start linking to other mocks and
93. 3:54mocks allow you to think bottom up and
94. 3:57top down adding a new note into your
95. 3:59system you can connect it to an atomic
96. 4:01note that is connected on the bottom of
97. 4:04one of your mocks or you can connect it
98. 4:06to the mock page itself mocs also allow
99. 4:09you to do the thinking and linking first
100. 4:12and the organization later once
101. 4:14disorganization becomes overwhelming
102. 4:16this isn't particularly important
103. 4:17because as personal Knowledge Management
104. 4:19enthusiasts it's very easy to do too
105. 4:22much organizing to the point where you
106. 4:23don't even create anything and then
107. 4:25mocks often don't use weird tags in
108. 4:27folder structures they should be pretty
109. 4:29easy to understand by any Observer which
110. 4:32might not be the case for other
111. 4:34organizational methods so they're
112. 4:35generally two two starting pots for mock
113. 4:37creation you already have the notes for
114. 4:39your Mock and now you're building it up
115. 4:41this could happen after you hit a mental
116. 4:43squeeze point which is when you notice
117. 4:45so much notes in your Vault that are not
118. 4:48organized that you just have to create
119. 4:50some form of organization and another is
120. 4:52if you're migrating from another system
121. 4:54into obsidian I already have a ton of
122. 4:56notes you want to create a box out of so
123. 4:58that's totally fine but I would highly
124. 5:00encourage you to ask if you really need
125. 5:03to migrate all those nodes from your old
126. 5:06system into the new one I use room
127. 5:08research for a year and a half before I
128. 5:10move to obsidian and I spent an entire
129. 5:13week trying to figure out how to get my
130. 5:15room research notes to look good in
131. 5:17obsidian it just drove me crazy after I
132. 5:20decided to just migrate massive weight
133. 5:22was lifted off my chest the second
134. 5:24starting point is if you have no notes
135. 5:26and you're building the mock over time
136. 5:27this is actually the best situation
137. 5:29because it gives you the time you really
138. 5:31need to create good mocks at this point
139. 5:34you're probably like
140. 5:36shut up and show us the mock creation
141. 5:38process already okay hey Jesus don't
142. 5:42expect me to say hi to you if we see
143. 5:44each other in person though I'm going to
144. 5:46take you through the five levels of mock
145. 5:48emergence with my happiness mock as an
146. 5:50example the five levels were first put
147. 5:53forth by obsidian Community member Nick
148. 5:55Milo who I mentioned earlier but I find
149. 5:57them so useful that I am going to borrow
150. 5:59them when I'm explaining this bot
151. 6:02creation the five-step process is
152. 6:03similar for both starting points of mock
153. 6:06creation except if you don't yet have
154. 6:08the notes it will take place over a
155. 6:10longer period of time so the first level
156. 6:12is as emergence level one all mocks
157. 6:14start out as singular notes in a
158. 6:16singular note comes from the nothingness
159. 6:18of fleeting thoughts in this stage my
160. 6:20happiness mod wasn't even created yet it
161. 6:22was just a semblance of a couple of
162. 6:23notes that resonated with me from
163. 6:25conversation books and other information
164. 6:27mediums so you can see here I have a
165. 6:29whole bunch of different notes and these
166. 6:32were all just
167. 6:34floating in my system just linked and
168. 6:37not even necessarily linked to each
169. 6:39other they are linked right now but they
170. 6:40weren't originally they were just notes
171. 6:42in my system so in the second emergence
172. 6:45level nodes start to link to other notes
173. 6:47relationships are formed pretty soon
174. 6:49these seemingly unrelated notes start to
175. 6:51get linked together so those three notes
176. 6:53from before all created from information
177. 6:55I consumed on stoicism and Buddhism
178. 6:57related to happiness got connected
179. 6:59together as you can see your judgments
180. 7:02of events hurt you not the events
181. 7:03himself desires Distortion is linked
182. 7:05down here and then desires Distortion is
183. 7:09also linked in my Everlasting happiness
184. 7:11comes from living a life in accordance
185. 7:13with virtue right here so they're
186. 7:16starting to link together as you can see
187. 7:19so emergence level three there comes a
188. 7:21point in the process where you want a
189. 7:22bird's eye view of the relationships
190. 7:24between the notes you're connecting or
191. 7:26you just want to be a bird
192. 7:28either is fine you hit your mental
193. 7:30squeeze point this is when the mock
194. 7:32creation process begins there's a
195. 7:34gathering assembling and incubating of
196. 7:36information relevant to the mock usually
197. 7:38this Gathering will start out as a list
198. 7:40of bi-directionally linked notes but
199. 7:42eventually you might turn this simple
200. 7:44list into a paragraph structure so this
201. 7:46is my happiness mock during the
202. 7:47beginning of emergence level 3 just a
203. 7:50note with a whole bunch of different
204. 7:51notes in it as you can see very roughly
205. 7:54fleshed out no organization whatsoever
206. 7:56but how did I find these notes well I
207. 7:58literally collected some notes that were
208. 8:00very clearly related to happiness like
209. 8:03the pursuit of happiness for its own
210. 8:05sake is fully happiness happiness
211. 8:07happiness they all have the word
212. 8:08happiness in them it's very easy to find
213. 8:10but then what I did is I opened them up
214. 8:12and I was like okay where are these
215. 8:15notes linked to this note is linked to
216. 8:17loneliness is a cultural pathology so if
217. 8:19I wanted to I could just drag this in oh
218. 8:22didn't want to do that I could just drag
219. 8:25this into my mock over here
220. 8:28boom now loneliness is a cultural
221. 8:30pathology is linked there and I can also
222. 8:33see links in the graph view as well
223. 8:37happiness is a sense of belonging well
224. 8:39let's see where that's linked to okay
225. 8:41happiness is a social phenomenon
226. 8:43happiness mock happiness and long-term
227. 8:45activity of aligning values with action
228. 8:47okay well now I know more things that I
229. 8:51can add is a social I already have this
230. 8:54up here
231. 8:56I mean this is a social phenomenon I
232. 8:57don't know why it does that card slash
233. 8:59encounter slash sometimes but point is I
234. 9:03found them through the local graph View
235. 9:04and also the bi-directionally links View
236. 9:07and then over time my happiness MOG
237. 9:10started to flesh itself out into what it
238. 9:12is today as you can see I organized all
239. 9:14those things I had into bullet lists
240. 9:16into little subsections and I even have
241. 9:19a little cute little Shakespeare quote
242. 9:22at the top at emergence level four mocks
243. 9:25start to get linked to other mocks
244. 9:27you're in the colliding phase of mock
245. 9:28creation and linking your mocks this
246. 9:30allows you to fly around your note
247. 9:32Library rapidly organically getting
248. 9:35unforced Behavior space repetition you
249. 9:38can see in my happiness mock how my mock
250. 9:40links to other mocks that I have in my
251. 9:42system like I have my I have my
252. 9:44lifestyle design mock right here let's
253. 9:47open that up yeah so this entire mock is
254. 9:51linked inside of my happiness mock
255. 9:54because how can we better practice the
256. 9:56activity of Happiness well we can start
257. 9:58journaling so we can practice lifestyle
258. 10:00design what is lifestyle design the art
259. 10:02of crafting the best possible life for
260. 10:04you and requires you to learn more about
261. 10:06yourself and use this information to
262. 10:07create the average perfect day for you
263. 10:09as consistently as possible so as you
264. 10:12can see this mock is now linked to a
265. 10:14whole nother mock which is linked to a
266. 10:16whole bunch of other stuff that this box
267. 10:18is linked to my gamification mod so we
268. 10:21are just going mock Central it's insane
269. 10:26emergence level five the highest level
270. 10:28of emergence comes when you create a
271. 10:30home note with all of your highest order
272. 10:32notes the home note is your beginning
273. 10:34and your end your launch pad and home
274. 10:37base your home note allows for
275. 10:39simultaneous top-down Thinking by
276. 10:41looking at your system from the home nut
277. 10:43or bottom up thinking by creating Atomic
278. 10:46notes and adding them to mocks linked to
279. 10:48your home note so this is my home note
280. 10:50it has one of my favorite quotes as you
281. 10:54can see it's a buy me I'm not a nurse
282. 10:57assist at all what are you talking about
283. 10:58uh life is an infinite game
284. 11:01so this has all of my highest order
285. 11:06mocks linked to it that provide not only
286. 11:09overview or dashboard of my thinking but
287. 11:12also just a cooperation of my research
288. 11:15so as you can see I have my encounter
289. 11:16box from before I have a boat box I have
290. 11:18an outbox I have my books mock which
291. 11:21just has all of my books that I've read
292. 11:23inside of it and I think it's important
293. 11:25to mention here in all of my mocks I
294. 11:28have a up to my home note and the reason
295. 11:32I like to do that is it the models it
296. 11:33makes it very easy to get oh I didn't
297. 11:36have it here naughty Aiden
298. 11:40makes it very easy to get back to my
299. 11:42home note if I click on one of these
300. 11:46mocks didn't have it here either man I
301. 11:48need to get up on my game it has all my
302. 11:51research interests all of my college
303. 11:52education classes and I'm taking at
304. 11:55Cornell University and also my
305. 11:57motivation station my 12 favorite
306. 11:59questions
307. 12:00and my inspiration machine
308. 12:03so this is really helpful if I'm feeling
309. 12:06down to just go in and be like yeah hype
310. 12:09me up whoa so how do you create the home
311. 12:11note well it's literally the exact same
312. 12:14process as creating a mock because your
313. 12:16home note is a mock it's a mock of other
314. 12:18mocks in fact the Big Ear system grows
315. 12:20the more this is going to be the case
316. 12:22you're not just going to have Atomic
317. 12:24notes and mocks but rather Atomic notes
318. 12:26lower level mocks middle mocks higher
319. 12:28level mocks mock mocks peanut butter
320. 12:31mocks home note or even more levels
321. 12:41so how does this look on a grander scale
322. 12:45well here's my graph View and while I
323. 12:48don't normally like using the graph view
324. 12:50for anything really except the local
325. 12:53graph view I think this just provides a
326. 12:56cool visualization of what this process
327. 13:00will do over months and years once you
328. 13:04create more mocks and compound your
329. 13:08knowledge so as you can see here I have
330. 13:10my graph view colored with my mocks are
331. 13:13in red my calendar all my like journal
332. 13:17entries are in orange cards are
333. 13:19basically my Atomic Evergreen permanent
334. 13:22every type of note other than the mocks
335. 13:26and the calendar and then green is all
336. 13:28of my sources so all of my like
337. 13:30information that I've captured from
338. 13:32various resources around the internet
339. 13:34and linked as resources in my notes so
340. 13:37as you can see here if I zoom in you can
341. 13:40see these red notes these red little
342. 13:43ball herbs are my mocks
343. 13:46they are the big scopes of my system
344. 13:48there's my personal Knowledge Management
345. 13:49mock isn't that so cool to just see
346. 13:52where the biggest part of your knowledge
347. 13:54base is coming from
348. 13:56that is the power of mock creation
349. 14:00something profound happened to me when I
350. 14:03started building mocks and home notes I
351. 14:05started waking up every day with a
352. 14:08wonder and curiosity for what new notes
353. 14:11and connections I would make
354. 14:13I'm building a unique interconnected
355. 14:15body of knowledge a culmination of my
356. 14:18personal ideas and interpretations of my
357. 14:20classes own thoughts conversations and
358. 14:23information consumption outside of
359. 14:25school in fact my knowledge compounds
360. 14:28growing more and more useful the more
361. 14:31notes I have rather than less I have
362. 14:34reignited my joy for learning while I
363. 14:37can't guarantee this note making process
364. 14:39will work for you I strongly encourage
365. 14:42you to try it out for a few weeks at
366. 14:44least be sure to check out my video
367. 14:46going over my in-depth zetelcast and
368. 14:48note taking process inside of obsidian
369. 14:50it discusses not only mocks but my
370. 14:53philosophy behind how I take notes
371. 14:55inside of obsidian as always have a
372. 14:58fantastic rest of your day and bye bye
373. 15:00[Music]
374. 15:02foreign
375. 15:06[Music]