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Supercharge your PHD research with this note-taking system — Transcript

by Martin Adams · 14,985 words · 2,135 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00a few months ago I was contacted by
0:02someone from the Queen Mary University
0:03of London from the artificial
0:05intelligence and music research program
0:08and they asked me if I was willing to
0:09give a seminar on the zetel cast and
0:12notetaking method and I thought this was
0:14a great fit for the teaching that I put
0:15out on YouTube to connect with students
0:18about the challenges that they have and
0:21really showcase where the zle Caster
0:23method is great for those kind of
0:24research programs and this video here is
0:28essentially a playback now of that
0:30session um it's in two parts this one is
0:32the zetel Casten not taking method as uh
0:35a highle kind of uh presentation and
0:38then there's a follow-on video where we
0:40do some practical Hands-On with the
0:42obsidian note taking app now a lot of
0:44work has gone into this and I do plan to
0:47sell the highquality version with a
0:49re-recording with great audio and
0:51deliver the PDF on Atomic notet tak.com
0:54so if that's of interest to you go over
0:56to there and you can drop your email in
0:58and get on the wait list
1:00um I am also preparing an ebook on
1:02obsidian Advanced Techniques and the zle
1:05cast a note taking method which I'll
1:06also be offering on there as well so
1:08that might also be of interest now if
1:11you are a university and would consider
1:13wanting this for your own students and
1:15your own research program then do reach
1:17out to me um on
1:21hello.io and there I'll be able to
1:23answer any questions about what that may
1:24look like and any pricing to do with
1:26that but without further Ado let's get
1:28into this presentation and and enjoy so
1:31yeah we're talking about Z Casten um
1:33this is the outline of what we're going
1:34to be doing today I'll giveit of
1:36introduction about myself how I to be
1:38here today we're going to look at
1:40different types of projects and see that
1:41that relates to the work that you'll be
1:43doing I'll introduce zel Casten so if
1:46you're not familiar don't worry we'll
1:47look through it it's whole point look at
1:50some of the benefits look at some of the
1:52challenges we'll probably break about
1:54there and then when we come back we'll
1:56actually look into a software called
1:57obsidian so raise your hand if you've
1:59heard or used obsidian so more people
2:02would there so we'll be going through
2:04some techniques if you not used it
2:05before then it'll be good introduction
2:08and then we'll look at how you can apply
2:10the Z Casten in obsidian so hopefully
2:12you get a picture of where the two come
2:14together and uh you'll be able to make
2:17use of it so we'll start with the
2:20introduction so my name Martin Adams uh
2:23I call myself a tech entrepreneur um and
2:26a YouTube educator so um there my link
2:30if you wanted to explore that more and
2:33um I'll give you a bit of a background
2:34of how I got into this and how I came
2:36here today so yeah how did I come to be
2:41a zetel Casten teacher uh I did not plan
2:45on this but it started many years ago
2:47when I fell in love with audio books if
2:50you if you're not into audio books I
2:52highly recommend it um uh in my lifetime
2:56I have listened to over 1 month and 22
2:58days of audio books that's a lot of of
3:00content um but with audio uh it's
3:04sometimes in one a and out the other so
3:07at the same time I love creating YouTube
3:09videos it's something I took a bit more
3:11seriously in 2016 stopped and then in
3:14the last 18 months picked it up again um
3:17and I had this frustration I had all
3:18these ideas but I wanted to create
3:21content and I couldn't recall all the
3:24great ideas into to making great
3:25storytelling great outputs and that's
3:28when in 2020 I think I discovered the
3:32zle cast and I read this book how to
3:35take smart notes by S arens and it was
3:39an interesting book I got about halfway
3:41through when it clicked like I get it
3:44now and that's when everything changed
3:47um so
3:49this allowed me then to refocus my
3:52YouTube channel at teaching what I've
3:54discovered and that also helps me learn
3:57so the questions I get back from people
3:59who watch the videos helps me understand
4:01where the challenges are and that's how
4:04Carrie discovered me on YouTube and said
4:07hey I can see some potential here why
4:10don't you come and give a seminar at the
4:12University and that's how I'm here so um
4:16uh yeah basically you're being taught by
4:18a YouTuber right now so uh good
4:21luck so let's think about
4:24projects and those two tally top down
4:27and bottom up and
4:30well I say there two types there's
4:32actually four types of projects so
4:33there's this grid and I actually love
4:35this CU I start
4:37questioning the kinds of things I'm
4:39working on and I say what kind of
4:42project is this and if you think of this
4:44Grid in terms of two
4:48axes some of them you know where you're
4:51going you know what you want to do but
4:53then at the top there top left you just
4:56don't know how to get there or you might
4:59know how to get there and you know what
5:00you going to do or you don't know where
5:01you're
5:03going and you don't know how to get
5:05there or you don't know where you're
5:06going but you do know how to get there
5:07so there's these four types and I'll
5:09explain what this means if you know
5:11where you're going but you don't know
5:14how to get there you're on a
5:17quest so if you think of a quest youve
5:19got a mission to do but the the road to
5:23do it is Treach you don't know what
5:24dragons you're going to need to slay you
5:26don't know what those challenges are you
5:28have to figure it out as you go along
5:30but you know why you're doing it and
5:32that's what we call a quest
5:33project at the other
5:36end you might know where where you're
5:38going but you don't know what the ending
5:39is you don't know where you're going
5:40that's a movie you watch a movie and the
5:43plot goes and you're like I understand
5:44where this plot's go like what's
5:46happening but what's going to happen at
5:48the end I don't know so that's what you
5:50call a movie
5:52project if you're in one of these
5:54projects you're probably in a good place
5:55to some
5:57degree then you have the paint by
5:59numbers
6:00I know what I'm doing and I know where
6:02I'm going so it's pretty much all
6:04dictated you just got to follow the
6:06motions and if you're really
6:08unlucky you're in a fog project I don't
6:12know where I'm going and I don't know
6:13how to get there so if you find yourself
6:16in a fog project you need to do
6:18something you need to transition
6:19yourself to one of the other quadrants
6:21and you have to figure that out so let's
6:23think of your education at the moment if
6:26you're an undergrad which for the record
6:29I've only done an undergrad degree so
6:31you guys are a lot smarter than me um
6:33but you pretty much know where you're
6:35going they tell you what to do and they
6:37tell you how to do it and you do it so
6:40in that sense you know what the problem
6:41is and you know how to solve it nice and
6:44simple if you're doing a
6:47masters they might tell you what the
6:49problem is but they don't know tell you
6:50how to do it so it's a quest I know
6:53where I want to get to now I've got to
6:55figure out the road to get there
6:59anyone doing a PhD here ah unlucky um
7:04you don't know what a problem is and you
7:06don't know how to get it so what do you
7:08do you need to transition yourself to
7:10one of the other
7:12quadrants you can choose to go up to a
7:15quest and
7:16say let's pick where I want to get to
7:19and then I'll figure out the steps along
7:21the way and that's moving up to a
7:23quest and then as you figure out those
7:26steps you move it over to a paint by
7:27numbers and that allows you to then do
7:29the work that actually fulfills that
7:32Quest or you could go the other way or
7:36if you go that way that's a topown
7:37approach so you find the problem first
7:40and then you figure out how to solve
7:42it or you can go the other way you can
7:45say let's figure out what I can solve
7:48and then figure out how to where that's
7:50going to go that's the movie Project
7:51that's bottom up so you find
7:55Solutions and then you find what problem
7:58those Solutions bits and that's what we
8:01call bottom
8:02up so let's think about the kind of
8:06problems that you will face as a PhD
8:09student so don't ask me where I got this
8:12one but I pulled this off the internet
8:13somewhere and I thought it was quite
8:15fitting as a PhD student you need to
8:18produce a
8:19significant independent and novel body
8:21of work body of work so an example that
8:24could be a thesis but any kind of
8:25publication that contributes to new
8:27knowledge
8:29to a particular research topic hopefully
8:32that sounds in line with what you're
8:36experiencing so let's break that down
8:38when we talk about produce You' got to
8:40create something so you can't have all
8:42the theory and never create
8:44something it's got to be significance so
8:47you got to have deep understanding of
8:49the thing you're
8:52creating independent it's got to be your
8:55own personal understanding your own
8:57Journey so if you are doing Quest it's
8:58you doing that Quest
9:01um it's got to be novel can't do what
9:04other people have done so you got to
9:06have original
9:08thought you've got to produce a body of
9:10work so that involves some kind of
9:12structured writing some kind of output
9:14that allows you to create out of
9:18that it's going to contribute in other
9:20words over doing that you're going to
9:22look to publish that so others can build
9:24on what you've discovered and what
9:26you've contributed so you have to think
9:28about how you're going to publish that
9:31it's got to have new knowledge so the
9:33insights and discoveries that you have
9:35along the way that other people have
9:38missed and a particular research topic
9:42so that's your material that's your
9:43Baseline that's your field of
9:45interest uh that you want to base upon
9:48so when we think of all of this we can
9:51start to put down some kind of hierarchy
9:54that you're going to publish
9:55something you're going to publish it
9:57through some kind of structured writing
9:58to do that you got to create something
10:00that comes from original thoughts and
10:02your insights to do that you have to
10:04have that deep understanding you got to
10:05research your material you got to do it
10:07do your research and if you think of it
10:10like that all the way at the top you
10:11publication all way at the bottom you go
10:13your research and you can think of that
10:16if go back to the quest analogy of a top
10:18down I want to publish something in this
10:21field in this with this idea now we got
10:23to figure out how to do that along the
10:25way that's top
10:27down so
10:30Let's do an analogy here and we use chat
10:33GPT so uh I'm very lazy and I don't
10:36really know an awful lot about well I
10:38know enough to to play with with AI but
10:41the detail I don't know so I use chat GT
10:43to produce examples I don't read too
10:44much in this them uh they will probably
10:46be gibberish when you when you they look
10:48smart to me so I'm I'm very happy so
10:51imagine you've got some
10:53publication and you're using the top
10:54down so you think of like my end goal is
10:57to produce that and I came up with an
10:59idea of let's say You' got something in
11:01the meta something kind of VR and you
11:03want to apply some kind of dynamic music
11:06based on the people's moods in VR like
11:09something like that sounds fancy enough
11:11to work with an example so you come up
11:15with that idea and that's like that's
11:16the thing I want to now research and
11:18find the gaps and all that so to do that
11:21you think of the topic that interests
11:23you um usually when you're interested in
11:25the topic it's much easier to learn
11:26around it and if it doesn't interest you
11:28it's going to be really hard
11:29so you think of things that interest you
11:32and you start asking questions so you
11:35might ask what factors influence music
11:38modulation uh does any individual have a
11:41stronger impact on social cues than
11:42someone else um how do you dynamically
11:45modulate music like for probably
11:48fundamental questions how do you measure
11:50those cues and what music modulation uh
11:53what music modulations desired to
11:55produce the emotional states that you
11:56want so these could be big open-ended
11:58questions
12:00that you don't know what's going to
12:01happen next as you explore
12:04it so you start doing your literature
12:06review you start reading around you
12:07start discovering what's already out
12:09there um to uh continue that that
12:14thought process so you might have lots
12:16of ideas that suddenly come to
12:20mind you might ask yourself you know the
12:22what of questions so you read something
12:25what if this wasn't true what if this
12:28other thing happened you start exploring
12:30that and that gives you some of your
12:31original
12:32thought and then you think you know can
12:35I apply this and this like in the
12:36example can I apply changing music to VR
12:39what does that look like um and you you
12:41start exploring
12:44across and you start to imagine those
12:47gaps so as you're doing your liter you
12:50have to start thinking wider than what
12:53you're reading in front of
12:55you and once you've got these kind of
12:58question questions you start exploring
13:00them you go off into the different areas
13:03and start pulling in new research that
13:05helps you fill in those gaps that maybe
13:07weren't in the context of your original
13:10kind of
13:12idea and as you do that you start asking
13:16okay has this been done before who's
13:17done it before what material is there
13:19that I can research and if it hasn't
13:20been done before is that something I can
13:23find as a gap that I I can add my novel
13:26insight to
13:30did I miss one and
13:32then and you asking that question here
13:34could this be the thing that's my
13:36original contribution have I stumbled on
13:38something
13:41here and once you have those ideas once
13:43you find something that do you know what
13:46this could be the the novelty this could
13:48be the original thing you conduct your
13:52research and in your case IE presume
13:54that might be some kind of uh algorithm
13:57to test something out prototype those
13:59kind kinds of things and once you do
14:01that you figure out did it actually bu
14:04any positive results what were my
14:06results did it prove what I thought it
14:08was going to do or does it show that
14:10actually this is a not going to yield
14:13any any
14:15results and then you write your paper so
14:19you've done all your research you got
14:20everything now you've got something to
14:22to publish back
14:24out the top down approach is
14:27hard so start with the idea and you
14:30start filling in the gaps and you come
14:31down to the bottom it's hard because
14:34sometimes you're thinking where do I
14:36start you're looking at a piece of paper
14:39and you think what questions should I
14:42ask and all of that um in the work that
14:45I do create content online blog post
14:47things like that and if you start with i
14:49to write a blog post on
14:51something and if the first thing you're
14:53doing is trying to write the article
14:56it's really hard you you can't recall
14:59all the things that you want to put in
15:00at that
15:01moment sometimes it's hard to know what
15:03questions to ask because you sort of
15:05have to follow the thread before the
15:07questions present
15:10themselves and it's a concept of
15:12building the track as you go I want to
15:14write the paper but I have to lay the
15:15next lay I to figure out what topic I
15:17have to figure out what research and and
15:19you're doing it as you go and when you
15:21do that you sort of mixing your research
15:24your thinking your insights and wrting
15:25all in one go and can be
15:32hard so if we think of it as a
15:36workflow let's say we start with a
15:38research material and you want to make
15:40some kind of personal understanding of
15:41that you're making your notes you're not
15:43reading someone notes because that
15:45doesn't really work because come from
15:47you so you get your deep understanding
15:50of
15:50that and then you want to gain those
15:53insights as you understand it you want
15:54to start thinking what does this mean
15:57what questions am I asking
15:59and then you might find that You' got
16:00some original
16:02thoughts and you obviously explore that
16:04make sure they are genuinely original
16:07and when you get to that point you want
16:08to create something through the
16:09structured writing and publish your
16:12findings and I put that green arrow
16:15there because what you publish is the
16:17foundation of the next person to go
16:19around the cycle in the future and
16:21that's your contribution that's the
16:23bigger bigger picture so when you think
16:26of that as a
16:27workflow you'll notice that I started
16:29with the
16:30research and went
16:34round and that's essentially going to be
16:36doing the bottom up so you may be asking
16:38okay how do we how do we create this
16:39workflow now before I carry on I want to
16:43ask
16:44questions anyone wants to volunteer
16:46their approach to what I said there CU I
16:49have I've not done a PhD I have no idea
16:51that's like what you do so there your
16:54opportunity to tell me if that's
16:55accurate or way off anyone want to
16:57volunteer
16:59so what I found so far is it has to be a
17:02bit mixed because obviously you have a
17:04research proposal so you you have a
17:06vague general idea of like what your aim
17:08or but what I felt so far that happens
17:11that normally you start moving in the
17:13direction and then you find an specific
17:16problem that you find like challenging
17:18or or interesting or that there's
17:19something and then to that problem you
17:22apply a slightly more bottom up approach
17:25because you start kind of like exploring
17:26the pieces of a so you got like an over
17:29arching Direction but the kind of like
17:31micro workflow is a little bit more
17:33bottom up
17:36yeah how do before we move on I want to
17:39ask how do you make your notes anyone
17:41volunteer their technique for notes
17:43making uh obviously you casting so that
17:46might
17:47be anyone I may the only
17:51one okay right so no no
17:55optional uh have you heard of Cornell
17:57method outline method things like that
17:59that you come across those um where
18:03where do you store your notes on
18:05obviously used paper
18:07[Music]
18:08no any volunteers who where did you
18:10story next well I I kind of use set of
18:14custom but I I use a different um
18:17software I use setler instead of um
18:20OB any other any other T yeah before
18:24using obsidian I was using a folder with
18:28count Google documents and Word
18:31Documents and chos
18:33and te and stuff like that ask how many
18:37times did you go back to those notes
18:41n anyone else yeah I did bit of combo
18:45paper and uh um like my laptop so if
18:49it's like a fleeting thought where I
18:51just need to like understand something
18:53that I've like read I'll tend to write
18:55it down until I'm like okay I clearly
18:57get it now but if like a permanent note
18:59that I need to refer back to um or I'm
19:03like taking notes from something it goes
19:04on to like obsidian or that right use a
19:08couple of words there that are very
19:09interesting you've definitely heard the
19:10ZET cast fleeting and permanent we'll
19:12come across those um for my own
19:16experience you know notes would just
19:18collect and then take dust it's
19:22that it's that recency thing as I make
19:24the notes I think I get it but do I have
19:26the energy to go back to it later rather
19:28than and sort of I don't know making it
19:30up as as I go along so so the question
19:33is how do we create a workflow that is
19:35this bottom up and the answer is you
19:38probably guess it a point of talk zetel
19:40Casten so let's go into what this
19:45is so it started with this uh this
19:49person called Nicholas Lumen uh born in
19:531927 to 1998 and he was a German
19:57sociologist and
19:59he basically devised a system of
20:02recording his thinking in note form and
20:06when he created this system he managed
20:07to create 70 books and over 400 scholly
20:10articles and even so much so that even
20:13after he passed his colleagues could
20:16take his body of work and continue his
20:18thinking in published form so it's that
20:20well constructed that it actually
20:24contributed without
20:26him and his area of Interest the topics
20:29range from law economy and politics to
20:31Art religion and love so there's no
20:33particular scoping of which this lens
20:36itself towards and in his zeetle cast he
20:40had over 90,000 notes that's quite a lot
20:43so how he managed that is quite
20:48impressive so it starts with a very
20:51simple concept he wasn't using a digital
20:53form and there are some practitioners
20:55Zas who still insist on using paper form
20:58uh which is fine I'm not one of them
21:00it's fine um so he would write these
21:04notes on an index card so a very small
21:08piece of paper not sheets and
21:10sheets and he would call that a zle so
21:13it's a single
21:14note and the idea here is that each note
21:18contained one Atomic
21:22idea and when I'm talk about Atomic
21:26idea it essentially means it's got to be
21:28self-contained and not kind of
21:30Meandering multiple ideas in one thing
21:33just one Atomic
21:35idea each note would be given their own
21:38ID now he's using a paper form so that's
21:40quite critical otherwise he'll never
21:42find them again you're using digital
21:44forms it's a little bit easier to find
21:45things
21:46again but most importantly he would then
21:49relate a note to other notes of interest
21:52and he would then reference those in his
21:55in his notes
21:59and the core concept is that if you were
22:02to take any note out of the zcast and
22:04read it it should make sense it
22:06shouldn't
22:08be something that oh I need to read 20
22:12more notes to just understand what this
22:14is on about it's got to be something
22:15that we read in isolation and still make
22:17sense and the act of doing that is where
22:20the value comes in because that doesn't
22:22happen by default if you write notes
22:23today don't do anything with it and look
22:26at it in 6 months time chance ansers are
22:28you might have lost a bit of context as
22:30to what you were thinking at that time
22:32and why it made sense to you then and
22:34what's lost about it
22:36now once he created these notes he would
22:38stall them in a physical filing cabinet
22:41which we call the ZET
22:43Caston and to get them in there he would
22:46start so let's say he's reading
22:48something he's doing his his research he
22:50would create these notes which are very
22:53short kind of memory jogers of what he's
22:57thinking at that time what comes to mind
22:59who create those very condensed from
23:01that that reading he's not copying
23:04paragraphs he's not taking a lot of that
23:05body he's trying to make it as small as
23:08possible and then at the end of the day
23:10he would take those notes and he would
23:13create these Atomic notes from his day
23:15reading and that allows him to truly
23:18understand the meaning and the
23:19understanding of what he has read
23:20because he's gone through condensing it
23:22now he's got to expand it back out into
23:23his thinking if he doesn't understand it
23:25he has to go back and question why he
23:27doesn't understand it
23:29by doing that he's not sort of copying
23:31and getting just the recognition when
23:33you read something you recognize yeah
23:34that makes sense but then ask out the
23:37blue now explain why it makes sense
23:38you're like I don't know why it makes
23:41sense I haven't got the words to
23:42articulate why I know it makes sense yet
23:44and that's what it helps him
23:46achieve and then he'd take these notes
23:49and he'd create new notes again but this
23:53time this is to update his sliit box
23:56this time he would pull existing notes
23:58out of his slip box the the Ze
24:01C and he'd start looking at it in that
24:03context and he'd say what does this mean
24:06in terms of the other things that I
24:08understand that I've made notes on what
24:10does it relate to does it does it
24:11counteract it does it enhance my
24:14understanding is it the same thing
24:17um and only then would he then put it
24:19back into his filing system so we're
24:22looking at this workflow and we end up
24:24with three distinct note types and this
24:26is where we have the fleeting not not we
24:29have the literature notes and we have
24:30the permanent notes and the important
24:33thing is permanent notes are in the
24:34context of the Ze cast and the lit notes
24:37are in the context of the reading
24:39materal I just like to ask you a
24:41question which may not be completely
24:43operable but if he had 990,000 notes and
24:46so he's going through this process where
24:48he writes you know juts down an idea
24:50which is the fleeing note and then he
24:51reworks it in his own words into an
24:54atomic note or a literature note and
24:56then he's going to look through his box
24:59of 90,000 notes of F that went to the
25:01road how do you think he did that um I
25:03think he was a machine to be honest um
25:06that's a really good question I think he
25:08must have had some really smart
25:10organization techniques which will cover
25:12a little bit of how he found his way
25:14through his system cuz yeah physical
25:17notes system has to be organized in a
25:19way that you you can't just have things
25:21randomly what he did do is um he had a
25:25numbering system so he could insert
25:26notes at the right place to kind of
25:28continue that thought process kind of
25:31like a Dey decimal type of yeah it's
25:33called the full gazettal and it's you
25:35know you start with a number one 2 three
25:36and then it's 1 a 1 b 1 C like
25:39alternating numbers and characters and
25:42um then that allows you to basically get
25:44a truee version of you know I can insert
25:47here and derive its order in the big
25:49scheme of things um it's a good question
25:51I don't know the specifics of his actual
25:54workflow but OB obsidian with all the
25:56search functionality because it much
25:59much easier on the computer
26:00yeah uh okay so when we think of the ZL
26:04Casten we can think of it both as a
26:07system and a workflow so the system is
26:10how it exists in a given State and the
26:13workflow is how you interact with
26:20it any questions so far on what I've yes
26:24yes um so there are four types of notes
26:28no fing notes lit noes permanent noes
26:32three types of no right right so
26:36um how how does it work again this
26:41literature are they are they permanent
26:43or are they supposed to be deleted the
26:46flipping nodes I guess you have to get
26:50rid of them otherwise good question it
26:52depends if you're a noteholder or not do
26:55you like to collect things personally I
26:57like the idea of
26:59a workflow so if I have a fleeting note
27:01and I've processed that into creating my
27:03literature notes I'll just archive it
27:05off but I can link it back so I know
27:07where that note came from I know what
27:09text I read it from so you're getting
27:10that kind of audit trail of that
27:12thinking literature notes imagine this
27:16is the the sort of aha moment the
27:19difference between a literature and a
27:20permanent note is a literature note I
27:23could take one book and I can create
27:24literature notes from it and it will be
27:27my understanding of that book just that
27:29one
27:30book I may not agree with it and I may
27:32have notes about that book that I don't
27:34disagree but what I don't do is start
27:36thinking about why I disagree based on
27:38other literature that I've read so it's
27:40in the context of that one source
27:42material and only when you transfer that
27:44from a literature to a permanent note
27:46you're pulling in all the books that
27:49you've read all the material and you're
27:51starting to make that bigger
27:53understanding if you're just creating
27:55your first system you haven't got
27:58anything in your permanent notes so they
28:00look the same it's only over time that
28:03the the connections in the permanent
28:05notes get more more varied and specific
28:07to the other things you've read um so
28:11yeah that's the subtle distinction and
28:15uh how I like to think of literature
28:17notes as my work in progress so I I've
28:20read a book I've got my literature notes
28:23and now them on their own is waiting to
28:26be to be thought C and that's like
28:29another phase of your work so I just uh
28:32wanted to say that the way I've been
28:34doing it and I don't know if this is
28:35right or not is that my fleeting notes
28:37when they become literature
28:39notes it's in place so fleeting note
28:43actually transforms into a literature
28:46note and it doesn't exist as fle so you
28:48to edit the original notes that's right
28:51yeah so I I take the original note which
28:52is just the capturing or jotting down oh
28:54I got an idea and I don't want to lose
28:56that and I jot it down then later on
28:58when I convert that into a literature
29:00note well it's just I'm just editing the
29:03original fleeting note and I change I
29:06tagged them yeah the fleeting notes
29:08because I want to make sure I go back
29:09and get all the fleeting notes so I tag
29:11them as fleeting notes and then later on
29:13when I I've edited it I I changed the
29:17tag into a literature note and then
29:19later on after I've gone through and
29:21I've links I then change it at the tag a
29:24permanent note so then I know what to do
29:26in my workflow I know where to find the
29:29things I need to I need to be working on
29:32as part of the process so I probably
29:34should have said this there are only
29:36multiple right ways of doing this and
29:38whatever works for you is the right way
29:40if it works for you there obviously
29:42wrong ways of doing things because
29:43you'll find that it actually doesn't
29:45serve you in the right way so what I
29:47tell you today don't feel like you got
29:48to do it like that there will be
29:50workflows so that's a really good
29:51example
29:53where keeping a body of things that have
29:55gone in the past may not be that
29:57relevant and actually need ating that
29:58note through its Journey perfectly valid
30:02um there's one thing that you want to
30:05take the essence of this is atomic ideas
30:08Atomic notes and how you link them
30:10together and we'll go into more detail
30:12on that though if you kind of if there's
30:14one thing I want you to get right it's
30:16that part that's where the real benefits
30:18come but how you get
30:20there do what feels right there's no you
30:23watch another YouTuber about zet cast
30:25you'll get completely different take on
30:26it so there is no
30:28official right way of doing it just an
30:32interpretation okay so let's think about
30:34connected
30:36thinking
30:38um trying to think there's a few phrases
30:42going kind of buzz words at the moment
30:43in this space like second brain
30:45connected thinking uh tools for thought
30:48if you're going to go on YouTube or
30:49something and look you'll see these and
30:52they sort of all relate um and the
30:55concept here is that you create these
30:56Atomic nodes
30:59and you might have one kind of
31:02understanding of a concept which Builds
31:04on to the next one and the next one so
31:06you create this kind of continuation of
31:10thoughts um some of the questions I get
31:12back on YouTube are like how do I how do
31:15I take notes on a textbook when it's
31:16like one big kind of you know this this
31:18this this and just break it down just so
31:21you can pull one out and just you know
31:22that one little bit and yet it's fine
31:24that they build on each other you're
31:26just creating that continuation through
31:28the links I call that sequence um
31:33there's no particular naming for it but
31:34it's you're just creating a sequence of
31:35those thoughts but at the same time you
31:39might be thinking what other notes are
31:40in my zle cast and that this is sort of
31:42related to that interested it and so you
31:45can imagine those
31:47elsewhere and then you can draw those
31:48links
31:49together so if you think of it as these
31:54are all the parts of your understanding
31:57and You' got it in the Ze cast and and
31:59you've got them in a way that's small
32:01atomic notes and you can create these
32:03links between
32:04them this is where the magic happens so
32:07every would pay attention you might come
32:09up with a
32:11thought that could be an
32:13idea an Insight it's like oh there's
32:16something here that nobody else has
32:18really thought of could just be a
32:20question it's like what if or you know
32:24why does that happen could just be
32:28observation as I read my books I I
32:30usually have observations and questions
32:32and I put those in my if I'm reading a
32:34particular book Kindle notes and that's
32:37a prompt for me to go and create some
32:39further like looking at the gaps and
32:41where that
32:42relates and then you create a new note
32:46for that question that
32:49insight and you put it down ask the
32:51question why why is this important to
32:53you and that becomes something that you
32:56can build on
32:58and if you think of the notes around the
32:59outside those are the parts of your
33:01thinking but the sum of all the parts is
33:04greater than the parts you've got
33:07something bigger that the original text
33:08never
33:10had which is very hard if you just
33:13create notes in a lecture or in a book
33:15and try and refer to that as you sort of
33:17do your research you could have do those
33:18questions you would explore
33:21it and those new notes become notes in
33:24your zle cast and that then you can
33:26build on you can link to and you can
33:28continue that journey and connect that
33:30to maybe something completely different
33:31one of the one of the concepts I
33:33absolutely love the idea is a polymath
33:34you know someone who takes one
33:36discipline and another discipline just
33:37basically merges them and finds
33:39something that people aren't thinking of
33:41and it's in the business world it's
33:43generally considered a bit of a
33:44superpower that you know if you if you
33:46can take a particular discipline and
33:49apply it to a business that is old
33:51school then that's that's how you
33:53disrupt so this helps
33:58any questions on that so far before I
34:00kind of move on the idea of creating new
34:04notes to capture your thinking your
34:07ideas just to make sure the atomic notes
34:10are this kind of like midway between a
34:13literat note and not in the sever so
34:16your literature notes should be Atomic
34:18if if your literature notes if I can't
34:21pick up a literature note that you've
34:22written read it out loud and make sense
34:25of it then I'll give it back to and say
34:27Keep
34:29did I answer your question or yeah yeah
34:31yeah okay um in terms of the atomicity I
34:35I find for example especially when it
34:36comes to you working with um math
34:40related stuff many times you can have
34:42something that looks Atomic in the sense
34:45that might be a theorem or like a
34:47particular derivation but it's not fully
34:49Atomic in the sense that like you still
34:52need like if I say I don't know like
34:55Visa so space or whatever like I that
34:59still needs to refer to some kind of
35:01other knowe of what a sub space is even
35:05if I'm let's say like using it short
35:07hand so where is the limit between that
35:09because many times I find myself like
35:11doubting to let's say repeat myself for
35:14the sake of clarity in a single note or
35:17or if to yeah like separate things in
35:20different notes and refer back to them
35:25so going ultimately find a workflow that
35:27best for you if you're repeating it's
35:30really hard to update your understanding
35:33I mean okay maybe a mathematical answer
35:35there probably not going to update very
35:36frequently but if it's something more
35:37conceptual where you sort of copied and
35:40just inserted to get a bit more context
35:42in a note that's harder to update
35:45because you got to find all the
35:46references where you sort repeated that
35:48personally what I would do is I would
35:49just create a separate note of that
35:51explanation could be short doesn't
35:53really matter and just link link it in
35:55I'll show you the linking so you get a
35:57feel for that
35:58um and there's some techniques in
36:00obsidian where you can actually preview
36:02the content of it in the note so it's
36:04still a link you just exposing it at
36:06that bigger
36:09level so you've got this system of
36:13notes and let's say we wanted to draw if
36:17youve used sitting and seen the graph
36:18you know where this is going if you
36:20haven't imagine a note number of
36:24connections means that note gets bigger
36:25as a as a blob on a graph
36:28so the more connections it has the the
36:30bigger like we like you start getting a
36:33cluster of understanding
36:35there and you can think of it as a sort
36:38of a graph of these things are connected
36:41to those things um I use my journey to
36:45generate that so it's uh more artistic
36:47than real but it illustrates the bigger
36:50the blob the more connections it has the
36:52small the more sort of isolated that
36:55thought is and maybe it's not as
36:57relevant or you just haven't explored it
36:59in enough
37:01detail so when you have this sort of
37:03view which is really hard to do if you
37:05got long form notes and it's not Atomic
37:07you can't really see what where the
37:09connections are because it's just big
37:11bodies of text and you're not doing the
37:13linking you can start to see these
37:16clusters and depending on the kind of
37:19work you're doing you can start to see
37:21where that that understanding is forming
37:23where you're strongest in your
37:24understanding but also where it has legi
37:28to as
37:31well and then you can start well these
37:34clusters have very little to do with
37:36each other there's very few
37:37connections what if I did try and merge
37:40them or what happens if I start
37:42connecting things together um which I
37:47think is quite compelling thought
37:48process because that's how you get these
37:50kind of original original thinking
37:53um just on the slight tangent I had an
37:56idea about like information over time
38:00there very much like if you want to
38:00create original idea DNA has a really
38:03good way of doing that in a sense you
38:07have two ways of creating a new
38:08generation you can either take two
38:12isolated parts of the gene gene pool and
38:15put them together which is what those
38:16clusters could be doing or you can take
38:19one of those and actually introduce
38:21mutations and see what happens so asking
38:24your what if questions is the mutations
38:25and taking clusters is is when you're
38:28pairing that DNA together and creating
38:29something that's never been done
38:31before I find that really exciting it's
38:34it's a nice way to you know it's exactly
38:37what you know machine learning does is
38:39it you tries all the things until it
38:41gets something that's useful
38:46um and then you can assemble projects
38:49out of this so we're thinking bottom up
38:51you've got all your understanding and
38:53your insights and maybe some results of
38:56some res search that you've been doing
38:58that's showing really good so rather
39:00than looking at that blank sheet of
39:01paper as a starting point for writing
39:03what you're going to Output you start
39:06just by linking in all the things that
39:08you want to
39:09cover and it becomes the building block
39:12of your output your what you're going to
39:15create so you really the writing part
39:17should be probably the most boring part
39:20because you've done all the exciting
39:21things and now you just putting the
39:22fancy words around it right that's the
39:24theory uh especially if I was writing a
39:26blog post uh
39:28it should be as simple as I don't need
39:30to do any thinking here I just need to
39:32assemble the blocks make it flow right
39:36and the thing should kind of produce
39:39itself uh just on a slight
39:42tangent if I probably comparing more of
39:45the the kind of blog writing world you
39:48will be doing research and inal casting
39:49and lots of things you could be starting
39:52to assemble multiple projects at the
39:54same time they may not be ready to
39:57finish off and publish you maybe still
39:59going through it but it doesn't have to
40:01be uh like one in one out so if you
40:04imagine you've got the kernels of
40:06popcorn and they're all heating up
40:08that's your research of all these things
40:09and as the ideas and the insights pop
40:11that's when you can publish something
40:13and they might pop like more frequently
40:15than if you're doing one do all the
40:17research publish one do all the research
40:19publish so that's the real benefit of of
40:21Z cast and this you know Nicholas Lumen
40:23he produced so much work out of it as a
40:25demonstration of his power
40:29so we can think of that as a bottom up
40:30you've got this whole knowledge base of
40:33which ideas and things can suddenly come
40:35out and emerge from you know your
40:38projects come from that zle castem and
40:42if you're doing a top down you know your
40:44projects you know they just lack all
40:45that Insight you you don't have all this
40:47you lack that understanding you're
40:49thinking I need this and I've got a
40:51stack of books or papers to read and
40:54I've got to do this thing in the middle
40:56um whereas if you inverse it do all the
40:58things and then see what what comes out
41:00of
41:02it okay so that's kind of the
41:05introduction of zeel Casten uh or we'll
41:09be going into more detail about the
41:10specifics of what a note looks like so
41:12um don't worry but let's think about
41:14those benefits so if you were to compare
41:17like folders in a Google Drive uh or
41:19notes on a piece of paper we'll see how
41:21that compares
41:23um so yeah that's your glow zetel
41:28Casten uh these are mid journey by the
41:30way if you hadn't guessed I'm sure you
41:33probably recognize the style
41:35um so zle Casten it's a fluid structure
41:39you'll notice that I haven't spoken
41:41about folders because there are no
41:44folders there's no rigid
41:47categories they're simple notes cuz
41:50they're
41:52Atomic and anything can link to anything
41:56so there's no bounds to where you're
41:57constraining your thinking you know a
41:59good example is if you try and put
42:01folders of I don't know Neuroscience in
42:05a particular folder and machine learning
42:08in another folder and then you want to
42:10create something that's applying the two
42:13together which folder did you put it in
42:15um the moment you categorize things is
42:17the moment you find that Nothing fits
42:20and zetel cast just allows you to be
42:22completely free flowing with it
42:27the linking helps your ideas start to
42:30emerge because you start to ask it's a
42:33prompt for the questions if you're
42:35reading all your notes and and and it's
42:37sort of a batim of what you've read
42:40you're not in thinking mode you're in
42:42sort of like recognition mode but you
42:44can start just pull two things and this
42:46is what Nicholas would do he'd spend
42:48time going through his zcast and just
42:50pulling things out thinking about it he
42:53had no particular agenda he's just
42:55exploring and seeing what happens
42:58which is great for the kind of research
43:00that that you're doing because you don't
43:02know where you're going you need to let
43:04it
43:06emerge so you can create these idea
43:09notes you can create questions like what
43:11happens or why does that happen you
43:14might have an insight and say I think
43:18this could be related to something or
43:20this could yield some
43:23benefit or you might disagree you might
43:25say
43:27the consensus says this but I disagree
43:29because and make a note and that could
43:31be a prompt for like exploring that
43:35further the other benefit is it's an
43:38externalization of your thinking
43:42so what's the phrase our brains are
43:44having ideas not storing them can't
43:46remember you said that but and it's so
43:48true because as you we we trust our
43:52brains more than we should we have that
43:54feeling of recency I want remember that
43:57no you won't because you've forgotten it
43:58in 10 minutes time thinking about
44:00something else it's a very linear
44:01process and unless you're actually
44:04consciously recalling things chances are
44:07you'll probably start forgetting that
44:09you were working on something or
44:11remembering something but this helps you
44:13put it out your mind and it's if you can
44:16employ this in even in other areas of of
44:19of your life a system where you can
44:22trust your notes more I need to remember
44:24someone's birthday or you know all those
44:26little things the more you can trust the
44:28system the clearer your mind will be and
44:30you're not getting stressed as it starts
44:33building
44:36up which means to do your thinking you
44:39have ideas put them as notes you have
44:41questions put them as notes you have
44:43thoughts random fleeting thoughts put
44:46them as notes because they can lead to
44:48something your brain's telling you
44:50something and the important thing here
44:52by doing
44:54that you start putting it through your
44:56own process of
44:58thinking you start making sure that you
45:02do understand it that it has your stamp
45:05on it not someone else's your stamp
45:07because then you'll recall it
45:09easier and it'll be in your system so
45:11when you read your notes later it will
45:13make more
45:14sense um and a good technique is to
45:17think
45:18about what does future me want out of
45:21this and you might when if you ask that
45:24question you say well I'm not going to
45:25remember that phrase so maybe I'll just
45:28write some keywords and put something
45:29into the notes so that I know what I'm
45:31searching for you know you best think
45:34about how you search for things and then
45:35make your life easier by making make
45:38sure you do the ground work now so you
45:39can find it again
45:42later it's a good way to employ the uh
45:46the Richard fom fman principle so you
45:50know very high level you note the things
45:53you know and you've read this is kind of
45:55your going through your literature notes
45:56and that in there explain as simply as
45:59you can as you're explaining it to a
46:01child good luck cuz it's a very complex
46:03subject that you guys are working on but
46:06at the same time it's the simpler you do
46:08it the easier it will be for you in the
46:13future note what you don't
46:16know don't leave gaps don't kind of stop
46:20actually put them as things I do not
46:22know
46:22this and then plug those gaps they
46:25become branches off in your zle C of
46:27things that you want to explore
46:29more and you're obviously going to
46:31prioritize what you can explore you know
46:32you can't research something all the way
46:35down to the atoms there has to be a
46:37point where you've got to prioritize but
46:40you'll get a feel for it what's what's
46:41important and what you can just leave as
46:43there's a level of unknown but I don't
46:45need to know
46:47that and then add it all to the
46:50test does it sound
46:53simp so uh at this point you know think
46:57H it's all very good but few questions
47:00uh or most the point you just don't know
47:02what it really looks like now moving
47:04forward
47:06um before I go to the next live I've got
47:08some questions which I've been asked uh
47:11through my YouTube channel and and
47:13elsewhere so I've got a bit of an
47:14insights to the stumbling blocks but
47:16before I go that I promise you any
47:18questions or things that you would like
47:22to explore in more detail get more
47:24character yeah
47:27my thought process is always recursive
47:30and suddenly goes through chaos because
47:33you try to reach the fundaments of the
47:37process or the Notions that try to
47:38describe or understand so based on the
47:41question about mathematics especially
47:43you can just ra the actions through a
47:45process and so I can define an atomic
47:49simple note because everything collapses
47:51to the first principles and so when you
47:54just draw a line and say that's it
47:59or it's a good
48:01question one that's hard for me to
48:03really visualize not being in that
48:06field the way I would think about it is
48:08where at what point is it a problem for
48:11you to continue and what point does that
48:13problem go away so if you find that
48:18um there's a lot of work kind of going
48:21down to those first principles and it's
48:23taking up then maybe that's the problem
48:25that you can't prioritize where you let
48:27go there's no reason why you can't put a
48:29placeholder and say this is as far as
48:31I've got to if it becomes a problem and
48:33I need it to explain something that's
48:35the point I continue that
48:37thre um that's kind of how I would
48:40approach approach that there's no ADV
48:45on what works for you really
48:48um the things to look out for is try not
48:51to repeat yourself so that you're doing
48:54the work once and
48:57and yeah if you need to use that
49:00note does it give you sufficient context
49:03that you you find yourself stumbling and
49:06that's usually the prompt where like I
49:08need more detail here but if you don't
49:09ever need it
49:11then no there a
49:13problem any other questions before I
49:15move on or observations or confusions or
49:18yeah I I'm just a little bit concerned
49:22that that it requires some extra time
49:26take these notes in a more structured
49:28way right it's like that that's the the
49:32trade-off you would say I I'm sure the
49:35benefits are you know better like
49:39than
49:41but it isn't not
49:43front but if you're not so you're
49:45thinking you have to ask yourself where
49:47are you putting that time anyway at
49:50understanding
49:51something and I guess you really want to
49:53use the tooling so it's not a chore that
49:56it's
49:57from the quickest point of your thinking
49:58to
49:59typing then if you then have to spend 10
50:02minutes organizing and thinking like
50:04maybe that's kind of not
50:07ideal
50:10um depends if you want to kick the can
50:12down the road if you create long form
50:15notes yes you're capturing that and yes
50:18you might find that's what you
50:20want but you have to really make that
50:23call Will I need to
50:27like how am I going to do my thinking
50:28around this how am I going to create my
50:29ideas off this when just even find the
50:33part in that note I've going to now read
50:34an awful lot
50:37so experiment with it trial and error
50:40that's the uh it's a good observation
50:42cuz
50:43like yeah it's hard to know what you're
50:46investing in when you haven't got the
50:48benefits of it initially and if you up
50:50against the time you got other things
50:52that are priority it's probably the
50:53first thing to slip in terms of best
50:55practice
50:57um but just in your mind make sure you
51:00understand that that could be a problem
51:02and that's something that you can
51:04optimize if if you feel like I need a
51:07better system so okay these are the
51:10challenges oh yeah one question um for
51:13example when when thinking of a process
51:16of um especially the step between let's
51:18say um lerat notes and and permanent
51:21modes
51:22um let's say that you're writing a a a a
51:26new sory um and and you you found like
51:30certain ideas are interesting and are
51:32related to maybe like other views of a
51:34similar Topic in a different in a
51:36different source that you already have
51:37some like permanent notes related with
51:40um but as you reading that source that
51:43that that won't be like the only thing
51:45mentioned there so you have some kind of
51:48um
51:49fitting literature note depending on
51:52where you are exactly but then you'll
51:53have some permanent notes that will need
51:55to be changed because your your
51:57knowledge has in a sense been updated
51:59about those those bits
52:01but how when do you break the wordlow in
52:04the sense that like because many times
52:06for example like specific examples I'm
52:08reading a paper and I find like one bit
52:11like the the that I'm like oh this
52:14particular I don't know like a mention
52:15of a technique or something specific
52:16that done and I've seen in other papers
52:18and for some reason it's interesting to
52:20me like when do you decide like oh do I
52:23stop the flow of scanning let's say this
52:26sour to update the rest of my knowledge
52:29or do I leave this but then that means
52:32yeah having a kind of extra Scaffolding
52:35in in in in place so that you can
52:38revisit that so that you can actually
52:39update what you were thinking in the s
52:42that thought it starts like diverging
52:45like you've got like multiple paths like
52:47splitting on each like time point so so
52:49the question is I'm exploring one piece
52:53of material and it's sparking ideas to
52:56br off and explore something else what
52:58do I do do I continue with my original
53:01goal or do I Branch off
53:06um I'll never tell you what to do but
53:10what I would do in that situation if I'm
53:13disciplined cuz if I'm interested I will
53:15probably follow the follow the
53:18rabbit but if I was disciplined I would
53:21make enough of a note for future me to
53:24go follow that rabbit hole and that
53:26leads to and you're thinking of it as a
53:29workflow that becomes like in your inbox
53:31things to look at when you want to pick
53:33up um it's probably a good discipline
53:37like if you're reading an
53:39article and you don't get to the end of
53:41the article because it's linked to
53:42something else and suddenly you got five
53:44tabs open and you're like how did I get
53:46here like you're sort of you're sort of
53:49following without purpose in that sense
53:52and you you you have to make the call is
53:54this a viable like have I gone too far
53:58do I need to step
53:59back is this more important than what I
54:02was doing originally that has now
54:03spunked something that's worth doing you
54:05make that priority call
54:09um yeah you can't do two things at once
54:12if you if you want there's probably more
54:16value completing one thing than not
54:17completing 10 things in that sense um
54:21but I would use the workflow to make
54:24fleeting notes that you had this idea
54:26maybe where that idea can be found for
54:28future you and just put it as like on
54:31your backlog of next things to research
54:33and then prioritize it against
54:35everything
54:35else the important thing is
54:39that in that moment that idea was really
54:44valuable but when you read it later you
54:46might like why did I have that idea what
54:48was my thinking you have to get enough
54:51of it down why that don't just put the
54:53link of something to look at CU you're
54:55looking at why did I want why was that
54:56useful You've Lost That
54:59inspiration put something in your
55:01fleeting notes and say this is what I
55:04want out to it this is why and you can
55:07get back to that state of inspiration
55:10essentially um or follow follow the
55:13rabbit hole um but just comes of a
55:15caution that you'll be off track uh and
55:19sort of like Meandering around that
55:22research okay I'm going to move into the
55:24kind of questions that I've had had
55:26asked uh maybe this will fit some of the
55:30maybe you don't know you've got this
55:31question yet because it's all
55:32like uh
55:35so I picked these we'll go through them
55:38in turn um so I won't read them out I'll
55:40just we'll just start the first one how
55:43do I make Atomic notes this is this is
55:46one that comes up
55:48like when I'm reading the book I sort of
55:50like I'm just capturing what they're
55:52saying how do I make that Atomic or you
55:55know mathematics are diff difficult
55:57there so many formulas and things like
55:58that principles that you need to capture
56:01you feel like it's just mostly copy and
56:03paste or like it's really hard so let's
56:07think about that so you got these
56:08fleeting
56:09notes and you know ignore the examples
56:13in this was chat GPT just give me
56:17something to
56:19display uh I have no idea like if you're
56:22laughing then I know that it's not
56:24right but uh but good but it's fine it's
56:27fine because I'm teaching the the
56:29parameters around it so you might have
56:31these uh fleeting notes you just as much
56:34or as little as you need to understand
56:37what it is so you might use I call this
56:40the outline method just bullet points
56:41you just indent them as a sub point and
56:44you can go to any level indents um you
56:48might like the diagrams you might I
56:50don't know whatever whatever works for
56:52you in terms of capturing that that you
56:55can move on what you're really doing is
56:56you're
56:57filtering that material down to the
56:59things that are really important and
57:01removing all the fluff
57:03essentially
57:05so that could be a fleeting note and
57:09then you might have sub fleeting notes
57:12on the on the sub points so you're
57:14making these sort of sort of atomically
57:18um so now that you could go and create
57:20those literature notes in that more
57:22narrow area so you've sort of sectioned
57:25off bits of thinking and that helps you
57:28prioritize you know what's most
57:30important to capture if you stuck with
57:32time and you might just continue all
57:34these
57:35down so personally I'd say just use your
57:38normal note taking techniques uh to
57:41capture that because what you're doing
57:42is you're comprehending and you're
57:46filtering what you're reading or what
57:48you're learning and really the quicker
57:51that you can use your techniques the
57:54better you because then you can get
57:56through more material so if you like
57:57doing an outline great if you like doing
57:58the cornal method great if you want to
58:00do my map Great do what you want
58:04um probably wouldn't just like copy and
58:07paste because you're not putting it
58:08through your own thinking you've got to
58:10You' got to think about what you're
58:11writing down um if you just copy and
58:14paste it's yeah it's a filtering in a
58:16way but um doesn't I find rewriting
58:21things helps helps my understanding
58:23because it spark some of those ideas
58:27so then you want to take those and you
58:29want to put them in literature notes so
58:31just start fleshing it out and you want
58:34to keep it Atomic so that what you said
58:36in the title of the note is delivered in
58:38the body of the note nothing more
58:40nothing less in theory so that I could
58:42pull that out and it makes
58:45sense
58:48um so yeah Atomic notes of each key idea
58:53when the idea is a different idea that
58:54you may want to put into different
58:56context that's a new
58:58note
59:01um if you find that you're sort of
59:05explaining some of the principles that
59:08build on that idea then maybe that's
59:10just siphoned off into a separate note
59:12link it in so you're keeping it
59:15Atomic write it in your own
59:18words because that is how you understand
59:21not someone else's words your words
59:26and then yeah right it as that you
59:27explain it to someone else if you want
59:30to test it on someone else and see if
59:31they understand it you know uh because
59:34future you is not you it is a different
59:36version of you who will have a different
59:38level of understanding and comprehension
59:40and depending on how much sleep you've
59:41had recall so make make your life
59:46easy and write it simply so don't be
59:50fancy with your
59:51words make it easy to read and
59:53comprehend
59:57then you want to link these notes
59:59together so in obsidian I call them Wiki
1:00:03links uh where you use the double square
1:00:05brackets if you it's a markdown thing
1:00:07we'll cover that uh later but you can
1:00:10actually put links in the body of the
1:00:11text or you can just put them at the end
1:00:14if it's you want to just talk about it
1:00:16but you want to know where that
1:00:17Launchpad is to the other things if you
1:00:21want to go back to it or you can put
1:00:22them in um personal preference up to you
1:00:27uh so you can do the inline links or
1:00:30what I call reference links so you're
1:00:32putting it at the bottom um and that's
1:00:35how you can create lots of things and
1:00:38sort of get that continuation and just
1:00:39sort of keep the notes Atomic it's
1:00:42almost like every paragraph and what
1:00:44would have been a long form note could
1:00:45be an atomic note and you're just
1:00:46linking it all together and something
1:00:48that's
1:00:50bigger so sorry I can interrupt you so
1:00:54where what you link there is another
1:00:58okay yeah so you created this other
1:01:01other note and then you got a
1:01:02relationship between the two things and
1:01:06yeah there's no limit to the number of
1:01:07notes you can create um I'll go into
1:01:10later when to create links and when not
1:01:13to
1:01:16essentially
1:01:18yeah we have a concept of back links uh
1:01:21soyum has I think a tab the back links
1:01:24that means I can look at this and see
1:01:26what's linked to it and that could be
1:01:27quite useful for knowing so I've got a
1:01:31principle for example what have I where
1:01:33have I used that reference that and I
1:01:34can go see those back links to where
1:01:38I've used
1:01:43it so yeah your literature notes are in
1:01:46the context of the source material so
1:01:49you're not really thinking too much
1:01:51about your zcast you don't want to be
1:01:52influenced too much because you've got
1:01:53to understand what this author is saying
1:01:56so you have to sort of Step into the
1:01:58mind and not and not go in with any
1:01:59biases about what you've already read
1:02:02you want to look at it in in isolation
1:02:04and take it at its face
1:02:06value but when you get to your permanent
1:02:09notes that's when you start saying was
1:02:12this correct is this useful does this
1:02:15link does this extend my knowledge so
1:02:18the permanent notes are in the context
1:02:19of your understanding so the first
1:02:22part first part is
1:02:27I'm understanding the author's position
1:02:30now I'm understanding my
1:02:31position and building on
1:02:34that
1:02:36so in a concept the permanent notes are
1:02:39just like literature notes they're
1:02:40written in the same way they Link in the
1:02:43same way just the links go further
1:02:44beyond that Source materials kind of
1:02:49notes and in the context of the whole
1:02:52zetel cast you've got 90,000 notes you
1:02:55in theory can considering any one of
1:02:57those 90,000 notes could relate to what
1:02:59I just put in
1:03:00here hopefully with some clever tagging
1:03:03and thinking of how you structure it uh
1:03:07you wouldn't have to go through 90,000
1:03:09notes to find out what LS to
1:03:12what okay so that's what I mean by
1:03:15atomic nodes just break it down into
1:03:19building blocks and then you can link
1:03:20them together
1:03:23uh okay I have a an observation at least
1:03:28the way I'm thinking about it I try and
1:03:30put into every Atomic
1:03:33noes the kind of the objective I think
1:03:37I'm going to be able to use that note
1:03:39for it's not just uh the the way I'm
1:03:42doing it I don't just try and
1:03:44capture an idea I try and capture an
1:03:48idea within the context of what my
1:03:50overall objective is and that may change
1:03:53over time but I think I have some point
1:03:55on the Horizon that I'm navigating to
1:03:57and I'm collecting up things I think
1:03:59that can help me get to you know that
1:04:01where that think point on the horizon I
1:04:03think is a paper or a thesis topic you
1:04:05know the thesis actually yeah and um so
1:04:09I I just try and make sure that I get it
1:04:11into the atomic note because later on
1:04:13when I look back at that why did I why
1:04:16did I write this down that's that's a
1:04:19good point because
1:04:20otherwise yeah if you've got a direction
1:04:23you want to take it you need to organize
1:04:25it some you can't just consider any one
1:04:27of these could be could be useful but in
1:04:31in the moment you're finding the notes
1:04:32that are useful and that you want to you
1:04:34want to capture that I think I think I'm
1:04:36I'm always kind of like juggling a bunch
1:04:38of things that I think have a
1:04:39probability to become something but I
1:04:42don't know yet and it's this process of
1:04:45um doing research and then thinking
1:04:47about it uh that generates idea oh yeah
1:04:50maybe this will help me along my way and
1:04:51that's how I decide whether I'm going to
1:04:53make a note or not because it's not just
1:04:56that I understood something but that I
1:04:59understood how it fits into where I
1:05:01think I'm going yeah so this's different
1:05:04ways you can approach that which is I'm
1:05:06just thinking of the top my head you can
1:05:07put the links in references you could
1:05:09put them they not you can annotate the
1:05:12motivation of why you think that's
1:05:14important you could have a note that is
1:05:18just we'll cover it in a moment just an
1:05:20outline of all the things that relate to
1:05:22that
1:05:22objective and add it into there so it's
1:05:25you got back links that kind of do it so
1:05:28yeah there's multiple ways of doing that
1:05:30but the important thing is and I think
1:05:31is completely valid
1:05:34is you are making notes with some kind
1:05:37of goal capture the goal at the moment
1:05:40because it'll save you
1:05:44that that loss of Direction when you
1:05:48come to now I want to execute on that
1:05:50goal where are my notes and then your
1:05:52left kind of back side from you siting
1:05:55through everything I use the exact same
1:05:58thinking to decide what's too uh
1:06:02granular so just getting back to
1:06:05giannis's question about you know do I
1:06:07go all the way back to First principles
1:06:09I don't because uh basically um I don't
1:06:14need any help to remember Newton's laws
1:06:18or Maxwell's equations those was a just
1:06:21like some found foundational layer that
1:06:24I don't need to go any further uh any
1:06:26deeper and re explain that stuff yeah
1:06:28and it's the point of dimin for because
1:06:30I'm writing them for me okay so I know
1:06:32what I know fundamentally know and I'm
1:06:35building on top of that
1:06:40yeah so how do you know what to link so
1:06:43we touched on it a little bit so this is
1:06:47where I kind of do a do's and don'ts
1:06:50list uh it's by no means the definitive
1:06:54answer but you want to link these things
1:06:57together so I would say link it when it
1:06:59adds to your understanding
1:07:02so a note in isolation but in the
1:07:05context of other thing helps you
1:07:07comprehend it even bigger even better so
1:07:10yeah put a link in so that when you look
1:07:12at it later you can follow that back
1:07:17through when the concepts are really
1:07:19strongly related so it could be that
1:07:21kind of continuation or sequence of
1:07:23notes you want to kind of do that
1:07:26um so that you don't have to go back and
1:07:30ask questions like I understand the note
1:07:32but I need to get back to that first
1:07:34principle for
1:07:36example and when you want to pose an
1:07:38idea or a question it's a good time to
1:07:41maybe link it in so you've got a not it
1:07:43makes sense but there's something
1:07:46niggling about it it's not complete in
1:07:48your head it's spars something so make a
1:07:51note so when you look at it later you
1:07:52can follow that that train of thoughts
1:07:54again
1:07:57but when I'd say don't make links don't
1:08:00link every keyword it'll be
1:08:02overload
1:08:06um don't make a link if you can't really
1:08:08explain the reason why you've linked it
1:08:11um otherwise maybe you're doing the
1:08:13first thing you're just linking every
1:08:14keyword for example or or you get ere
1:08:16excited you think I can put links in
1:08:18this this can link to that and you
1:08:19realize that actually they not that
1:08:21useful because the back link maybe would
1:08:23have been good enough or the search
1:08:24would have been good enough to collate
1:08:26these things together it's going to be
1:08:28the understanding not necessarily just
1:08:30related Concepts that have to be
1:08:33together and I would also say not to
1:08:36automate link generation uh it's really
1:08:38interesting sort of in the not taking
1:08:40space in software where there's hints at
1:08:44using AI to help you with you're
1:08:46thinking maybe there's a value in that I
1:08:48think I'm on the fence really because
1:08:51maybe as suggestions could be useful but
1:08:55if you're using the machine to do your
1:08:58thinking you're not doing your thinking
1:09:00and it's as good as a fellow student
1:09:03having written all the notes and you're
1:09:05expecting to get all that understanding
1:09:08by osmosis it doesn't happen so
1:09:11carefully considered links that mean
1:09:13something to you is more valuable than
1:09:15just scatter gunning scatter gun
1:09:16approach of linking everything to
1:09:21everything so before I move on any any
1:09:24more questions observations about
1:09:26linking in
1:09:28particular um I think my my take on it
1:09:31is it is quite individual you'll have to
1:09:34sort of get a feel for what is relevant
1:09:36to you what's not just don't do too much
1:09:38because in your graph you will look like
1:09:40everything's connected to everything you
1:09:41can't see the clusters for
1:09:45example
1:09:47okay uh another another one how do I tie
1:09:50to all my notes um comes up every so
1:09:53often um so
1:09:57so really the title will be valuable as
1:09:59you start linking things and searching
1:10:02that will be the first thing that you
1:10:03see so it should explain what the note
1:10:05is about don't be fancy don't use terms
1:10:07that are hard to actually understand
1:10:10what it's going to explain when you open
1:10:12that note so don't clickbait yourself
1:10:14basically that's what I say
1:10:17um try and avoid titles that have
1:10:21multiple things cuz maybe that's two
1:10:24Atomic notes
1:10:26um so an example there oh
1:10:30yeah yeah it just might suggest if so if
1:10:33it's like you
1:10:35know machine
1:10:37learning techniques and the consequence
1:10:39on society like maybe that's two notes
1:10:41you know whatever so if you find
1:10:43yourself conjoining two concepts
1:10:45together in the title then maybe you
1:10:46haven't made them Atomic enough or you
1:10:48haven't written it sly
1:10:50enough uh you might use conversational
1:10:53titles so if you're doing inline links
1:10:54you might just want to have a flow of
1:10:56text and Link it out there so uh could
1:10:59be uh the best way to detect a user
1:11:02posing VR for example maybe that's how
1:11:04you like to talk to yourself so you know
1:11:06what you're looking for um uh and yeah
1:11:10when you POS an idea or a question um so
1:11:14the idea might be your user P detection
1:11:16of VR so you can kind of see the
1:11:17difference when it's like how do I what
1:11:20is the it's more conversational rather
1:11:23than just the title um but really
1:11:25there's no right or wrong way
1:11:29um yeah if you if you do use inline
1:11:32links in obsidian you can actually
1:11:34change it so it's more conversational
1:11:36but it links to something that's maybe
1:11:38title case for example that would look
1:11:40Odd as reading out um so ways of doing
1:11:44that but yeah naming naming them is
1:11:46quite quite important uh you might be
1:11:49thinking ah looks really chaotic if
1:11:51you're s in like super organized uh
1:11:52folders for everything um the graph you
1:11:55can look really chaotic uh how do I find
1:11:58things like you
1:12:00know question 90,000 notes how would
1:12:03useful as that this as good as not very
1:12:04useful because it's very chaotic
1:12:07so uh so yeah you got to think about how
1:12:10how you organize your zal casting so
1:12:13there some things you can use hashtags
1:12:15to categorize things so if it fits a
1:12:18theme and you want to be able to find
1:12:20your notes on a particular theme just
1:12:21use
1:12:22hashtags um
1:12:26you can create what's called a map of
1:12:27content so it's like an entry file like
1:12:30a table of contents that allows you to
1:12:32link notes in and I'll give more of an
1:12:35example of that in a
1:12:36moment um and the way I like to think of
1:12:39it is don't think of it as a collection
1:12:41of notes but think of it like a database
1:12:43that you can query your notes in
1:12:46different contexts so it's the same note
1:12:49but in different different places map of
1:12:50contents linked here linked there so uh
1:12:54an obsidian has a way to do that which
1:12:56is pretty cool so
1:12:59yeah um but try not to create folders
1:13:02for everything you know if you're what
1:13:04is it you want to create a a folder for
1:13:07all things you've observed about cars
1:13:09and then uh I was trying to think of an
1:13:12example here and then sudden suddenly
1:13:15you've got a vehicle that is a boat car
1:13:17which but you've got another folder for
1:13:18boat which one does the boat car go in
1:13:21uh so the moment you do folders it's
1:13:24really hard hard to fit things in the
1:13:26right folder especially when you're
1:13:28trying to join stuff together and you
1:13:30find things that haven't been
1:13:31categorized in a particular way um try
1:13:34not to over tag things cuz the more
1:13:37noise you put in the harder it is to get
1:13:39meaning out of
1:13:40it um and then yeah maps of content so
1:13:44these are quite nice
1:13:46um you can just create potential folder
1:13:49all these things that allow you to have
1:13:53kind of top level entry points in uh and
1:13:55then just link to
1:13:57the uh the sections that allow you to
1:14:01quickly find uh where your notes are on
1:14:04a particular subject so hopefully that's
1:14:06like a hierarchy down to now down to
1:14:09where you are and the cool thing about
1:14:11that is um all right yeah it adds as a
1:14:15an entry point to a given topic so uh
1:14:19it's just a simple outline to all the
1:14:21notes of that given topic so if if
1:14:23you're creating a project like a you
1:14:26could start with a map of content of all
1:14:27the things that you want to cover and
1:14:29then that is your starting point for
1:14:31maybe filling out into writing uh
1:14:35writing your your
1:14:37article yeah they just link to the
1:14:39individual notes
1:14:42there the important thing is it's just
1:14:43completely fluid you you you can do this
1:14:46however you want there's no there's no
1:14:47right or wrong way and you can do it
1:14:48organically you can add this in at any
1:14:50point um if you find that you know
1:14:55technique wasn't working for you and you
1:14:58can create as many as you want so not
1:15:01just one map cont and those notes can
1:15:02appear in multiple maps of content so
1:15:04they're
1:15:04not they're not one time use notes which
1:15:07is really
1:15:08nice and if you really want to be advanc
1:15:11maybe create a map of content and map of
1:15:12content you know it's up to you
1:15:14uh yeah so that's how I think about
1:15:17organizing is you think of it as a
1:15:19database and you're just creating these
1:15:21kind of views into that data with maps
1:15:22of content with tags um
1:15:25and all of that you might be thinking
1:15:28you know got 90,000 notes how do I find
1:15:31anything in this
1:15:33mess uh so yeah use max content is nice
1:15:37nice way just covered
1:15:39that um if you're using obsidian for
1:15:42example just use the search bar so you
1:15:44can go by keyword uh by
1:15:46title
1:15:48um tags tags path uh probably not as
1:15:53useful um if if you have certain ways
1:15:57that you would recall something you can
1:15:59put just a section in your note saying
1:16:01keywords or Search terms so that this
1:16:03will find it when you say those words I
1:16:05do that with email myself like sometimes
1:16:07I'll send myself an email that I know
1:16:09I'll refer to in a year but I'll put
1:16:11what I would search for to find that
1:16:12email so I'm paying paying dividends
1:16:15forward to Future
1:16:17Martin uh yeah so you can basically do
1:16:20it based on keyword um tags so in
1:16:24obsidian specifically there's a tag view
1:16:26so you can go and view them um really
1:16:29straightforward it might be on by
1:16:30default the new versions but it didn't
1:16:32used to be so you can turn that
1:16:37on you have to think of your notes as a
1:16:39way to search so you might have an entry
1:16:42point of a note that allows you to
1:16:43discover where that leads to um so if
1:16:47you remember the algorithm you can't
1:16:49remember what it was called but you knew
1:16:51you referenced it another note then
1:16:52hopefully you've linked it in as a
1:16:55um other a way to discover there uh
1:16:59you've got the graph view so that is the
1:17:00actual graph view um in obsidian so
1:17:03that's kind of what it looks like so you
1:17:04can highlight around and uh you also get
1:17:07local graph VI as well so you take one
1:17:08note and just see what branch is off
1:17:10that note quite cool and then when you
1:17:14think of your notes as a database uh
1:17:17there's a plugin for cient which will
1:17:19hopefully get time to to cover um where
1:17:22you can actually query
1:17:25uh for notes of certain properties and
1:17:27create Dynamic views so you don't have
1:17:29to go update maps of content you can
1:17:31have done
1:17:32automatically so yeah uh yeah what do I
1:17:37mean by thinking right there things in
1:17:40organic you can't think what does that
1:17:42mean
1:17:47um so you may think of your notes only
1:17:49exists in the context of you
1:17:51researching but one of the real Powers
1:17:53is actually don't have an objective to
1:17:55research material but just look at your
1:17:57Ze Cen and this is what Nicholas Le
1:17:59would do he would go through as a
1:18:01separate task as a separate workflow and
1:18:03just explore what he's got in there and
1:18:07what thinking he can do about that so
1:18:11spend time with it as you're trying to
1:18:12ideate ideas or upgrade your thinking uh
1:18:16you once you've got enough notes you've
1:18:18got enough to to work with them and then
1:18:21you want to consider you know those gaps
1:18:22those ideas what connections can be made
1:18:25made
1:18:26um and then you use your writing to
1:18:28develop your thinking so you're trying
1:18:31to answer the questions you have how do
1:18:33you how do you perceive this problem
1:18:36that needs solving what's your approach
1:18:37to it um and that helps helps you kind
1:18:43of organize your own thoughts and if
1:18:45something's confusing or conflicting use
1:18:48writing to to resolve
1:18:50that and once you've done that add it
1:18:52back in you're capturing that now
1:18:55so
1:18:57um yeah
1:18:59it's a nice way to to catch your
1:19:02thoughts as you as you go through and
1:19:04upgrade them
1:19:06essentially uh
1:19:08citations um so how would like your
1:19:12reading material how do you make sure
1:19:13that you cite cite it correctly in that
1:19:17uh my right think you all use Z teror or
1:19:19is that um I've not used it before I had
1:19:22to play with it it's really confusing
1:19:25uh but I think I figured enough to give
1:19:28you a point here so what I would do is
1:19:31add reference to section so if I've if
1:19:34the thinking is derived from something
1:19:35that I've read and I want to reference
1:19:36it that I need to to carry that forward
1:19:39you can just add it at the bottom of
1:19:40that note um which is quite nice or you
1:19:44can create a citation note and link to
1:19:47it so you do it once and then if you
1:19:49have multiple times you want to site it
1:19:51then you've got it done once which is
1:19:53quite nice and you could look at the
1:19:54back references of every time you've
1:19:56used that that citation which is quite
1:20:00nice uh so for example that could link
1:20:02to a citation note just a little bit
1:20:04that you've extracted and where it came
1:20:06from so uh yeah do not comment on
1:20:11whether that is a correct way of
1:20:12referencing because chat GPT gave that
1:20:14for
1:20:15[Music]
1:20:17me uh yeah and then you can see every
1:20:21time you've used that reference which is
1:20:22quite a nice way to keep track of your
1:20:24The Source material and if you want to
1:20:27use Z Tero um I did have a play there is
1:20:29a plugin to obsidian uh once you install
1:20:32that plugin and you use the command uh
1:20:35pallet you can go import notes from the
1:20:38Tero it brings up a dialogue where you
1:20:41can go and look for the
1:20:43thing this sound like I just call it
1:20:46thing that you want to import them for
1:20:49and then it will actually just insert it
1:20:50in that note and the cool thing is it
1:20:52gives you a link back to Zera um so you
1:20:54can click the link and it loens the
1:20:55teror to that point um so hopefully
1:20:58that's enough to guide you of the
1:21:00possibilities cuz I do not know anymore
1:21:03than that um so
1:21:05yeah and then uh what do I mean by
1:21:08projects I like the word projects
1:21:10because it for me it could be a YouTube
1:21:12video it could be uh a newsletter
1:21:14article a blog post or something like
1:21:16that for you it would be something a bit
1:21:17more substantial uh with with research
1:21:19and all that um but these are
1:21:21essentially the things that you create
1:21:24so could be the Articles or they could
1:21:26be the papers or they could be the
1:21:27journals or they could be videos if you
1:21:29want to create a video on a particular
1:21:31subject um it could be a
1:21:34report
1:21:37uh prototype as well what do you need to
1:21:40do a
1:21:41prot and it can be ultimately your
1:21:44thesis so you can think of to start with
1:21:47that hopefully you can assemble it from
1:21:51all your thinking and all your research
1:21:52and all your understanding from your
1:21:54cast and and that bit becomes more of a
1:21:58construction job rather than a design
1:22:00job um regarding the projects
1:22:04um how do you so you've got the pieces
1:22:07and let's say that you're putting them
1:22:09together um for
1:22:12in at least in the I think in the
1:22:16context of of the research of of most of
1:22:18us here like them normally you won't
1:22:22have let's say
1:22:24all the bits um in in atomic notes
1:22:28because some of them will be would be
1:22:30just like numbers and tables and just
1:22:33like results from um from an experiment
1:22:37so when you do a project how how do you
1:22:41reflect what pieces belong to that
1:22:44project because obviously cannot be like
1:22:46fully exclusive because you may reduce
1:22:48some part for another project but like
1:22:51on the other hand you you normally want
1:22:54some kind kind of idea of like yeah
1:22:56these are all the things that that I
1:22:58need to get for this project I like to
1:23:00think of this very simply if you s fun
1:23:02to me and say I Got This research and I
1:23:04got this project this research kind of
1:23:06has bits that aren't relevant to the
1:23:08project but I want to take a part of it
1:23:11I'd ask you well which part relates to
1:23:13this project and you'd explain that to
1:23:14me I said that's a note and then you can
1:23:17link that note into your project and
1:23:18that note links to The Wider research or
1:23:20the results or it could be a GitHub kind
1:23:23of repository for example
1:23:25where you've got your
1:23:27prototype you can use notes to well you
1:23:30can either embed things in the notes so
1:23:31if it's a PDF for example that you
1:23:32produce a report you can put it in a
1:23:34note and OB cityan it'll put it in your
1:23:36Vault and uh out there then you can
1:23:41create notes off that for the bits that
1:23:42you want to articulate are
1:23:44useful and that could be the thing you
1:23:46link to your project
1:23:49so while I may not answer your question
1:23:51specifically the model of which I think
1:23:53about it is if you are able to produce a
1:23:55report a project that can articulate the
1:23:59little thing that is of relevance to
1:24:01that project that is derived from a
1:24:03bigger
1:24:04thing then a note can articulate why
1:24:07that little thing came from that big
1:24:08thing and that's the thing you kind of
1:24:10you might be doing that in the project
1:24:12so you you've got all this these results
1:24:14for example and you're like right now I
1:24:16need to do the bit that s the relevant
1:24:19kind of bit out of it and that could be
1:24:22a small note that you link in or you
1:24:24might be tempted to just put it straight
1:24:25in the report
1:24:28um there's no right to a wrong answer
1:24:31but your notes can be metadata about
1:24:34something external as well that captures
1:24:38the essence so it's like Atomic in a
1:24:41sense I understand what that means in
1:24:43the results that I can link in that's
1:24:46how I would kind of think about that
1:24:50does that help I don't know yeah at
1:24:52least for for this understand they be
1:24:54basically to create let's say like an
1:24:56intermediate step where you've got
1:24:59whatever is you've got the wider Source
1:25:02material then you've got your condensed
1:25:05own knowledge um of a and then you've
1:25:08got like a link that extracts part of
1:25:10that knowledge and those links in the
1:25:13form of atomic nodes um are then what
1:25:17actually constitute the project yeah the
1:25:19intermediate instead okay yeah
1:25:25it's the externalization of your
1:25:26thinking like if you're if you've got
1:25:28these results and in your head you know
1:25:30what bit is
1:25:32relevant that could be the note that you
1:25:34put in there you do that thinking once
1:25:36and have to sift
1:25:40through
1:25:42so yeah this is the sort of end of the
1:25:45Ze casting bit

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