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= 2024-02-12 PKMitus


Asksam Professional 6.jpg

PKM is not new

Part of the motivation for this digital garden is to freely share what I have learned about Personal Knowledge Management. My journey on this started years ago when a friend introduced me to a freeform database programme called AskSam. Back then it was called a 'Personal Information Manager' and whilst I loved the programme, I never fully utilised it to its full potential.

Still, that was the start of a journey that would last until I transitioned to the Apple Mac platform in 2009 and chose DevonThink as its replacement. Regrettably, I still have not used DevonThink to its fullest, despite having read the manual several times. DevonThink was and is still far ahead of its time and I am always fascinated to learn how academics and researchers have utilised its capabilities.

Software does not make you think

The point is, software does not make you think. It certainly pays to learn what your software package can do and master as much as you can, but ultimately PIM or PKM as we now say, is a deep cognitive activity about what you put into it. Any time you spend more time playing with the tool, or worse changing tools, you spend less time thinking.

This is problematic because a whole industry has popped up around PKM. You can really tell this is the case that instead of being able to google for a 'how-to' or view someone's work online freely, you either have to view it on a monetised platform or worse go through a paywall. Need a note-taking app or PKM? There are a zillion compared to just five years ago.

There are some cool tools though

Don't get me wrong. It is not all bad. I have added Obsidian as a MarkDown editor in recent years and in a very handy way I index my vault into DevonThink. In the last year, I have also become a big fan of Readwise Reader which feeds Obsidian and ultimately connects to DevonThink. Yes, it is not a coincidence. DevonThink rocks!

And there are some really cool tools appearing out there and one that I have my eye on is AnyType in that they are a web3 peer-to-peer application. It may very well give Notion a run for its money and if it does, you may very well see all sorts of collaborative and organic projects run through it with no central server or empire holding your data. Then there is all sorts of stuff around AI... cool tools.

My advice to avoid PKMitus

For what it is worth, here's my philosophy to avoid the disease of PKMitus, the obsession with new tools and gadgets:

  1. Find a tool and stick with it - master thinking and making connections to your ideas inside of it
  2. If you decide to add another tool, ideally see if it can enhance and integrate into what you already have.
  3. If you at all can, stick to plain files. Years ago this was RTF in DevonThink, but now I am all in on MarkDown. The data is mine and I can move it easily. AskSam is a clear example that no package lasts forever.

Think I'm nuts? Check out One Big Text File. (OBTF) A PKM philosophy that just uses a single text file because of the lack of friction of a complicated interface. This means you can spend the maximum amount of time thinking. Whilst this is not for me, it makes a lot of sense because I still carry around a good ole' Leuchtturm1917 Notebook and if I am in good form, a fountain pen of some sort.

Master thinking... that's the vaccine to avoid PKMitus.

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