Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler

You may have seen this meme making the rounds recently. I’ve started trying to move to the right and walked away from my Readwise and Obsidian stack.

Why I stopped using Obsidian

I’m spending more time these days thinking about a simple toolkit, so that I can spend my time present with my kids or creating, not fiddling. Ben Brooks has been posting about how PKM apps cause more fiddling and less actually using the notes, and I think he’s on to something.

I’ve certainly been guilty of optimizing a system just for the sake of optimization, or because I wanted to feel like I was getting a lot done. As I get older, I’m finding that I’m somewhat more of a satisfier; I’m trying to get a nice system or thing that I use and am happy to pay for, in time or money, and then stop looking as much.

Of course, that led to me trying to figure out a way to move all my obsidian notes to Apple Notes, since it’s just there and it turns out, that’s kind of hard to do. You have all these little markdown files, but there’s not a lot of things that parse them and import them easily.

Elizabeth Butler on ‘Personal Knowledge Management’ (PKM) systems:

My worry is that the concept of personal knowledge management is becoming over-complicated. Needlessly over-complicated. I see too many people focusing on the finer points of plugins, complex automations, endlessly poring over their notes as they write and rewrite them (instead of creating new ideas), or becoming hyperfocused on the most optimized, ruthlessly efficient way to structure and nest tags or folders.

That was actually good for me, because it caused me to think more; why was I trying to pull in everything? I felt a siren call of Obsidian linking to Readwise and automatically bringing in article and book notes, and I had to stop and think

“What am I going to do with this article after the fact?”

In most cases, if I want to share it, the highlights already in my read it later app more then suffice. For books, I benefit from taking a little more time with the highlights and typing up my ideas; the friction of copying to apple notes is actually a benefit there. It also means those times when I accidentally highlight something, usually falling asleep, don’t suddenly get imported. A few years ago, I was doing a lot of work, where drawing upon articles made sense. However, even at that time it was really just keeping all Evernote.

The idea of collecting information like a squirrel collects nuts gave me a hit of dopamine. I felt like I was really getting something done but wasn’t actually producing anything

Going Native

I’m doing more with Apple Notes now. This meant I could voice journal some thoughts the other day when I was stuck in traffic, and I have all my thoughts easily on all my devices. I’m committed to the apple ecosystem, so for me, it just works.

I also just like the idea of simplifying, and letting Apple do more of the work rather than trying to do it all myself.I was starting to do a lot of “optimization” of my system without really having a point, and I felt like Obsidian was a tool that leaned into doing that. That’s not really a problem, per se with the tool as much as with me.

For a while, this site was going to be called “Just Nerdy Enough” because I do think, in our busy lives, there’s an opportunity to use tools and technology to make things smoother. The switch to leveraged intention fits the journey I’m on; how do get more leverage on my time as a father, a husband, a friend and a nerd who likes whiskey and reading?

My friend Chris has a counter thought where he uses drafts and obsidian. Drafts is his fleeting notes space, then he sends it on to obsidian if he wants to work with it more.  We talked some about it, and he’s a programmer so he has a strong preference for text tools and doesn’t get the urge to fiddle with his systems. That’s a problem for me, and I think for a lot of people working with ADHD tendencies or a full diagnosis; there’s a stereotype of quarter filled planners and organizational systems for a reason.

So I’m going to stick with this for the next six months, and start leveraging one system, rather then chasing the latest “optimization”.