🌌 Weekly Wondering 2023-W25
AI prompts for note-taking inspiration, my new favorite source for writings, and a Gen Z's perspective on our capitalist world
Welcome to another edition of Weekly Wondering, a sacred time where I share the resonating links, reflections and learnings from my past week to influence your next one ;)
This newsletter is my version of learning and thinking in public, giving me time to expand on ideas that may turn into more refined content in the future. If you want to see more of my ideas (or to learn about who I am if you're new here), you can head to my digital notes garden.
✨ In My Life
10,000 subscribers !
I'm honored to have this many people care about what I have to say despite my inconsistency in uploading 😊
Until the end of my internship, I won't be able to put my 100% into content creation, especially since I prefer to make more original content on my own which takes time, but I hope the waits are worth it :)
New video!
At the start of this week, I shared my reasoning for restarting my Obsidian vault.
Surprisingly enough, I uploaded this video just for the more personal aspect, not expecting it to statistically perform well, but it's ended up being the 2nd best performer out of my 10.
Crazy how that works 🤯
This is only going to be the start of more introspective content once again - optimizing for meaning, not statistics in a YouTube landscape full of spectacles and imitated content ;)
You can check out the video here:
Next AI video update
I finished the script for the next AI video :) Last time I was still deciding on what kind of structure the video should have since Tiago Forte's CODE method didn't sit well, but now I've found the Zettelkasten method to be a perfect framework for organizing and introducing the prompts.
I did want to finish recording and uploading this week, but I've been busy watching a professional major tournament for my favorite game VALORANT.
Despite barely playing the game the past few months, watching some of these matches has been the most awe I've felt in a while from the depth of strategy, captivating storylines, and inhuman performances, so no regrets about straying a bit from my productive self 🤪
For an example prompt you can start using, you can look at the 🚀 Actionable Tingz part of the newsletter!
🔗 Links to Thinks
Lately, I've been learning a lot from every.to, a curated content network for people interested in business and tech.
It has unique ideas related to AI, science-based self-improvement, philosophy, and pretty much all the things I'm interested in hehe 😁
Here are two links I found insightful:
The Ultramarathon Mindset
Seeing as I haven't had the most disciplined mind recently, reading about the Ultramarathon mindset has given me a simple, psychology-based toolset to help me persevere during any challenging times throughout the day.
You can check out my full notes and the link to the article in my digital garden.
A Non-Definitive Guide to Non-Duality
Non-duality mindfulness is a difficult mindset to adopt where you go beyond the separation between the self and the rest of the world.
think of yourself as a drop in the ocean. This can be a scary idea, in the sense that it forces you to confront the arbitrariness and flux of existence. But it can also be a relaxing alternate frame—it’s a way of looking that can bring a sense of letting go, as well as greater empathy for you and others: we are all just trying to ride this wave together and none of us is totally sure what’s going on, or totally in control.
Once again, I'm writing this at 2 A.M. and have work tomorrow, so you can just check out the rest of my key takeaways 👍
I actually combined advice from both of these articles into the most friction part of my day: working out 😅
From the ultramarathon mindset, I embraced discomfort by viewing the pain as just a temporary feeling, taking pride in each rep I did. Before each set, I would act like my own coach, saying "You got this next set" in my mind as I looked myself in the mirror.
By realizing the insignificance of myself in the world, I realized how silly it was for me to let my emotions prevent me from doing something as simple as working out, and persevered for "the enhancement of humanity" 😅. I don't really know how to describe the effects of the non-duality mindset, but it just makes you calm and emotionless in a healthy way.
🚀 Actionable Tingz
Enhancing PKM Practices through Generative AI
I know I literally made a video talking about how personal knowledge should be personal, but the inspiration you can get from ChatGPT's responses is 🤯
Most PKM practices are made to turn you into the role of ChatGPT - to ask yourself different questions from different perspectives to generate ideas and unleash your creativity.
But now that we have access to an AI-powered second brain, we can offload these thought-provoking questions to ChatGPT to instantly generate fuel for thought and stay in flow 🤩
Out of the different prompts in my AI workflow, these are the two I been using the most.
Brainstorming potential conceptual notes from my highlights
Using ChatGPT, we can organize our highlights based on potential conceptual notes for inspiration:
Please list out the title of zettelkasten conceptual notes I can make based on these highlights. They should be atomic, creative, and be connectable to other conceptual notes.
Under each conceptual note, list out the highlights related to it.
Here is an example:
[[Title of concept note]]
> Highlight 1
> Highlight 2
Here are my highlights:
{highlights}
Be sure to replace {highlights} with the highlights
You can see the example response here (don't mind the extra conversations past it, that was just testing 😅)
Brainstorming new and diverse links
I got the foundation of this prompt from zettelkasten.de, and just tailored it to the AI workflow
In the idea compass framework, each direction represents a type of link you can make from a note
North links try to find the source or parent of the note
West links find similar notes
East links are for transformation, finding contrasting ideas and challenging the note
South links are for what this causes, the more specific parts of the note
I am writing a note titled {note title}, and want to use the idea compass methodology to find new ideas to connect it to.
the idea compass is as follows:
imagine the four compass directions. each direction helps give definition to the idea in different ways.
NORTH: “Where does X come from?” what are its origin? what group/category does X belong to? what exists an order of magnitude higher? zoom out. what gave birth to X? what causes X
WEST: “What is similar to X?” what other disciplines could X already exist in? what other disciplines could benefit from X? what are other ways to say/do X?
SOUTH: “Where can X lead to?” what does X contribute to? what group/category could X be the headline of? what exists an order of magnitude lower? zoom in. what does X nurture?
EAST: “What competes with X?” what is the opposite of X? what is X missing? its disadvantage? what could supercharge X?
Imagine you are linking to other similar wikipedia-style articles that focus on one main idea. These "articles" should be broad and brief in title. what are some possible NORTH links you could make?
Explain your reason for choice for each link.
You can see an example prompt and response here.
If you want, you can also customize it to add the highlights to make the connections more specific, but I found the generic ones to already be a good inspiration for further topics to make notes on.
😤 My Ramblings
We live in a society
This is just going to be your generic ramble from a Gen Z kid about society.
This video single was quite the eye-opener for the average living situation for people my generation (and arguably most of society as well)
People are too fixated on security that they don't try to actually pursue things they want to
Lots of problems in society are just eternal problems
Our current capitalist society (having to make a living off of providing value), tells us that just being who we are isn't worth anything.
we're forced to look beyond our passions to find things valuable for society. if you do have a passion that you're spending your day towards, you're expected to monetize it or else you won't have basic needs like food, shelter, or water
money has turned into more than just a tool for trading purposes. it's become it's own status symbol and a major part of society, allowing anyone who is rich to dictate the direction of our society (which isn't always the best considering Zuckerberg was burning money in the metaverse). it has become our purpose, overshadowing other things more important for the survival of the human race like love and kindness.
a lot of the most high-paying jobs (investment bankers, marketing) are just for more wealth creation, continuing the cycle of sacrificing your happiness just for survival
this is similar to the central idea in 📥 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
3
The illusion of convenience
Lots of productivity-based activities help us reclaim time, but is time really the issue? or is it our depleted energy and drive from having to conform to this lifestyle?
Recently bought soylent so I don't have to cook an extra meal in the day. how much convenience and optimization is too much until we start dehumanizing our lives?
I was planning on going all-in on deep work to reach financial independence, gaslighting myself into thinking sacrificing my happiness in the present moment was worth it
but lately, I've been realizing how much this mindset has been taking away from the other side of life, whether it be meaningful relationships with the people in my life, being mindful and appreciative of what I have, or just having the freedom to enjoy my hobbies without a worry for monetization or survival.
i have been doing the above just by spending more time socializing and catching up with old coworkers and friends, as well tune back into the previous hobbies I had outside of content creation (ex. competitive eSports and gaming). it feels a bit guilty seeing as I could be progressing so much more with my research and exposure to AI practices in PKM, but I'm happy I can view my work from the perspective of a balanced and holistic life. I'm looking forward to continuing developing not only my PKM philosophy but also my life values as I continue growing my new vault, to live a more meaningful and aligned life.
In terms of the creator himself
Just generally inspiring content, he's tackling larger dilemmas in my age demographic in an entertaining and relatable way
Found it respectable how in-depth and personal his answers are to comments, shows how much he cares about having an impact rather than the fame or numbers
People are being more authentic in their brands - look at Ali Abdaal
2nd most recent newsletter was about humility and learning a lot from an online figure ahead of him, Brendon Burchard
The second one about publishing a book
Causes a ripple onto other creators who try to copy his style and voice, so I'm hoping that productivity YouTube can somewhat steer towards this direction?
Mr. Beast wishes he didn't share all that he did on YouTube so there wouldn't be so many clones
I don't blame them though - still is a rat race but at least it is more in your control
I personally am not a fan of it - it creates a game where the same shallow content and trends get reposted and copied just for the sake of gathering as much attention as possible for monetization
When my internship ends and I want to make content creation my primary source of living, I'll have to conform to this ideology for more consistent results
My Tools for Learning and Growth
I write and collect my newsletter content all inside Obsidian, my favorite note-taking and productivity app. If you want to try using it for yourself, you can get my free beginner templates and 4-day email course.
If you want to aggregate the valuable gems from your week like this, or need a place to store your ideas and highlights, you can start building your second brain
Alternatively, if you're a student and want to use Obsidian for school, you can check out Obsidian University.
If you want an efficient content consumption system, I HIGHLY recommend Readwise Reader. You can learn about how I use it to save and read articles, books, and newsletters here.