Help Structuring My "Second Brain" / PKM

RemNote Learning RemNote
#1

In the past, I’ve taken a lot of notes on Evernote with a completely hierarchical structure which I found very cumbersome. Ever since I heard about making a PKM, I’ve been intrigued and want to dive deeper. Recently made the switch to RemNote and had some questions and would love some feedback on my current thoughts on how I’d use it.

Here are my questions. Just looking for any thoughts at all, so even small suggestions or wild unrelated ideas are welcome!

  1. What is the best way to most efficiently compile all info on a topic that I’m actively thinking about while consuming many different types of content on the topic?

my ideal flow would be able to quickly import key ideas into a rem while i’m taking notes. For example, i’m reading a book on content moderation, find a great idea i want to mention in the content moderation rem. Beyond just referencing the rem, i’d love to be able to automatically have it show up in the rem, where that rem serves as a pillar page for everything about that rem beyond just being listed as “referenced” (if I were to just tag or reference). although perhaps that is enough. maybe i just go through all references when i’m brainstorming. having the actual portal or text in the main pillar page would be helpful for structuring and brainstorming later on though

This would not be a pure hierarchical structure as the pillar page would reference many other places and other places would reference the pillar page.

I want these pillar pages for a few topics that I’m actively making progress on and thinking a lot about. When I come in to brainstorm, all the info I want at my fingertips.

Curious what the best way to accomplish this would be. My goal is really to be able to access all the information as best as I can about the topic.

Another usecase for how to think about it. Say I am researching knitting. I’m surfing the web, finding things about knitting. I use the Chrome extension and I’m highlighting a bunch of things from a bunch of different articles that are relevant to knitting. Creating references. Now at the end of the day, I have 100 notes from articles that reference knitting, how do I go about easily dropping all of them into the main knitting Rem to compile all of that info easily without having to portal 1000 individual points in one by one

@UMNiK very kindly gave me a number of suggestions. One really clever idea he had around this would be to portal the pillar doc/rem into the book I’m taking notes on so I can live edit the main rem on the topic. This works because I could actually portal within a portal. I could write a note from the book in the main doc and then portal that doc into the main rem on the topic immediately after. if I"m fast with keyboard shortcuts, this could actually be quite fast. Add note, portal it into a portal pillar page and then just keep going.

  1. For non-key top of mind topics, take notes, put it in the archive or have a floating rem just let the network do its thing - is this the right approach?

I come across random things that I find interesting sometimes. Or read something really cool details that I think are great, but aren’t really useful. In the past with Evernote, I would either have to think hard about categorizing it or just put it somewhere where I know i’d never find it again.

With RemNote, my plan is to have a lot of orphan notes for these purposes. My current structure follows a general PARA structure. Projects are current live things I’m working on now. Areas of responsibility would include on going things in my life or things i’m thinkjing about. Resources would include those pillar pages in question 1. And then Archive.

WIth random notes I plan to just write whenever I want and toss it into the archive. Reference and link as much as I can and assume if the topic ever comes up again the connection will appear.

This takes the pressure off of me and I can just focus on storing stuff I find interesting even if I’m not actively thinking about it. I imagine that Archive will end up looking like a big unstructured web of ideas where ideas that become more top of mind will build more and more connections naturally.

  1. For automatically imported things, treat it either as a future reference base or as an inbox to sort/create references in, depending on what it is

not really a question, but something i’ve been thinking about for stucture purposes. for things I actively took notes on that are automatically getting imported, I’d probably treat this as an inbox. Go through each, link the ideas, drop things in a portal.

For ideas that may be a wider flow, say if I’m importing all my tweets, where it may take some time to connect all the ideas given the volume / potentially less relevance, just let it import and let it search as as search space to potentially reference in the future if it comes up when I’m writing something.

Thanks so much for any thoughts! I have a general feel for how I think and how I work so trying to design the right system to fit my flow! Will be reading the “How To Take Smart Notes” book soon as well.

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#2

Since you seem to be following Tiago Forte’s advice, be aware that his methods were developed pre “wide” (foss and a subscription competing, at least) popularity of zettelkasten systems, so while for Evernote PARA is quite good, for Roam (and obsidian and remnote and so forth) you really want to cut down on that last A as much as possible (offload it to Zotero for academic stuff, not sure about an app for your case). Happily, Tiago enlisted Nat Eliasson, who can serve as a sort of bridge to zettelkasten, since his workflow is still very much tag based, but utilising backlinks. Check this vid for an example.

And of course I’m obligated to moan that this is still far from using the zettelkasten to its true and intended potential. Thinking should generate writing so the writing can generate new thinking. The only pathway to that is elaboration, then linkage, then organisation, not trying to copy down the internet (or a textbook) as presented and slam it into a folder with bookmarks.

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#3

What do you mean by cutting down on the last A? Is it because you shouldn’t be “finishing” anything anyway so there isn’t anything to archive in a truly networked structure? I’m using the last A as more of a catchall for random notes that don’t fit the PAR which would definitely get more action. The nodes that probably don’t need a parent actually.

Thanks for that rec. The structure Nat has for knowledge management is exactly what I’m having in mind. He does exactly what I had in mind with my questions for 2 and 3. His Readwise integration is similar to some of the integrations I’m using and the way he handles it is exactly how I plan to. In order to create the appropriate links.

Actually seeing how Nat quickly went through the “tags” on a topic, it’s making me think I may not need to do any detailed importing after all. With all the references there on the tag page, scrolling through the list isn’t bad for what I’d be looking for if I’m looking for interesting connections. For critical ideas I can always portal them or write something unique and reference something later anyway.

I think aggressive tagging and linking to potential things I may want to search in the future will be the key to success here.

I don’t think I’m looking for a true zettelkasten here. I’m not really writing anything. I brainstorm a lot, design sometimes, and want to find a good way to store and connect the many things I read + the conversations with experts I regularly have in the field and didn’t have a good way to do that in Evernote. I end up not knowing where to put interesting ideas I can’t use right now and can’t properly connect all the ideas I want to use right now across so many different sources I’m consuming.

Thank you so much for all your help!

#4

Just the opposite: you must “finish” by elaborating, linking, and organising. There is just no reason to leave the “unfinished” original to clutter up the same system as the “finished” zettel (smart note, if you like). Though I guess if you won’t need a bibliography you can just straight up delete them rather than offloading.

I honestly cannot overstate how much you (and everyone remotely interested in using any external form of storage for their thinking) should read Ahrens’ book. It is an immense feat of recontextualisation and combination of ideas from a variety of disciplines that most “thought leaders” and “gurus” take hours to fail to teach in a clear and staggeringly concise way. You may not wish to write, but you obviously wish to learn, so learn.

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#5

There has to be a way for RemNote to identify the 1000 things you want to compile so some manual work is unavoidable. If the articles are tagged with #knitting, or include references to [knitting], or even say the word ‘knitting’, you can just use a search portal. Then you can turn it into a normal portal, hide what you don’t care about, add what you care about that’s not there, edit, etc. (A single portal lets you access whatever subparts of your knowledge base you want: it isn’t limitted to one rem.)

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