One of the best courses on writing and research

Preamble

A few years back, I took the second-brain pill. I kept hearing/reading your brain is for having ideas and not holding them. I felt drawn to the idea that I didn’t have to rely on my below average working memory, and could externalize my life into a note taking system.

I tried and failed, mostly. The one good thing that came from that was learning Obsidian and using it regularly. It was my favourite piece of software, and still my most used.

I started out with pretty crude workflows. I bought Obsidian Starter Kit, and followed a lot of Nicole’s videos. It helped but I always ended up ditching whatever I made and starting from scratch. Until recently, the main use case for me was for journaling (daily notes, weekly reviews), reference lists (media, essays, books I wanted to read) and snippets of ideas (poems, quotations, concepts).

I then came across Andy Matuschak and Zettelkasten.de and saw the true potential of using a system to increase writing and research output. This brings me to this course and the subject of this review: How to Take Smart Notes in Obsidian by Sönke Ahrens.

The review

It is without exaggeration one of the best courses I’ve ever taken (if not the best). I got overwhelmed at several points and it took me weeks to finish. Once I had, it was clear that writing effortful notes in this way is worth it. Ahrens had presented the convoluted system in a way that was digestible and shows his erudition.

What makes it great?

It’s medium/message-fit. He will describe a concept or a note type and show you an example which he wrote. Sometimes he will show an example from Luhmann’s notes (the original creator of the analog system). Along with the course you receive a template vault in Obsidian which you could practice everything he talks about, learning it much faster. This is better than following along the book (but reading it has its own merits). I think this would be the fastest way to get up and running, and start generating better and faster writing and research.

It is extremely user-focused and digestible. You could start from anywhere in the course, apply what you’re learning and see immediate benefits and outcomes. For instance, you learn about reference managers and set it up - you’re immediately better at organizing and citing material. I started creating fleeting notes, then literature notes, and then permanent notes. I was able to pick up the concept, practice it and build my understanding in a modular way which made everything click at the end.

Lastly, it elegant and pragmatic. The productivity and knowledge management space is rife with promising faustian-like knowledge once you master. Most people in these spaces are trying to create the perfect system and don’t stop to ask “to what end?”. Ahrens throughout the course reminds us that the end game is your output. You should not strive for completeness or perfection but write each note with the goal of producing some sort of creative out put. Put the knowledge to use.

The design is in the details. He has a section where there are tags to help you jump back into writing. He deliberately chose to call them “#cont” rather than to-dos because these are options to enter back into your notes. Approaching note-taking from a place of abundance rather than anxiety (I CAN jump back into any of these open loops, not that I MUST).

This is especially important in this era, which is filled with fomo and information addiction/anxiety. It is a great reminder to be mindful in consuming information. It makes the case for becoming a better thinker through writing notes.

Other great resources:

If you’re working in Obsidian or Zettelkasten notes, drop me a line: barkat99 (at) gmail (dot) com