1/ I've been pretty sceptical of 'collective knowledge graphs'. 

Building effective PKM systems is hard enough on one's own.

But this insightful article details some effective historical examples of collectivising knowledge which got me thinking...

https://web.archive.org/web/20191117162526/http://shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html

2/ The key insights? 

Tags & links are becoming key features in organisational systems (written in 2005-prescient!)

By combining user tagging with uniform resource identifiers (URIs), you can aggregate those URIs in any number of ways, forsaking binary top-down classifications.

3/ Building a story w/ quotes:

"What I think is coming instead are much more organic ways of organizing information than our current categorization schemes allow, based on two units  the link, which can point to anything, and the tag, which is a way of attaching labels to links"

4/ "the strategy of tagging -free-form labeling, without regard to categorical constraints - seems like a recipe for disaster, but as the Web has shown us, you can extract a surprising amount of value from big messy data sets"

The bottom-up approach yields 'wisdom of the crowds'

5/ Building on that:

"Each individual categorization scheme is worth less than a professional categorization scheme. But there are many, many more of them."

"...if you can find any way to create value from combining myriad amateur classifications over time..."

6/ "...they will come to be more valuable than professional categorization schemes, particularly with regards to robustness and cost of creation"

Maybe a worldwide knowledge graph is not such a pipedream after all? 

It will take serious computing power (and a lot of arguing...)

7/ Maybe it could be blockchain-based? 

Imagine that... a block-based, blockchain-based knowledge graph 😅.

Until then, it will probably be a collection of smaller worldwide graphs rather that THE collective knowledge graph. The impulse to centralise will be strong, though.

8/ PSA to Logseq Mastery users:

I've added a video doing a final pass of this article making sure everything is well linked/tagged & added it to a new section of the Workflows & Systems course: 'Additional resources and working videos' (vibe is similar to YT working sessions...)

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/OneStuttering/zGwHbOM

Speculating on collective knowledge graphs

1/ Implementing any new system is hard; PKM systems are microcosms.

It's way more fun researching alternative apps & watching tutorials. It feels like you're making progress, but that's usually a trick of the mind.

The real progress is in getting the app to 'do the things'! 🙇🏽‍♂️

2/ It's easy to be discouraged at the start.

You'll see someone's system on YouTube, get excited, watch a few more tutorials, download the app & set out to change the world.

30-minutes later you've given up because it's all a lot harder than it looked and it just isn't working!

3/ We blame ourselves for not getting it, or the app for being too complex.

But maybe we had unrealistic expectations? When in doubt, default to grace. It's virtually impossible to get things right straight out the gate.

And yes, sometimes the app can't do what you need🙈

4/ Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself.

I'm busy implementing @ZohoOne as an ERP solution & it's not without its headaches. However, I still believe it's better than implementing a fragmented array of SaaS solutions. 

Focusing on data integrity & integration feels right.

5/ My hope is that the initial frustrations and learning curve will give way to a peaceful plateau.
 
So many of our narratives are post-rationalisation, though, so I guess I can be forgiven.

It does seem like there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep swimming... 🐟

1/ I believe that page properties are going to become an ever-increasing part of @logseq workflows and systems in the future (possibly more so than block properties)

Adding properties to pages (and blocks) adds resolution to links by specifying the nature of the relationship.

2/ Have a look at what @zsviczian is doing in Obsidian with TheBrain plugin to make the graph view more powerful. 

It's all based on meta-data, which is implemented in Logseq using properties. It's only a matter of time before we see similar functionality in Logseq (I hope!)

3/ However, most people's experience with page properties is this greyed out block. 

Depending on when you joined Logseq, you will often find page titles in YAML format when you click into that block. To change this to the new format, delete the dashes and add another colon

4/ If it's not there, you can create a page property by entering the property-name:: (one word, 2 colons) in the very first block.

Note that it has to be the first block with no block header, otherwise it will confer the properties to the block rather than the page.

5/ Looking to do some habit tracking? A great way is to use the first block of the daily journal page to enter your habits as page properties.

Sure, it may not look the nicest but it's functional. You can then use a page-property query to transform your habits into a nice table.

6/ Wanting to implement some other simple properties?

tags:: will show "pages tagged with", rather than looking through linked references

icon:: add emojis to your most used pages in the side-bar to make your database easier on the eye.

alias:: Very useful to aggregate pages!

7/ What interesting applications for page properties have you come up with?

Are there other built-in properties that should be part of this list?

Would love to get your thoughts.

1/ Every person is a combination of many parts.

These parts are constantly expressing themselves in the beautiful and chaotic dance of life. Over the years, it's natural for dominant parts to take centre stage.

Other parts of you might be suppressed or put away for a rainy day.

2/ Now combine this with our dualism. When we judge others (or ourselves) we often default to binary definitions of 'good' or 'bad'.

Judgements become all-consuming causal loops: 'she is a good person because of x'; 'he is a bad person because he did y'.

One strike, you're out!

3/ A family man of 30 years has a one-night-stand on a business trip...

Does that make him 'bad'?  The act itself is bad if it was outside of the marital agreement.

However, I'm sure many can acknowledge the part of themselves that longs for similar forbidden, novel excitement?

4/ 'Good' and 'bad' are also highly context-dependent. 

That critical eye that enables you to solve complex problems in your business? Amazing at the office. Your child is showing you their painting from kindergarten? Not so great.

That's the definition of a double-edged sword.

5/ How then do we integrate these parts into our lives? It's up to us to manage the different parts, to contend with them or let them flow.

The part that wants to punch your boss in the face? Probably best suppressed. The part that remembers to call your grandma? By all means 😉

6/ We are quick to jump to conclusions about people's character on the basis of one or two actions.

My life would be poorer if I cut out all the people that had made mistakes.

My head would be more of a mess if I didn't acknowledge my own, and carry on loving myself regardless.

7/ One mistake doesn't make you an awful person. It doesn't translate into you having an innate bad nature. It's just that - a mistake.

I'm no therapist, and this is not some pop-psych version of Internal Family Systems. It's just a helpful reminder to embrace complexity in life

8/ 'Finding the middle path' has been a big theme for me in 2022. I've historically been primed for judgement, and undoing that may just be my life's work (hopefully not)

Don't let a dogmatic view of 'good' and 'bad' span lifetimes. There's a part of you that wants to let go 😉


Unrolled version here if you're interested 👉🏽https://typefully.com/OneStuttering/6FcLczt

1/ What makes @logseq such a great tool is that it's actually a combination of 3 different tools

- A text editor
- An outliner
- A linked network building tool

This makes the application highly versatile - a real 'integrated thinking environment'

2/ As a text editor, it allows you to work on text files stored wherever you want, rather than a database hosted by the app you're using.

This gives you full ownership of your notes (for a lifetime!) and the extensibility to use them with other tools like VS Code and Obsidian.

3/ As an outliner, you can quickly add structure and hierarchy through indenting.

This transforms your notes into a tree-like structure, which can be as simple or as complex as needed. Each branch can function as a new document if you want it to.

📸 below uses Markmap plugin

4/ Finally, it's a linked network building tool.

Linking allows you to add relationships between different parts of your database at both macro (page) & micro (block) levels. Importantly, links are bi-directional, creating back-links in the page or block that is being referenced

5/ By comparison, links on the internet are mono-directional & fixed to specific locations (URLs), limiting their utility in network building.

Bi-directional linking facilitates low-friction structuring and retrieval of information through association, rather than location. 

6/ It allows us to forgo the traditional folder approach in our organisational practices, which is heavily location-dependent. 

This is the biggest benefit for me: I no longer have to think about where to find information, or worry about where to store it. Trivial, but powerful.

7/ Ultimately, this combination allows for highly customisable systems and workflows, all in one application.

It ticks all the boxes for an integrated thinking environment (credit @ryanjamurphy), and I can't imagine my life without it anymore.

https://axle.design/obsidian-roam-and-the-rise-of-integrated-thinking-environments

8/ Typefully kindly unrolls threads for you, if that's something that you'd like 🙂 https://typefully.com/OneStuttering/Ykb9RfC

What makes Logseq so great is that it's actually a combination of three tools

1/ There are many 'well-acronymed' frameworks for how we interact with TfTs/note-taking systems.

Ultimately the activities boil down to one of four things:
Input, Retrieval, Organising, or Output

Reducing the latency between these activities is crucial for unlocking digital joy

2/ How do these four areas apply to writing and task management?

Input: Capturing or creating

Retrieval: Searching or organic re-rediscovery

Organising: Structuring, managing, editing or processing

Output: Publishing or completing

3/ One oversight is that they are usually expressed linearly, whereas the interplay tends to be non-linear.

Writing on a particular topic? Pull-up reference notes/prompting questions. See something out of place? Re-arrange it. Remember some task/todo? Quickly jot it down.

4/ This is not an endorsement of multi-tasking: I'm all for separating 'maker' vs 'manager' time & reducing context switching.

However, applied thinking is dynamic & cannot be reduced to 2-dimensions. Reducing the friction between the different activities is instead necessary.

5/ Organisation is often the chief stumbling block for input and retrieval: "where do I put this?" and "where do I find that again?"

Networked outliners like @Logseq and @RoamResearch (& sort of @obsdmd with plugins🤔) allow us to side-step the upfront organisational burden.

6/ How do they do it?

- Daily journal page for frictionless input (that can be organised later)

- Organisation through indenting and backlinks (even in the middle of a brain dump!)

- Referencing at both the block and page-level.

- Multiple areas to retrieve your notes.

7/ I'm all for left to right frameworks (particularly diagrams!), but finding the flow between these activities has been transformative for me, so much so that I think I'm going to come up with my own acronym. Let's give it a go:

IROrIOuRIOuROrOuIROuIOr

Darn it, butchered it 🙈

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/OneStuttering/4zSl7qf