Thank you for sharing your frameworks James! Definitely resonated with me, I realized quickly I couldn't scale my impact without a structured system. I'm still iterating but I've already noticed the benefits.
I generally recommend to "try something" and refine. You hint at that too, different people, different jobs, likely different systems. A while ago I was stuck on finding the perfect one before realizing I just needed to try something and see what worked.
James, super insightful article! your concept of the PKM system as a 'mental model' for management is particularly resonant – a very effective framing of its role in leadership. detailed breakdown of the gather-decide-execute loop is exceptionally helpful, especially how you described being active in gathering info. It's clear your whole system is built to be really intentional and focused on action..
reading your piece prompted me to consider the 'mental model' idea further. If our PKM system reflects our management approach, might it also offer a lens into deeper cognitive patterns? beyond task and information management, could such a system potentially (maybe) illuminate subtle aspects of our own thinking – perhaps recurring themes or even inherent biases – if we were to analyze the contextual dimensions of our reflections over time? curious to know if you've given thought to this aspect, or explored it in your own work?.
.. and, building on that, I often find myself pondering the spectrum of effort involved in PKM itself. while the dedication required to build such a structured knowledge base is clearly valuable, I wonder if there's also a different kind of value in a more…fluid approach? perhaps one where, beyond the user's active building, the system itself might also proactively contribute to the 'mental model' – almost like a subtle 'Did You Know' notification that surfaces unexpected connections or recurring patterns from your own reflections over time? creating a more dynamic, perhaps even two-way, interaction with our own knowledge? just curious about your perspective on that balance between user-driven construction and system-driven insight within PKM.
I think that yes, it does indeed offer an insight into one's own cognitive patterns. Or, perhaps, it tries to embody some kind of ideal that the individual would love to achieve.
I can't say I've explored that deeply, but you've got me thinking about it for sure.
That last paragraph almost feels like a tool that needs to be built. I know that Logseq can be extremely useful even without any of the linking — I know that most people do most of their writing in the daily journal pages and never really link anything together.
I wonder whether an AI tool could be built that could give weekly or monthly insights or summaries of what you've entered into your own notes, or even be used to spot recurring patterns and trends. And yes, it would be good to be able to interact with your own knowledge base as a prompt. It would need quite a lot of input data first, but it would be far more useful than searching for keywords.
appreciate you sharing your thoughts, James. it's interesting to hear that idea resonated with you too!
and you're spot on – it does feel like PKM systems could offer a lens into our cognitive patterns, or even embody an 'ideal self' we're striving for. That potential is really compelling.
your comment about it feeling like 'a tool that needs to be built' really struck a chord with me. it's actually been a question I've been exploring myself for a while now, especially after years of being an Obsidian user. Love Obsidian – the knowledge graph is amazing, and the community is incredible. But, imo - building a truly meaningful knowledge graph, especially over years, can become a real cognitive lift. And sometimes those graph views feel more like parlor trick :shrug:
i've kind experimented with platforms like Mem.ai – really cool concept, but I found the temporal referencing in chat a bit limiting. Trying to ask 'What did I discuss with Alex last week about performance optimization?' just didn't quite click, which was a bummer.
anyway, to your point about a tool that could give insights and spot patterns… that's been the general direction of a side project I've been working on for over a year now. Just trying to see if combining semantic similarity and RAG could help surface those 'contexts' and maybe offer some less-obvious connections in your own notes. The idea is to let the system do more of the 'work' in revealing those connections.
i've called it Cipher – it's still very early days, but if you're curious to see what I mean by that 'two-way comms' idea and a more system-driven approach to PKM, feel free to take a peek here - https://cipher.sysapp.dev . I also wrote a bit about the 'why' behind it in a blog post here: https://1x-eng.github.io/blog/posts/cipher
apologies if this comes across as a shameless plug – genuinely not my intention. I'm just really passionate about this space, and your comment felt so aligned with the kind of tool I've been yearning for myself. Any feedback or questions you might have would be hugely appreciated – it's all still very much a work in progress!
I think I'll go back to a #chase list now as well. Ever since we used Asana for our own shop, I've never had an integrated task and knowledge system again so at the current gig I'm updating things in half a dozen places as part of my "job".
One note: "Orientation is the Schwerpunkt." You don't have it in your OODA loop but you seem to have conflated it here with Decide.
Really liked the actionable advice how to organise information and personal tasks. Will give this a try!
Appreciate the feedback. Thank you.
This was a great read! Straightforward, engaging, and insightful article.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
Thank you for sharing your frameworks James! Definitely resonated with me, I realized quickly I couldn't scale my impact without a structured system. I'm still iterating but I've already noticed the benefits.
I generally recommend to "try something" and refine. You hint at that too, different people, different jobs, likely different systems. A while ago I was stuck on finding the perfect one before realizing I just needed to try something and see what worked.
Exactly! No system is perfect. You've just got to keep trying different things until you find something that works for you.
James, super insightful article! your concept of the PKM system as a 'mental model' for management is particularly resonant – a very effective framing of its role in leadership. detailed breakdown of the gather-decide-execute loop is exceptionally helpful, especially how you described being active in gathering info. It's clear your whole system is built to be really intentional and focused on action..
reading your piece prompted me to consider the 'mental model' idea further. If our PKM system reflects our management approach, might it also offer a lens into deeper cognitive patterns? beyond task and information management, could such a system potentially (maybe) illuminate subtle aspects of our own thinking – perhaps recurring themes or even inherent biases – if we were to analyze the contextual dimensions of our reflections over time? curious to know if you've given thought to this aspect, or explored it in your own work?.
.. and, building on that, I often find myself pondering the spectrum of effort involved in PKM itself. while the dedication required to build such a structured knowledge base is clearly valuable, I wonder if there's also a different kind of value in a more…fluid approach? perhaps one where, beyond the user's active building, the system itself might also proactively contribute to the 'mental model' – almost like a subtle 'Did You Know' notification that surfaces unexpected connections or recurring patterns from your own reflections over time? creating a more dynamic, perhaps even two-way, interaction with our own knowledge? just curious about your perspective on that balance between user-driven construction and system-driven insight within PKM.
That was a very insightful comment.
I think that yes, it does indeed offer an insight into one's own cognitive patterns. Or, perhaps, it tries to embody some kind of ideal that the individual would love to achieve.
I can't say I've explored that deeply, but you've got me thinking about it for sure.
That last paragraph almost feels like a tool that needs to be built. I know that Logseq can be extremely useful even without any of the linking — I know that most people do most of their writing in the daily journal pages and never really link anything together.
I wonder whether an AI tool could be built that could give weekly or monthly insights or summaries of what you've entered into your own notes, or even be used to spot recurring patterns and trends. And yes, it would be good to be able to interact with your own knowledge base as a prompt. It would need quite a lot of input data first, but it would be far more useful than searching for keywords.
appreciate you sharing your thoughts, James. it's interesting to hear that idea resonated with you too!
and you're spot on – it does feel like PKM systems could offer a lens into our cognitive patterns, or even embody an 'ideal self' we're striving for. That potential is really compelling.
your comment about it feeling like 'a tool that needs to be built' really struck a chord with me. it's actually been a question I've been exploring myself for a while now, especially after years of being an Obsidian user. Love Obsidian – the knowledge graph is amazing, and the community is incredible. But, imo - building a truly meaningful knowledge graph, especially over years, can become a real cognitive lift. And sometimes those graph views feel more like parlor trick :shrug:
i've kind experimented with platforms like Mem.ai – really cool concept, but I found the temporal referencing in chat a bit limiting. Trying to ask 'What did I discuss with Alex last week about performance optimization?' just didn't quite click, which was a bummer.
anyway, to your point about a tool that could give insights and spot patterns… that's been the general direction of a side project I've been working on for over a year now. Just trying to see if combining semantic similarity and RAG could help surface those 'contexts' and maybe offer some less-obvious connections in your own notes. The idea is to let the system do more of the 'work' in revealing those connections.
i've called it Cipher – it's still very early days, but if you're curious to see what I mean by that 'two-way comms' idea and a more system-driven approach to PKM, feel free to take a peek here - https://cipher.sysapp.dev . I also wrote a bit about the 'why' behind it in a blog post here: https://1x-eng.github.io/blog/posts/cipher
apologies if this comes across as a shameless plug – genuinely not my intention. I'm just really passionate about this space, and your comment felt so aligned with the kind of tool I've been yearning for myself. Any feedback or questions you might have would be hugely appreciated – it's all still very much a work in progress!
I think I'll go back to a #chase list now as well. Ever since we used Asana for our own shop, I've never had an integrated task and knowledge system again so at the current gig I'm updating things in half a dozen places as part of my "job".
One note: "Orientation is the Schwerpunkt." You don't have it in your OODA loop but you seem to have conflated it here with Decide.