The LYT Manifesto

In our age of information overwhelm, we find ourselves lost in everyone’s thoughts but our own. We are left cognitively reeling, incapable of making sense of all the information that inundates us. The result is a paralyzing apathy, where we are stuck endlessly consuming information—but frozen in finding the inspiration to act.

That's why Personal Knowledge Management has exploded over the past decade. While some PKM focuses on managing tasks and organizing projects, I believe we have a deeper, unmet need: To reclaim our own voice amidst the noise and confidently share our unique contributions.

This is where Linking Your Thinking offers a desperately needed reboot to our relationship with knowledge. By connecting notes, we have a new and revolutionary way to transform endless information into effortless insights. At its core are two profound shifts in how we engage with ideas.

First, stop taking notes and start making notes. Notemaking is a thinking practice disguised as a writing practice. It replaces the habit of passively collecting other people’s words with authentic engagement—writing notes in our own words to make better sense of the things that matter.

Second, adopt the Connecting Habit. Each time we link one digital note to another, we create pathways for our thoughts to intersect and spark meaningful leaps of insight—giving us a reliable method to unlock our creative potential.

The downstream effects are even more powerful. In the process of linking notes, we build our own Ideaverse: a digital ecosystem of ideas. While the internet serves our outer world, an ideaverse nourishes our inner world. But both are powered by the same energy source: links.

Since information is no longer scarce, collecting thoughts is no longer exceptional. The future belongs to those who connect the dots. And now, there’s an easy way to do it. Make links. Because we now live in a time where AI-fueled regurgitative writing overwhelms the web, it's the value of self-expression that's craved more than ever before. By linking your thinking, you can fully reclaim your voice and powerfully unleash it.

And Linking Your Thinking, the business, provides the best-in-class tools and techniques to do exactly that—including Notemaking Mastery, starting May 27th. It's notemaking time, baby! The skill that gets you thinking powerfully. The skill schools never taught. But here it is. We teach notemaking over 22 days in this action-packed synced sprint.

How can I learn more?

If your mind feels fuzzy or if you are frustrated with your ability to think clearly and effectively, Notemaking Mastery is a vibrant way to gain clarity, generate more insights, and write better thoughts. If you are interested, this is your last chance to join the private behind-the-scenes for Notemaking Mastery. You will receive a free 4-day mini-series (starting this Monday) to mentally prepare you for the synced sprint that officially starts May 27th.

Obsidian Omnisearch

I'm sure you use Obsidian's Quick Switcher, right? It's when you hit cmd-o on Mac or ctrl-o on Windows. It's one of the most important hotkeys to know. I hope you're using it. Life is much easier when you do.

But there is a compelling alternative to the standard Quick Switcher. It's a community plugin called Omnisearch. It labels itself the "quick switcher on steroids" and for good reason. Here are results of a search for Frodo using: the normal Quick Switcher, Omnisearch without showing the excerpts (which I prefer), the standard Omnisearch settings, and a standard search in the left pane.

**The normal Quick Switcher** shows only one note, because only one note has "Frodo" in the filename.

**Omnisearch** without showing the excerpts (which I prefer). It shows the number of matches and also the file path, along with showing the results based on an algorithm of relevance.

The standard **Omnisearch** showing the excerpts, which is cool, but feels messy and I can't see many results.

A standard **search** in the left sidebar.

From this test, Omnisearch is sort of like a hybrid between Quick Switcher and the Standard search. (It's powerful in other ways too, such as how it prioritizes the results!) If you use Omnisearch, I recommend assigning it the hotkey cmd-shift-o (on Mac).

What do you think of Omnisearch? Do you use it? Any drawbacks? Any tweaks you've done? Reply and email me.

Sketch Your Mind, a new book on PKM!

Sketch Your Mind by Zsolt Viczián is a new book I had the chance to read before it launches on June 15th. Zsolt makes a strong case for the value of images over text (or at least alongside text), how visuals have been minimized in our efforts with PKM, and how to make visuals work for you. He makes great points. The book is highly practical. You will get value out of it.

Wow, a fresh and original and needed contribution to how we think.

An early favorite part for me was page 112, where Zsolt talks about getting lost in caves outside of Budapest, and how a simple trick he forgot to do has HUGE implications for everything we do in PKM. I won't spoil it, but I was like, "damn, that's the best way I've ever heard it explained!" Pre-order it here.

Ask Ryder Carroll and me questions

I'm meeting up with Ryder Carroll, founder of the Bullet Journal Method, in a couple weeks, and we're going to sit down for a recorded conversation.

We'd love to pull some of your questions from a hat! What do you want to ask us?

We've had some recent events and discussions in the LYT Community about visual notemaking and the tools we use for it. Do you make visual notes? What tools do you use?

In Obsidian, which visual tool do you prefer?

Excalidraw

Canvas

🔺 Connect the Dots

Did you enjoy our new mini-game? Here are two new questions:

What connects these two things?

How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

Sketch Your Mind by Zsolt Viczián

What connects these three villains?

Ganon

Palpatine

The Daleks

The answers are near the end of the email.

🥊 Quick Hits

Mazda's philosophy emphasizes "Jinba Ittai" (horse and rider as one)
- It refers to the intuitive connection between a Mazda and its driver. It is the cornerstone on which Mazda’s designers and engineers base their work on. The phrase was first coined during the development of the MX-5 Miata but applies to every Mazda model. If you feel this oneness between yourself and your car, if it responds exactly as you intend, then you will experience a comfortable, safe and enjoyable drive.
- How does this apply to your ideaverse?
An excerpt from Martijn Aslander's article: Irrational Databases
- I have a note called MOC PKM Summit, where I store all the links, URLs and snippets I need to keep an overview of that project. I just type “MOC PKM” into search, almost without thinking, and within a millisecond I’m in the right place. Adding or finding what I need.
- With relational tables, I would never have the flexibility, speed, or creative power to discover patterns, connect ideas, or generate new ones. The very looseness of the system turns it into an extension of my thinking. It lets me apply leverage to what I’ve already gathered—whatever the form—and transforms Obsidian into the bank with the highest return on my information capital.
- My irrational database is not a bug, it’s a feature. And it works because I’m not forced into structures designed for spreadsheets, servers, or someone else’s logic. It’s an ode to the free-thinker. And it works precisely because it doesn’t have to be right.
The Arc Browser hints at its new direction with AI-first browser with Dia.

Stay connected,

Nick

P.S... The private Notemaking Mastery emails begin on Monday. If you want the 4-part primer series, this is your last chance to join.

P.P.S... I enjoyed your emails answering the prompt: “I’m here to get my thoughts in order, but I’m really here to…” Here are a few:

Stop procrastinating.
Build deeper and more intimate relationships with the people in my environment by creating works that allow others to interact with me / my ideas.
Pay my attention to what really matters.

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO OUR "CONNECT THE DOTS" MINI GAME

ANSWER 1: They are the only books on zettelkasten I recommend.

ANSWER 2: They refuse to die (allowing for new, quality, stories, except Palpatine's).

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