The dragon of forgetting

PKM.

Note-taking, second brains, and the craft of keeping what you learn. I’ve kept mine for twenty years, through four apps and two moves across the world, in plain text that outlived them all. Start with the method, not the software.

New and recent

Lately.

Your Second Brain Has the Wrong Architecture (A Lesson from Chinese Brush Painting)

Your Second Brain Has the Wrong Architecture (A Lesson from Chinese Brush Painting)

There are brushes on my desk I have been painting with for twenty years. 周虎臣 and 双羊, Zhōu Hǔchén and Shuāng Yáng, working brushes rather than heirlooms, bought long before…
Plain Text in the Age of AI
Plain Text in the Age of AI
Plain Text in the Age of AI

Plain Text in the Age of AI

Forge Your Focus: How Plain Text Files Tame a Complex Life
Plain Text Files
Forge Your Focus: How Plain Text Files Tame a Complex Life

Forge Your Focus: How Plain Text Files Tame a Complex Life

Maps of Content (MOC) Bring Your Knowledge to Life
image of Face Dragon's founder's Map of Content
Maps of Content (MOC) Bring Your Knowledge to Life

Maps of Content (MOC) Bring Your Knowledge to Life

The most-read guides

Where most readers start.

The Things 2 theme for Obsidian on a laptop and a phone

Obsidian

The best Obsidian themes

Every theme installed and screenshotted, so you can compare before you download.

A GTD dashboard in Obsidian

Obsidian

GTD in Obsidian

Capture, action lists, projects and a dashboard, all in one vault.

The Minimal theme in Obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian templates

Templates that earn their keep, with examples you can copy.

The essay to start with

Information is what you can look up. Knowledge is what you can do without looking.

From Your Second Brain Has the Wrong Architecture, on what twenty years of Chinese brush painting taught me about notes.

Read the essay

The toolbox

Pick your tool.

The how-tos for the apps I’ve used for years, and the methods underneath them. Most people who find this site arrive on one of these.

Obsidian themes
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Templates, with examples
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Setting up GTD in Obsidian
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Plugins worth using
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Organising your notes
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The markdown cheat sheet
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Syncing a vault for free
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Tips for newcomers
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Getting started with Logseq
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The markdown cheat sheet
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Syncing Logseq for free
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Templates, with examples
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Plugins worth using
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GTD in Logseq
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Logseq or Obsidian?
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What PKM actually is
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The Zettelkasten method, quickly
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Maps of content
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GTD and a second brain
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Plain text files
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The best Anki decks
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The best Anki add-ons
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The other dragons

Pick another.

Inaction

Productivity

I’ve run the same system for twenty years, long enough to watch every trend arrive twice.

Weakness

Martial Arts

Training, and what thirty-odd years of getting hit teaches you about everything else.

Emptiness

Living

Weeks that are full but don’t add up, and the life around the work.