The quest to build my digital swamp
Saturation
Personal knowledge management has become a minefield in the last couple of years and the newfound AI-related hype hasn't made this minefield any easier to navigate. A simple notebook, whilst it does still have its uses, no longer works for me and I believe the reason for this to be simple: the amount of information we consume has exploded. Information used to be consumed in a more linear pattern. You'd go on a course, note down that course and job done. You'd read a book, note down your thoughts and quotes and job done. You see now we have to deal with a barrage of information coming at us from all angles, a lot of it irrelevant but a lot still relevant.
I've waded through many personal knowledge management swamps many times in the past trying every new tool created. I'd even go as far to say that new tools are released on a daily basis, each one vying for your attention and notes. I needed a system that worked for me whilst not locking me into some proprietary platform. I needed to be able to take notes across a wide range of topics, courses, books and more. I needed my PKM system to become a living ecosystem.
And that's where my swamp begins: saturation. I'm not short of information; I'm saturated by it.
Colonisation
Just like water-tolerant plants begin establishing themselves within a real swamp, this quest for an effective way to manage the information I consume also began establishing itself within my mind. As mentioned, I've tried pretty much every personal knowledge management system out there and I think my ADHD probably doesn't help. The more systems I tried, the more I just wanted simplicity. I wanted the ability to see my notes, not just on a screen, but see the underlying files created. I wanted to retain full control and full ownership of these notes. Moreover, as my passions grow around AI ethics and governance I've found myself consuming more and more content that I want to document and write my thoughts about. After much debate and trialling many systems, the needs and desires for my own personal knowledge management system became like the grasses, reeds, shrubs and trees shaping this new wetland ecosystem.
Accumulation
I decided to stick with Obsidian. My notes sync natively with iCloud and I can easily backup my vault and import it into other tools should the need arise. Obsidian became the basin for my digital swamp. A place where notes, highlights, thoughts and ideas could accumulate like organic sediment. From there, I was able to start writing, start taking notes and allowing connections to build up over time. Whilst I'm still early on this journey, I can already see the benefit and value of having this ecosystem working, organically, to become my personal knowledge management system.
Succession
My goal is for my digital swamp to become its own ecosystem. Swamps develop and change over time. Different plants, trees, fungi and animals establish themselves, creating an increasingly complex swamp but a swamp nonetheless. Much like a swamp, a healthy knowledge system doesn't necessarily emerge because you've perfectly categorised everything beforehand. Stuff accumulates, interacts, decomposes, gets rediscovered and provides material for new growth.
My digital swamp will never be finished, and that's rather the point. I don't want a perfectly manicured garden of knowledge. I want somewhere ideas can accumulate, interact, decompose, resurface and occasionally grow into something new.
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This article was organically researched and written without the use of AI. Whilst AI has its use in research, I believe personal blogs should be written by the person not the machine.