Using Obsidian for Complex Work
So I hooked up a super wide monitor to my laptop because I wanted more screen real estate. This is on the same big table I showed last week with all my analog doodlings and noodlings (I enjoyed your emails on that. Thank you.).
Obsidian is awesome on the wide screen monitor. Here's how I'm using it for the big book effort.
In the screenshot, I'm working on the Maps of Content chapter. The problem is that I’ve been talking about MOCs for the past six years. I have tons of notes. Tons of cool ways I've communicated about MOCs. Here is what has helped:
Put the map in the left-hand sidebar. The note in the left-hand side bar has 76 links I've placed and ordered. It's helped me make sense of all my writings on MOCs. So now my task is taking roughly a quarter million words written on MOCs and condensing that down to 5,000. I’m making good progress and I’m excited but there will still need to be many passes and iterations for this chapter.
Move between mediums while you write. While Obsidian is my ideaverse where all my writings and ideas are, it’s not where the manuscript is being written. For collaborative reasons, the actual polished drafts are being written in Google Docs. As I’m in Obsidian reviewing all these notes and ideas, I copy and paste relevant passages into my daily note where I can freely rewrite, edit, and tinker to my heart’s content.
Then at some point, I’ll move mediums over to Google Docs and copy and paste whatever I have revised. In Google Docs I’m looking at the words in context to the flow of the chapter, so I place it in what I think is the appropriate part. The chapter is growing and will probably land at 10,000 words, with a lot of repetition, but that’s exactly what I want right now: my best thoughts on MOCs, in a good order, ready to be fine-tuned into its best form for the book.
Have you ever put a note in the left-hand sidebar in Obsidian? It's really handy. It's great when it's a map of content. Give it a shot!
The LYT Book Feedback is Wild!
Wow, the feedback is flying in. We already have over 1,000 comments and I just shared chapters of the book with a private group late Saturday. (By the way, if you’re in that group, we don’t need any more comments for Chapter 2. The wisdom of the masses has already come through.) I’d love to see more comments start to move into the later chapters 4, 5, and 6.
I have so many thoughts with this feedback process.
Multiple people think this is insane. It kind of is. Suddenly I go from a very very tiny group of people providing feedback on the book, really just two, to, all of a sudden, around 300. It’s a little overwhelming, but the benefits are big. I’ve already noticed a few phrases that I personally loved that didn’t resonate and really just confused people. It doesn’t mean I toss that stuff out, but it does mean that I consider the “note behind the note.”
Positive feedback during the day, critical feedback at night. As a break during the day, I only want to look at the two types of positive feedback, which are when someone marks a passage in the book “useful” or “love this.” I can read those comments anytime and it feels good. Then there are the more critical comments and for those I have found a rhythm to review them at night when I won’t get sidetracked. I can devote my whole attention to what is being written without worrying about it derailing my efforts during the day.
Just sharing my process. Hope it's interesting to you.
Want to join the LYT Book Team?
This is an exciting moment in the development of the best book possible—an artifact for the ages that many of you will have a hand in shaping!
Between now and the book's launch in June 2027, you have an opportunity to be a part of the LYT Book Team.
Book Team East is full, but you can apply to join the next group, Book Team South.
Note: I will invite the growing Book Team South applicants into the book feedback when I have new chapters (either revised or new).
Expectations for all the LYT Book Teams
Manuscript Phase
Be a beta reader for the chapters you are sent and leave honest feedback in the book portal.
- Regarding getting your name in the book, I'm working with my publisher on this, but if you give a reasonable amount of quality feedback in the book portal, my goal is to get your name in the book. There are already many of you who likely have just secured your spot in the book, based on the quality of your feedback thus far!
Launch Phase
Then during Spring 2027, if you really like the book...
- Talk about it on social, in newsletters, to colleagues, family, and friends. But especially during the launch window to truly amplify the book's reach.
- Review it within the first 1-2 days of launch on Amazon and Goodreads to have a hand in helping the book fly amongst the (five) stars. (This matters WAY more than you might think.)
Book Subtitle Battle, Reaction to Last Week's Poll
Last week, 66% of you voted for the first one. Why didn't you like "A system"?
- Organize your thoughts, develop your ideas, and create your best work.
- A system to organize thoughts, develop ideas, and create your best work.
Idea Exchange
Some of the world's oldest notes are getting more connected. The Herculaneum papyri are some of the oldest preserved scrolls in the world, carbonized during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Recently, researchers began to "digitally unroll" the scrolls using x-ray tech and machine learning (among other tools) to try to parse the knowledge in them. Last year, they found their first word, "disgust".
This year, researchers have managed to digitally unroll and transcribe a scroll in full, which they've shared here. This is so cool. This is the first of many scrolls from this cache to be uncovered and a pretty neat blend of ancient history and modern technology to get there.
What are you watching lately? I've been putting nearly all of my energy into the book lately aside from watching I Will Find You on Netflix. Not bad. With the LYT team, Keaton just finished the first season of Widow's Bay and loved the balance of comedy and horror. You can definitely feel Parks & Recreation as an influence on it (with Widow's Bay's showrunner being a former P&R writer), despite the very different type of show. How about you? Are you enjoying anything memorable in July?
Stay connected,
Nick
P.S... Happy 250th Independence Day for the USA. There are a lot of hilarious compilations of videos of Europeans here for the World Cup reacting to the US excess in food portion size (and everything else), but also the US friendliness and intrinsic enthusiasm we have around things. It's definitely a vibe. As much as I enjoy traveling and the culture of other countries, their history and art, I definitely know my vibe is American, which for all the bad, has so much good too. It's nice to see the U.S. anew from the eyes of European soccer fans traveling here for the first time.
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