notes: Odysseas has had a meteoric rise showcasing the power of self-education to become a modern renaissance man. %% Odysseas is having a meteoric rise showcasing the power of self-education to become a modern renaissance man. %% --- *"King of learning tools"* *"Full guide"*  criticisms: 1. are you really promoting proper self-education? 2. is your advice and setup actually good? notes: His secret weapon has been to learn and write using obsidian, which is the app he's personally crowned as the king of learning tools. but I question, is his advice also fit for the throne? this is because of two major criticisms i have: First is his credibility. is he really staying true to promoting proper self-education, or is he actually hindering it? Second, from my 3 years of experience with using Obsidian for the same reason, i feel like his advice is outdated, oversimplified, and doesn't showcase obsidian's true potential as a learning tool. so instead, i'll also be critiquing and improving his learning setup later in the video. %% it fails to show why you should use obsidian specifically over any other note-taking app, because in my experience, his workflow doesn't need the app. you could make something similar in apple notes. %% %% And his secret weapon for doing so? its the app he crowns as the king of learning tools, obsidian. %% --- promoting curiosity and self-education 🤝 my respect  notes: To be clear, I respect his overall efforts for helping people explore their curiosities and follow their passions. In fact, I also have a similar journey. Reading the book "how to take smart notes" ignited my obsession with linked note-taking, which is why I fell in love with Obsidian. the app has helped me tremendously for exploring my wide range of interests beyond the traditional constraints of formal education by reading books and learning from online role models. And because of my unique blend of interests, I've had special opportunities i would have never imagined was possible 3 years ago when I first started on this journey. ---  learnings: front-end development, entrepreneurship, resume buiding, interviewing, project planning, collaboration notes: In my first year of university I felt restricted and unfulfilled learning from my computer science courses, but self-learning gave me the programming skills to intern at small startups and even a global 500 company. --- <!-- element align="left" --> Free resources: - Youtube channel - Published notes - Obsidian templates <!-- element align="left" --> Paid products: - School - Obsidian University 🎓 - Life management - Ultimate Starter Vault 🟣 learnings: writing, videography, youtube, graphic design, audio engineering, creating products, marketing notes: During that time, I also began creating my personal brand. I created videos, templates and paid products for sharing how I used Obsidian for learning and productivity. ---  notes: and recently i've joined as a product manager for linking your thinking, the leading organization exploring the potential of this thinking method. Despite having no formal training in any of these areas, i've created my own learning paths to explore these opportunities by following my curiosities and passions. But as much as self-education has empowered me to do all this, there's also an equal dark side to it. And that is why I'm making this video. --- ### reason 1: credibility  %%  %% notes: %%To also highlight the biggest reason why I'm making this video, which is to question his credibility.%% Self-education is only as effective as the information you're exposing yourself to. It can be dangerous if you aren't critical on who or where you're getting your advice from. I personally evaluate this for myself based on whether they uphold transparency and integrity. Unlike professors where they've been qualified to teach students, anyone can give advice online. How are you supposed to know whether they are credible and give their advice for your best intentions, instead of for chasing external metrics like money or fame? %% To be fair, he is just sharing what he's personally found helpful from his learning journey to help inspire others on their own. This is more of my critical creator side speaking and something I've been reflecting upon for my own brand. %% %% Well-edited videos showcase the cherry-picked examples and polished results, but what about the messy, behind-the-scenes usage and results in day-to-day life that people can relate more with? %% --- ### transparency # ⚛️📝 🧐❓ notes: When you have thousands listening to your advice and you speak with authority and extreme claims, how can people know whether you should be trusted? i feel showing your own work is crucial to back up your claims and promote transparency. To show how you're actually applying what you teach beyond these cherry-picked examples in polished videos that might not be as realistic for the viewer's needs. But from what I know, the advice he's sharing in videos like creating atomic notes or mini essays aren't published anywhere except his videos telling you how to do the same, and only recently also in his newsletter. --- ### integrity notes: Another question I have is his integrity for letting viewers continue their self-education. He has suggested people read "how to take smart notes" for people who want to learn more about zettelkasten, but what about obsidian? the beauty of a personal knowledge management system is the ability to personalize it to your own needs. what resources and ideas did he learn and take inspiration from that viewers can explore themselves? don't just tell me what to do, tell me how you came the conclusion so i can find my own or even go further. from my perspective, he could have easily mentioned a lot of relevant ideas and resources that dive into the topics in greater detail. for example: --- note development tags ➡️ Andy Matsuchak's evergreen notes 🌲 notes.andymatuschak.org  notes: - In the video, you talk about how you tag the development of your tags based on a "baby child adult tag system". If I want to learn more about growing my notes and search this up online, i'm not going to find any relevant result. in my own experience, the first thing that came to my mind was andy matsuchak's idea of evergreen notes for growing your forest of ideas, which has similar stages for developing your notes and much more information related to it. - --- index notes ➡️ LYT's Maps of Content 🗺️  notes: - Next, how can I learn more about these index notes you have in your vault beyond the one example you gave in your video? Should you mention that this was inspired from maps of content, which is what Obsidian users usually call these higher-order notes? --- alternative zettelkasten setups?  notes: - Lastly, why did you end up only settling for status and tags for what to include in your note templates? Was this inspired by someone else's setup? how does this compare to other zettelkasten videos that exist? When I watched your video I thought of Bryan Jenk's full comprehensive tour, since that was my personal reason why I decided to adopt it for my own setup. --- Disclaimer: I am a hypocrit 😱 notes: Now, I'm only being critical about this because it's something i've been reflecting on my previous content. i can easily point out the same arguments in some of my previous videos as well, and have been trying to think and answer these questions to be a more credible creator. Since you're watching this yourself Odysseas (odysseas? not sure how to pronounce it), if you feel my points are valid, here's the simplest solution i've found for sharing your real-life examples and extra learning resources, which i'm sure your viewers would also enjoy greatly. --- <split gap="4"> <grid flow="col"> Quartz (free)  </grid> </split> <grid flow="col"> Obsidian Publish  </grid> notes: Publishing your notes online. There are free ways to do so like using Quartz, or easy ways like the built in Obsidian publish feature that also financially support the team that works on this amazing software :) If you want examples of what that could look like, here are two other creators with published notes that I respect: --- notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com   notes: First is Nicole for sharing her 10,000+ notes from books, conversations, and even paid courses. She has been my personal role model for learning in public. --- publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant  notes: Second is my good friend aidan. i heard he was one of your own inspirations for getting into obsidian, and if you found value in his content i'm sure other people would also benefit from knowing about him. whenever i'm curious about any of the ideas he mentions in his videos, even if he doesn't explicitly share the source i can visit his notes and do my own exploration. Anyways, that was just the first criticism I had, which was more of a rant. The main one I feel I have a bit more justification in talking about is... --- <!-- element align="" --> ### reason 2: his setup - Incomplete folder structure 📁 - Oversimplified "tag" and "index" notes 🏷️ - Not durable for thousands of notes 🌌 - Outdated and non-functional templates ♼  notes: His setup itself. I will admit, it is helpful for beginners starting and shares important principles about how to use the zettelkasten method, but based on my past 3 years of using Obsidian, I think it's outdated and doesn't really showcase its key features or full potential. --- how is obsidian better? | App | Folders | Links | Templates | Local files | Graph view? | | ----------- | ------- | ----- | --------- | ----------- | ----------- | | Obsidian | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Logseq | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Notion | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Apple Notes | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | notes: The simpler way he uses it feels like his workflow could be replicated in any other note-taking app like logseq, notion or even apple notes. When I looked at the main app features he showcased in his vault, I realized most apps already provide these features, and I wouldn't even consider the graph view an important part. In my experience, i feel its more useful for youtube b-roll than it is an essential feature for the thinking process. This doesn't prove to me why obsidian deserves to be crowned king if all these apps have almost the same features. ---  notes: So in this video, I'll share the criticisms i have with his setup, and suggest simple but powerful changes that you can make to see why obsidian could actually be crowned king. And if you feel the changes I make are relevant to your needs, there's a free downloadable version of my upgraded version in description. but ultimately, I recommend you think critically and further personalize it to your own needs. --- my digital galaxy of 2600+ shining stars 🌌 notes.johnmavrick.com  notes: If you want, you can even explore yourself in my published notes at notes.johnmavrick.com Anyways, I hope you can take these ideas into consideration, and that the resources i'm sharing throughout this video will be helpful for your audience who want to continue their self-education. That's enough of me rambling, I think it's time to start dissecting your setup.