Mathew Lowry

One of the People.

About me

Information architect, communication strategist, etc etc. Founder, myhub.

More, follow, subscribe & contact: https://myhub.ai/@mathewlowry/about/

My ideal thinking tool(s)

One tool which supports me in reading, note-making, writing and publishing without forcing me to invest major time in becoming a power user and/or taking expensive courses. In an ideal world it would also handle my todos and time.

How close is my current system (below) to this ideal? Not at all, which is why I'd like to see A Minimum Viable Ecosystem for collective intelligence emerge.

My current tools and practices

• I use inbox curation to identify high-priority sources of content: in gmail I auto-label high-priority newsletter, and I maintain a twitter list
• I use GTD: I have recurring calendar items and tasks to scan priority sources; queue the best content to read to Pocket; read, annotate and tag the best content into myhub
• I also use progressive summarisation to better embed the knowledge, via zettelkasten overviews in myhub, enewsletter editions and original posts.
• I put all other notes into Roam Research, almost always starting with the daily note, but am currently migrating to Obsidian
• I publish via myhub, medium and my newsletter.

More: All the Stuff I Think tagged Content strategy and Productivity

Thinking Tool Ratings

• roam research
  • My current confidence with this tool: 3
  • Note-making: 8
  • Writing/Publishing: 2
  • Idea discovery: 7
    • I can find any note very easily, via search and/or backlink and/or daily note, but I haven't figured out how to get it to spontaneously propose them
  • User-friendliness: 7
    • you can get started pretty easily
  • Power: 5
    • very powerful - lots of add-ons - but I found it difficult to figure it out
  • Community: 2
    • too cultish/geeky for me
  • Cost: 1
    • one of the most expensive tools I pay for
  • Data sovereignty: 2
    • stored by Roam, exports possible.
• Obsidian
  • My current confidence with this tool: 4
  • Openness: 8
  • Note-making: 7
  • Writing/Publishing: 1
  • Idea discovery: 5
  • User-friendliness: 3
  • Power: 8
  • Multiplayer: 1
  • Help: 3
  • Community: 8
  • Cost: 9
  • Data sovereignty: 10
• Pocket
  • My current confidence with this tool: 8
  • Note-making: 1
  • Writing/Publishing: 1
  • Idea discovery: 3
  • User-friendliness: 7
  • Cost: 8

---

Revision Notes

• 2023-01-22: revised to
  • reflect the dimensions in How we measure thinking tools
  • include "confidence" per tool - no idea if we will use this, tbd