Connect Ideas with The Idea Compass and Visualize Connections with ExcaliBrain

Summary

视频脚本介绍了一个名为“思维罗盘”的思考工具，它通过指导用户向北、南、西、东四个方向提问，来帮助他们连接新旧想法。北代表寻找想法的起源和更高层次的类别，南是探索该想法所衍生的子领域或实例，西是寻找相似和支持性的想法，而东则是寻找与中心想法相竞争或能够补充和转化它的想法。视频中还展示了如何使用Excalibrain插件来可视化这些连接，并通过定义本体论来指导不同方向的思考。此外，作者还通过双气泡图比较了“思维罗盘”和“六顶思考帽”两种思考工具的相似之处和差异，提供了一种结构化的思维框架，以激发和整理创意。

Takeaways

• 📚 **工具介绍**：介绍了一个名为“思维指南针”（Idea Compass）的思维工具，它通过不同的方向性提问帮助用户连接和扩展思维。
• 🧭 **方向性思维**：指南针的每个方向代表一种特定的思考方式，如北代表起源和类别，南代表子类别或由中心思想衍生的领域，西代表相似和支持性的想法，东代表竞争或对立的想法。
• 🔄 **思维扩展**：通过在指南针的东边添加可以增强或转化中心思想的元素，如创建备忘单（cheat sheet），以促进思维的进一步发展。
• 📈 **可视化工具**：使用Excalibrain插件来可视化思维指南针，通过图形界面展示思想之间的联系。
• 🔗 **链接创建**：在Obsidian中使用特定的命令和视图字段来创建和描述链接的本体（ontology），以表达不同方向上的关系。
• 🔄 **更新特性**：Excalibrain的一个新特性允许用户在思维图谱的东侧添加项目，增强了工具的功能性。
• 📝 **文档比较**：通过双气泡图（double bubble map）比较了Worldly Maps和思维指南针两种思维工具，展示了它们之间的相似之处和不同之处。
• 📋 **备忘单作用**：提到了备忘单作为一种工具，可以作为思维指南针的补充，帮助用户在文档工作中使用一系列问题作为模板。
• 🤔 **思维定向**：强调了定向思维（directed thinking）的重要性，即有意识地在特定方向上集中思考，而不是随机地思考然后组织。
• 📌 **本体定义**：说明了如何在Excalibrain中定义本体，以及如何通过本体来描述思维指南针的不同方向。
• 🔍 **深度探索**：通过Excalibrain插件，用户可以更深入地探索和连接他们的想法，增强了个人知识管理系统的深度和广度。

Q & A

什么是'idea compass'？

Idea compass 是一个思维工具，它通过让你在不同的虚拟方向（北、南、西、东）上提问，引导你的注意力，帮助你以不同的方式探索和连接思想。

在'idea compass'中，'北'代表什么？

在'idea compass'中，'北'代表思想的起源，意味着寻找更大的类别或群体，了解这个想法属于哪里，支持什么信念，以及它的父域是什么。

使用'excalidraw'插件更新后，用户可以进行哪些操作？

更新后的'excalidraw'插件允许用户在脑图的东侧和西侧放置项目，增强了可视化思想和概念之间连接的能力。

如何使用'idea compass'来增强现有的笔记系统？

通过将'idea compass'的思维方向应用到现有的笔记系统中，可以帮助用户更有目的地探索和连接笔记中的思想，从而增强思考和知识管理的深度。

在'idea compass'中，'南'方向上应该寻找什么样的想法？

在'南'方向上，用户应该寻找由中心思想衍生出的思想，即这个中心思想所贡献的领域或子域，以及它所孕育出的例子和实例。

如何使用'excalidraw'来可视化'idea compass'中的思想连接？

通过在'excalidraw'中创建一个中心思想，并在不同的方向上添加相关联的思想和概念，用户可以形成一个视觉化的思维网络，清晰地展示思想之间的联系。

在'idea compass'中，'东'方向上应该寻找哪些类型的思考？

在'东'方向上，用户应该寻找与中心思想竞争的思想，这可能包括反对意见、补充内容或中心思想缺失的部分，以及可以增强和转变中心思想的元素。

如何通过'excalidraw'定义和组织自己的本体论（ontology）？

用户可以通过在'excalidraw'的本体论设置中添加和分类不同的方向性描述（如父域、子域、左侧、右侧等），来定义和组织自己的本体论，从而更好地管理和可视化思维网络。

什么是'double bubble map'，它如何与'idea compass'结合使用？

Double bubble map 是一种可视化工具，用于比较两个思想或概念的相似之处和不同之处。它可以通过在中心添加相似特征，在两侧添加不同特征来进行比较。在'idea compass'中，如果发现两个思想相似，可以使用double bubble map来进一步分析和比较它们。

在'idea compass'中，'西'方向上应该寻找什么样的想法？

在'西'方向上，用户应该寻找支持性的想法，即与中心思想相似或相关联的其他学科或领域，以及他人表达的相似思想。

如何使用'excalidraw'来增强个人的知识管理和思考过程？

通过在'excalidraw'中应用'idea compass'框架，用户可以定义不同方向上的思想连接，创建一个结构化的思维模型，这有助于加深对知识的理解，并提高思考的系统性和创造性。

Outlines

00:00

🎓 理解思维导向仪 - Idea Compass

在这一段中，Jolt回顾了他去年参加的'Linking Your Thinking'会议，特别是Vicky's house关于思维导向仪（Idea Compass）的演讲。他提到了这个工具如何帮助他整理自己的思维，并展示了如何使用思维导向仪来可视化思维和思维之间的联系。他还提到了Obsidian软件的更新，允许用户在思维导图的右侧添加项目，这有助于展示思维导向仪的工作原理。

05:01

🔍 探索思维导向仪的相似概念

Jolt讨论了思维导向仪与Simon Wardley的Worldly Map和Aaron的《如何记聪明笔记》中的对立构建之间的相似性。他还提到了Edward de Bono的六顶思考帽，这是一种类似的思维工具。Jolt展示了如何在Obsidian中使用Markdown视图模式添加新的概念，并解释了如何在思维导向仪中使用不同的方向来组织和关联思维。

10:02

📚 构建和使用本体论 - Ontology

在这一段中，Jolt解释了他如何使用本体论（Ontology）来组织思维导向仪中的不同概念。他展示了如何将新的概念添加到本体论中，并通过Obsidian的命令面板将其设置为子项。他还讨论了如何在Excalibrain插件设置中定义本体论的不同方向，包括上、下、左、右以及前后关系，并说明了这些关系如何在思维导向仪中体现。

15:03

↔️ 思维导向仪的方向性关系

Jolt通过创建两个简单的文档来展示'next'和'previous'关系如何在Excalibrain中工作。他解释了这种关系是如何相对于一个页面到另一个页面的，并且是直接的。他还讨论了如何将本体论组织成不同的类别，以适应思维导向仪的不同方向，并展示了如何使用双气泡图（double bubble map）来比较两个相似的概念，如Worldly Map和Idea Compass。

20:05

🔗 思维导向仪与Worldly Map的比较

在最后一段中，Jolt总结了Idea Compass框架，这是一个帮助连接新旧想法的工具，通过向北、南、西、东提问不同的问题来实现。他还展示了如何使用Excalibrain来可视化这些连接，并讨论了如何定义本体论来确定Excalibrain中的上下左右方向。最后，他通过创建一个双气泡图来比较Worldly Map和Idea Compass，展示了两者的相似之处和不同之处，以及它们如何相互关联。

Keywords

💡思维导图

思维导图是一种用于展示思维过程和概念之间关系的图形化工具。在视频中，它被用来帮助观众理解如何通过不同方向的提问来探索和连接思想。例如，提到了‘想法指南针’，它通过向北、向南、向西和向东看，来指导思维，这与思维导图的核心功能相似。

💡Obsidian

Obsidian 是一款知识管理和笔记软件，用户可以在这个平台上创建、链接和组织笔记。视频中提到使用Obsidian来存储和管理个人的思想和笔记，展示了如何通过Obsidian来实现‘想法指南针’的可视化。

💡Excalidraw

Excalidraw 是一个轻量级的手绘风格图形编辑器，可以用于制作图表和思维导图。视频中提到了Excalidraw的更新，允许用户在其脑图中放置项目，这与‘想法指南针’的概念相结合，展示了如何使用该工具来可视化思维的连接。

💡想法指南针

想法指南针是一种思维工具，它通过向不同方向提问来探索一个想法的不同方面。在视频中，它被用来指导观众如何通过向北、向南、向西和向东的思考来深入理解和扩展一个中心思想。例如，向北寻找想法的起源，向南探索想法所孕育的子领域。

💡本体论

在视频中，本体论指的是描述不同链接类型的方式，即如何在Excalidraw脑图中定义和组织不同方向的关系。本体论帮助用户理解如何在脑图中表示思想之间的层级和关系，如父领域、子领域、支持性想法和竞争性想法。

💡Worldly Map

Worldly Map 是Simon Wardley提出的一种战略分析工具，它通过地图格式来思考方向。在视频中，Worldly Map 与想法指南针进行了比较，展示了两者在思考方向上的相似之处，尽管它们的映射逻辑和目的不同。

💡六顶思考帽

六顶思考帽是Edward de Bono提出的一种思维工具，它定义了六种不同的思考方式或问题类型，每种方式都对应一顶不同颜色的帽子。视频中提到了六顶思考帽与想法指南针的相似性，因为它们都倡导有方向性的思考。

💡双气泡图

双气泡图是一种比较两个概念的图表，通过在中心列出相似特征，在两侧列出不同特征来进行比较。在视频中，双气泡图被用来比较Worldly Map和想法指南针，展示了它们在思考方向上的异同。

💡Zettelkasten

Zettelkasten 是一种个人知识管理系统，它依赖于将知识分解成单独的信息块或“Zettel”（德语中的“卡片”），并将它们相互链接。视频中提到了Zettelkasten，说明了如何使用Excalidraw来增强这种系统，通过可视化来加强思维的连接。

💡PMI

PMI 是Plus-Minus-Interest的缩写，是Edward de Bono提出的另一种思维工具，用于评估一个想法的正面、负面和有趣的方面。视频中提到了PMI作为有方向性思考的一个例子，与想法指南针的概念相呼应。

💡心智模型

心智模型是个人用来理解周围世界的认知框架。在视频中，想法指南针被描述为一种心智模型，它通过指导思考的方向来帮助个人探索和连接他们的想法。心智模型的使用有助于提高思考的深度和广度。

Highlights

介绍了思维导向工具——思维罗盘（Idea Compass），它通过将注意力引导至不同的方向（北、南、西、东）并提出不同类型的问题来帮助连接新旧想法。

思维罗盘的核心在于通过不同方向的探索来寻找想法的起源、归属类别、支持信念、子领域、类似和支持性想法以及竞争或对立观点。

提到了Excalidraw，一个用于可视化思维连接的工具，它允许用户在图形界面中放置元素，以展示思维之间的关系。

展示了如何在Excalidraw中重新配置思维罗盘，并介绍了新功能，如在思维图的右侧放置元素。

提到了Worldly Map和Zenke的概念，这些工具或方法与思维罗盘有相似之处，都关注于思维的方向性。

讨论了如何使用Excalidraw来增强思维罗盘的功能，并通过创建备忘录（cheat sheet）来进一步激发和转化中心思想。

展示了如何在Excalidraw中使用本体论（ontology）来描述和组织链接的类型，从而定义不同方向上的关系。

通过实例演示了如何在Excalidraw中添加新的本体论字段，如“Target”作为子领域描述，并展示了如何将其与思维罗盘联系起来。

介绍了如何在Excalidraw中使用“previous”和“next”关系来表示文档或页面之间的相对位置。

讨论了如何将本体论组织到不同的类别中，并通过感觉而非严格逻辑来构建，以适应Excalidraw中不同的方向性关系。

展示了如何使用双气泡图（double bubble map）来比较和对比思维罗盘与六顶思考帽（Six Thinking Hats）这两种思维工具的相似之处和不同之处。

强调了定向思维（directed thinking）的重要性，即先有意识地引导思考，再在思维库中寻找合适的项，而不是随机头脑风暴后组织。

提到了如何通过Excalidraw插件的设置来定义本体论的不同方向，包括父领域、子领域、左侧、右侧以及前后关系。

讨论了如何将本体论的字段添加到Excalidraw中，并在思维图中可视化这些连接，以帮助理解和应用思维罗盘框架。

分享了个人如何通过Excalidraw和思维罗盘来处理和可视化思维，以及如何将这些工具和框架融入到个人的思考和笔记系统中。

鼓励观众尝试安装Excalidraw，使用思维罗盘，并享受通过这些工具可视化和实验思维的过程。

Transcripts

hey everyone jolt here last year I

attended the linking your thinking

conference and listened to Vicky's house

and failing Chang's presentation the

compass of zatocastan but I completely

forgot about it until one of the

participants in cohort 4 of the visual

thinking Workshop reminded me and I

re-watched the conference recording as

well as read failings article about it

and I said wow this is not only a great

idea that I can use to work with my

subtle custom system and my notes but it

is also a perfect example to demonstrate

how you can use x call your brain to

visualize your thoughts to visualize

connections between your thoughts

so in today's video I want to achieve

two things first of all I want to walk

you through the compassion of settle

casting just show you what the idea is

about and why I think it's so great and

second

I'm connecting this video with the

release of an update to excalibrane I

implemented a feature where you can now

also Place items on the east on the

right hand side of your excalib brain

graph

and I want to show you the process of

how I went through

reconfiguring xcolor brain how this new

feature works and just give you an

understanding of how you can use

excalibrane to visualize these

connections for yourself

so join me and I hope this is going to

be insightful

this is the video recording of wikis and

phylink's presentation at the linking

your thinking conference I'm going to

include the link in the video

description and here is my visual

summary of the idea compass

the heart of this idea is that you look

in different imaginary directions you

look North you look South you look West

and you look East and you ask different

type of questions you direct your

attention to different type of questions

then you look North

then you look for the origins of the

idea you look for bigger categories or

groups where the idea belongs to you're

looking for whatever exists an order of

magnitude higher where it was

incepted or what beliefs it supports

what are the parent domains so you're

looking up when you're looking down

you're zooming in and you're looking for

ideas that this thought in the center

contributes to or domains that are

children of this idea ideas that this

central idea nurtures there it leads to

instances examples of this idea or down

south

to the vest you have

similar and supporting ideas so here

you're looking for

other disciplines they are the same

concept could be applied you're looking

for others who have expressed a similar

thought that are relevant or referenced

and then to the right hand side you are

looking for ideas that compete with the

central idea competition can be

opposition so these are opposing ideas

or highlighting things that are missing

from the central idea or that are

disadvantage of this but also

competition means a transformation and

supercharging

so also to the right you're adding items

that can supercharge and transform the

central idea

so let's look at the excali brain view

of this page and just try to show you

how all this comes together so here

I have the idea compass in the center

and

it belongs to the category of tools for

thoughts and algorithms of thought I

also include the idea compass on a

double bubble map the worldly map versus

the compass framework I'm going to show

you that in just a second because I

think that is also a very useful tool in

connection with the idea compass on the

left hand side you can see some similar

ideas right now this reminded me of the

worldly map by Simon wardley because the

worldly map also thinks about directions

in a map like format very similar to the

idea Compass but of course the mapping

logic is different because the whole

purpose is different and also in zenke

Aarons how to take smart notes there's

this quote that the construction of

oppositions is the most effective

approach for generating new ideas so I

thought that this is also a similar

topic that

touches on this and then what can

supercharge this idea is creating a

cheat sheet I'm going to show you the

cheat sheet in a second and why I think

that can supercharge this the cheat

sheet includes a list of questions that

you can use as a template when you're

working on a document

and then in this case I have nothing

below this I have only the compass icon

but that's not because it I mean it is

part of this image and that's why it's a

sub topic of this in ex call it brain

now

thinking about this I now realize that

there's another

whole

domain of ideas that are similar to this

so I want to add that idea here let me

show you how I do that I'm going to now

open this document the idea Compass

because this is a drawing I'm going to

open this in a markdown View mode so I'm

going to open this as markdown and here

I'm going to add one more because as I

was

talking about this right now it suddenly

occurred to me that Edward de Bono for

example in the six thinking hats is

talking about a similar idea so I'm

going to add similar to or touches on a

similar topic I'm going to use singular

2 and this is going to be the thinking

hats the six thinking hats and

by doing this so what did I do here I

typed

double colon three times that is the

trigger for bringing up the

ontology suggestor in excalibrane and

here I started to type in the keyword

the data view field so these are here

these names and then double columns

these are data view fields in obsidian

I'm using these to describe the ontology

of the links the ontology of the links

is simply the description of the various

links I'm not just simply adding six

thinking hats but I'm adding the reason

why I think it is there so it is there

because it is similar to this idea so

the way it works is if I type the triple

double Holland then I can start to

mention for example let me choose from

here analogous two and then as I type

the various Fields come up if I want a

directional item so I want maybe an idea

down south then I can say that I'm

looking for the children so then it's

double colon twice and then a c and that

is going to bring up only the children

items so here I have for example

examples as a Next Level detail

of

ideas in the idea compass

but anyway I added similar to the six

thinking hats if you look at ex call it

brain then here you will see that now

the sixth thinking hats is also here on

the map what you can also see is here

these small numbers indicated the number

of items in that direction so you can

see that some of these are more rich in

connections than others

now the sixth thinking hats is quite

relevant in the sense that

in the sixth main kick hats Edward de

bonu defines six mindsets or six type of

questions that you should be asking and

he provides six colored hats to trigger

that topic the six thinking hats can be

used in a group setting then they're

each participant has a hat on their hat

and they need to ask questions in that

domain it is very similar in this sense

to the idea compass

because you are doing directed thinking

it's also interesting that now that we

talk about Edward Bono that the Bono has

lots of thinking tools that are

are about this

directed thinking so another thinking

tool would be PMI plus minus interesting

and the way the Bono explains these

tools is it's not like your randomly

looking in I in different directions so

also in case of the idea Compass I bet

if Edward de Bono was to explain this

concept then he would say that don't

think of ideas and then look for the

place where it belongs on the compass

but rather direct your thinking first

think about North think about the

origins and collect all your ideas in

that direction and then think about

maybe South and then West and East

it gives you a different mindset it's

like looking in One Direction and

looking for items in your mind in your

Vault that fit there it's not this

random brainstorming and then organizing

you can use it that way as well but

again I just want to highlight that the

bonus approach would be

this directed thinking and I personally

believed that the Bono is right it gives

you a different mindset it is much more

intentional and much more rigorous that

way

now how did how did I then come up with

the ontology and how did I organize it

on this chart

so you can see here these green words

these are my different words from my

ontology

over the last one half years since I've

created and been using excola brain

every time I come across a new word or

description I add it to excalibrin so

the way that works is if I would I'm

again going to open this in markdown

View mode so I can show you this if I

would create a new data view field that

I want to add to excalibrane so for

example I'm going to add Target

maybe as a new field and the target

would be a South a downward item

the way I can add this easily to the

ontology to be a children note so a

downward pointing item is by adding

simply Target right here and then with

the obsidian command palette Ctrl P add

this as a child so here if I would click

on this I'm not going to I don't want to

add Target at this time if I would click

on this add data view field to ontology

as child then from then on EX call the

brain would recognize a Target as a

downward child description now

if I open the X color brain plugin

settings then here you can see the

section for the ontology and you can see

here the parent Fields the children

Fields the left side front fields and

this is where the new version of X call

the brain comes with more options

because now

I also have the right side friends and I

also have the previous and the next

friends

I'm going to show you in a second how

the previous and next differs from left

and right in a nutshell they are both on

the side so the previous is on the left

the next is on the right of course if

you change the words then you can change

this around by definition

but the difference is that the right

hand side friends always remain on the

right hand side even if they switch

places while the next friends will move

to the side so let me show you how this

works

if I open the call it brain here then

you can see that on the right I have the

zettelhosting cheat sheet which is which

supercharges the idea Compass if I click

on this then the idea Compass moves to

the right because it is supercharged by

the central constant cheat sheet and

this way it is always a transforming or

supercharging type of relationship

that's why it will remain on the right

hand side similarly if I click here on

worldly Maps then

the idea Compass is on the left hand

side because it again is a reminds me of

similar type of relationship on the left

hand side so that's how the

right hand side and left hand side

lateral ideas or friends of work

if we look at the next and previous

relationship then that is slightly

different and let me create couple of

documents to show you how that works so

now I'm going to create a completely

brand new blank document here I'm going

to create a new empty document I'm going

to call this page one and I'm going to

say that

next is of course

page two

like this and I'm going to create page

two and here I'm going to just write

that

next is

page stream so that's all I wanted to

create I don't want to create too many

unnecessary pages and if now I open

xcali Brain

then you will see here

this relationship and I'm going to zoom

in so you can see it better

so here in the center I have page two if

I go to page three then the previous

page is page two it is to the left if I

click on page two then the previous page

is to the left it's page one the next

page is Page Three to the right if I

click on page one then the next page is

page two and this is in the center so

this is the way next and previous works

that it is a relative position compared

to one page to the other so it's a

directed relationship while the in case

of the idea Compass it works

or in case of the left and the right

items it works differently

so how did I organize my ontology to fit

these different categories

I did a very simple activity so over

time I collected all these different

data view fields in my documents

and I added them to deontology I wasn't

so deliberate I it was more feeling

based this is what I love about wikis

and

failings idea that this gives a good

structure for thinking about the

directions in excalibrin so I copied all

of these into a long text list and then

I started to go through this list of

different ontology items and I grouped

them into or group them under these

questions and once I was done I again

compiled the comma separated list and I

added it back here and with that I

created the ontology describing the

different directions

and in a nutshell this is the idea let

me

just finally show you around a little

bit of how I processed this idea right

here again if I open

like Scully brain and that as I

mentioned the worldly map reminds me of

the idea Compass sometimes it's good to

document for yourself what's the

similarity so in this case you can see

that I have the Wordly map versus the

compass framework here which is apparent

because it Compares two ideas for me

that's to the north

it Compares worldly maps with the idea

compounds if I open this this right here

is a double bubble map the way a double

bubble map works is you take two ideas

in this case Wordly maps and the idea

Compass you place them in two different

parts of your drawing and then in the

center you're adding features or

properties that are similar and then on

the side you're adding properties that

are different for the two so in this

case you can see that both the worldly

map and the idea com paths are a map of

a concept there directions matter or

directions count they are both innovate

tools for thought and they are both to

some extent a business analysis

technique a way of asking questions

the boardly map is used for defining

strategy while the idea Compass is used

for comparing Concepts and ideas

the directions being different so I

already explained the ideal Compass

where North is the source and the origin

South is where the idea leads to the

subdomain west or supporting ideas and

yeast are contradicting or competing

ideas in case of worldly map the

direction is slightly different because

North is the customer south or the

underpinning capabilities or services

West or the emerging services and East

or the commodity services and that's the

layout logic of a worldly map

and

the worldly map is actually drawn

visually as a map so it if there are

lines and directions and things matter

in a mapping site kind of sense the idea

Compass is not such a visual map now

with excalibrin it is visual it is more

of a mental model and I think this sort

of summary for all the connections that

you have on the left hand side so if you

have a similar two relationships like

you have here these two ideas that are

similar to one another and these are a

good way of representing the or

comparing these ideas so in this case

because I have this reminds me of

relationship creating that comparison is

useful after the video I'm going to

create my double bubble map to compare

the idea Compass to the six thinking

hats and I'm going to probably move on

here because here with the six thinking

cats so this is you can see this is an

import from the brain this is a pretty

old document in my Walt I I miss lots of

things so this is actually

an example of or an instance of a tool

for Thought

Etc so I'm going to fill out this page

with those details because it's just Pro

to the sixth thinking heads back into my

memory and I'm going to Now work on that

so that's all I wanted to share with you

today in summary we looked at two things

we looked at the framework of the idea

Compass which is a tool for thought that

helps you connect your new idea to ideas

that already exist in your obsidian

Vault it works by directing your

attention to North South West and East

and asking different questions and then

we looked at ex calling brain as a way

to visualize these connections and to

bring all of this alive and we talked

about how you can Define your ontology

and excolibrian how you can use the

compass framework to Define what's up

what's down what's left and what's right

and finally we looked at an example of

the double bubble map because in the

idea Compass I identified two thoughts

Wordly maps and the compass framework as

similar ideas so I created a double

bubble map to compare the two what are

similarities what are differences and

how do these two ideas relate to one

another

as a result of this video I hope that

you are going to install excalibrane

you're going to give the idea Compass a

try and

have one with excalator have fun

visualizing your ideas and have fun

experimenting with the idea compass and

escalate brain thank you for watching