How I study using Obsidian

Summary

The speaker reflects on their substantial investment in online learning, totaling over €7,000 in the past year. They discuss the variety of courses and apps they've used, focusing on non-technical subjects to complement their IT background. Notable courses include the Part-Time YouTuber Academy and Ultraspeaking, while platforms like Coursera and Skillshare offer self-paced learning. The speaker emphasizes the importance of taking notes and integrating learnings into their personal knowledge management system, Obsidian, to ensure long-term value and retention. They also share their experiences with language learning apps like Duolingo and Memrise, highlighting the effectiveness of different platforms in their language acquisition journey.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker invested over €7,000 in online learning within the last 12 months, emphasizing the importance of maximizing the value of these courses through effective learning strategies.
• 📈 They focused on non-technical courses due to their IT background and exposure to technical knowledge through work and colleagues.
• 🎓 The Part-Time YouTuber Academy was a significant investment, but it provided valuable insights and accountability groups for content creation.
• 📊 The speaker's note-taking strategy involves a structured template, including a summary, log, and one-sentence overview for quick reference.
• 🌐 They utilized Obsidian as their preferred personal knowledge management (PKM) system to integrate and reference their learnings.
• 🎨 The filmmaking and storytelling class with Casey Neistat offered a creative perspective on YouTube, focusing on storytelling rather than the business side.
• 💬 Ultraspeaking improved the speaker's public speaking skills, with benefits延伸到 their role-playing game (D&D) experiences.
• ✍️ Ship 30 for 30 introduced the concept of atomic essays and templates for content creation, which the speaker found useful for overcoming the blank page dilemma.
• 📹 Master YouTube by Matt D'Avella resonated with the speaker's values of growing a channel with intention and integrity.
• 🔍 The speaker actively combines insights from various courses to create a comprehensive understanding of a topic, such as producing videos.
• 🌐 Subscription-based learning platforms like Coursera and Skillshare offer a wealth of knowledge on diverse subjects at an affordable annual fee.

Q & A

How much did the speaker spend on online learning in the last 12 months?

The speaker spent over €7,000 on online learning in the last 12 months.

Why did the speaker choose to focus more on non-technical courses?

The speaker focused on non-technical courses because they already had a lot of incidental exposure to technical knowledge through their job in IT and being surrounded by knowledgeable coworkers.

What was the most expensive course the speaker took?

The most expensive course the speaker took was the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, which cost €1,326 and 72 cents for the essential edition.

How did the speaker utilize the Part-Time YouTuber Academy course?

The speaker utilized the Part-Time YouTuber Academy course to start their YouTube channel and also gained three different accountability groups from it, which were helpful for their journey as a content creator.

What is the speaker's note-taking method for online courses?

The speaker uses a template called 'course lesson' for note-taking, which includes the date, title, a summary, and a log section for detailed notes. They fill out the summary at the end after logging all the key points.

What is Obsidian, and how does the speaker use it for their learnings?

Obsidian is a PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) system of choice for the speaker. They use it to incorporate their learnings from various courses and build a master page for each course, which helps in aggregating thoughts and insights.

Which course helped the speaker with speaking confidently on camera?

Ultraspeaking helped the speaker with speaking confidently on camera and improving their public speaking skills.

How does the speaker integrate their learnings from different courses?

The speaker creates a master page on a specific topic, such as 'producing videos,' and pulls in insights and knowledge from different courses, combining them with their personal experiences and perspectives.

What are some of the learning platforms the speaker subscribes to?

The speaker subscribes to learning platforms like Coursera and Skillshare for individual learning at their own pace.

How does the speaker approach learning languages through apps?

The speaker uses apps like Duolingo Plus Family for basic language learning and Italki for conversational practice, focusing on learning languages to communicate with people.

What is the speaker's perspective on the value of learning?

The speaker views learning as an important part of their job, hobbies, and identity. They believe that spending money on learning is an investment in the future and does not regret the amount spent because they integrate the learnings into their PKM system.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Reflecting on Online Learning Expenses

The speaker discusses their significant investment in online learning, totaling over €7,000 in the past year. They emphasize the importance of maximizing the value of these courses by integrating the knowledge into their personal knowledge management (PKM) system, Obsidian. The speaker shares their focus on non-technical courses, such as developer advocacy, and details their experience with the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, highlighting the value they found in the course and the accountability groups formed. They also describe their note-taking process for online courses, using a template that includes a summary and detailed log of the content covered.

05:01

🎥 Learning from YouTube and Filmmaking

The speaker continues by sharing their experiences with other online courses, including a filmmaking and storytelling class with Casey Neistat, which aligns with their preference for creativity and storytelling over the business side of YouTube. They also discuss Ultraspeaking, a course focused on public speaking and confidence, which they found beneficial for their YouTube presence. The speaker appreciates the platform's encouragement to share learned content publicly and mentions their use of the Ship 30 for 30 course and Typeshare app for content creation and Twitter posting strategies.

10:03

🗣️ Improving Communication Skills

The speaker talks about their experience with Ultraspeaking, which helps improve speaking skills, particularly when addressing an audience or on camera. They also mention D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) as an unexpected but effective way to practice these skills. The speaker then discusses Ship 30 for 30, a course focused on writing daily content for Twitter, and how it introduced useful templates for overcoming the challenge of starting from a blank page. They also mention other courses they're enrolled in, like Project 24 and Pencil Pirates, and how they take visually-based notes for the latter using Excalidraw.

15:04

🌐 Aggregating Learnings from Diverse Courses

The speaker describes how they consolidate the knowledge gained from various courses into a single page in Obsidian called 'producing videos,' which includes sections on video making, success factors, channel strategies, and pre-production processes. They explain how this aggregation process is where the 'real magic happens,' as it allows them to contextualize the information and make it personally relevant. The speaker also discusses their experiences with Coursera and Skillshare, two platforms for self-paced learning, and the quality and variety of courses available on these platforms.

20:05

📱 Note-Taking Strategies for Apps and On-Demand Learning

The speaker shares their approach to learning and note-taking using mobile apps, highlighting Brilliant for its engaging approach to STEM topics and computer science fundamentals. They discuss the effectiveness of Brilliant's lessons and how they use the Readwise browser extension to integrate highlights into Obsidian. The speaker also mentions other apps like Duolingo Plus Family, Headspace Family, italki, and Memrise, explaining how each contributes to their language learning and personal development. They emphasize the value of these learning tools and how they support their identity and commitment to continuous learning.

25:07

🎓 Embracing Lifelong Learning

The speaker concludes by reiterating the importance of learning in their life, both professionally and personally. They express no regret over their substantial investment in learning, as they believe it is an investment in the future. The speaker credits their PKM system for allowing them to effectively incorporate and utilize the knowledge gained from their courses. They tease a future video on how they keep up with tech trends using Obsidian and sign off with a thank you and a light-hearted touch.

Keywords

💡Online Learning

Online learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge and skills through digital platforms and the internet. In the video, the speaker has invested significantly in online learning, spending over €7,000 in the past year on various courses and apps, emphasizing the importance of this mode of education in their personal and professional development.

💡Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is the process of efficiently organizing, managing, and sharing personal knowledge and information to increase productivity and learning. In the context of the video, the speaker integrates their learnings from various courses into their PKM system of choice, Obsidian, to ensure that they can effectively recall and apply the knowledge gained from their online learning endeavors.

💡Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful note-taking and knowledge management app that allows users to create interconnected notes and build a personal wiki. In the video, the speaker uses Obsidian as their preferred PKM tool to take notes, create summaries, and build a comprehensive knowledge base from the courses they have taken.

💡Accountability Groups

Accountability groups are small groups of individuals who share a common goal and hold each other accountable for achieving it. In the video, the speaker gained three different accountability groups from the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, which provided support and motivation throughout their content creation journey.

💡YouTube Channel

A YouTube channel is a personalized page on the YouTube platform where users can upload, manage, and share their video content. In the video, the speaker discusses starting their YouTube channel and how the Part-Time YouTuber Academy helped them package their ideas more effectively for their audience.

💡Coursera

Coursera is an online learning platform that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) from top universities and institutions worldwide. In the video, the speaker subscribes to Coursera for a yearly fee, utilizing it to access a wide range of high-quality educational content at their own pace.

💡Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning community that focuses on creativity and skill-building, offering a wide array of classes in areas like art, design, video editing, and more. In the video, the speaker uses Skillshare to enhance their creative skills, such as video editing and personal branding, and also notes that it serves as a language learning resource for their husband.

💡Brilliant

Brilliant is an educational app that focuses on teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) topics in a fun and interactive way. In the video, the speaker praises Brilliant for its ability to teach complex concepts in a simplified manner, particularly useful for those looking to fill gaps in their foundational knowledge.

💡Language Learning

Language learning is the process of acquiring new languages, either for personal growth, professional advancement, or cultural exploration. In the video, the speaker discusses their extensive language learning journey through various apps like Duolingo, Italki, and Memrise, emphasizing the importance of conversational skills and practical usage.

💡Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning is the continuous, self-directed pursuit of knowledge and skills throughout an individual's life. In the video, the speaker's investment in online learning and their dedication to incorporating these learnings into their PKM system exemplify a lifelong learning mindset, viewing education as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.

Highlights

The speaker spent over €7,000 on online learning in the last 12 months, emphasizing the importance of maximizing the value from these courses.

To get the most from their courses, the speaker took detailed notes and incorporated the learnings into their Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system using Obsidian.

The speaker chose to take more non-technical courses, such as those on advocacy and developer advocacy, due to their IT background and exposure to technical knowledge daily.

The Part-Time YouTuber Academy, founded by Ali Abdaal, was the most significant single expenditure on courses, costing €1,326.72.

The speaker believes the investment in the Part-Time YouTuber Academy was worth it, as it helped them start their YouTube channel and provided three different accountability groups.

The speaker uses a 'course lesson' template for note-taking, which includes date, title, summary, and a log of people met and key points.

The speaker created a master page in Obsidian for the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, compiling all the weekly meetings and lessons attended.

Casey Neistat's filmmaking and storytelling class was appreciated for its focus on creativity and storytelling over the business side of YouTube.

Ultraspeaking, a course focused on public speaking and confidence, was beneficial for the speaker's YouTube presence and their participation in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

Ship 30 for 30 was a unique course focused on writing daily content for Twitter, introducing the speaker to the concept of atomic essays and useful templates for content creation.

Master YouTube by Matt D'Avella was resonated with for its emphasis on growing with intention and integrity, aligning with the speaker's personal values.

The speaker is currently enrolled in Project 24 and Pencil Pirates, both of which offer different learning experiences focused on visual storytelling and learning.

The speaker aggregates insights from various courses into their own notes on producing videos, creating a personalized and comprehensive guide.

Coursera and Skillshare are two learning platforms the speaker subscribes to for self-paced learning, with Coursera focusing on MOOCs from universities worldwide and Skillshare on creativity and practical skills.

The speaker's note-taking process for Coursera and Skillshare courses is similar to that of cohort-based and self-paced courses, focusing on personal understanding and application.

Brilliant is an app the speaker uses for learning STEM topics, particularly appreciating its ability to teach complex subjects in a simple and engaging manner.

The speaker's workflow for learning from apps involves using them on mobile for convenience and later consolidating notes on their laptop for deeper understanding.

Duolingo Plus Family, Headspace Family, Italki, and Memrise are apps the speaker uses for language learning and mental well-being, each offering different approaches and benefits.

The speaker concludes by reiterating the importance of learning as part of their identity and the value of investing in education for long-term personal and professional growth.

Transcripts

- In the last 12 months,

I spent over €7,000 in online learning,

and that's a significant amount of money for me.

So I wanted to make sure that I really maximized

my learnings from those courses

beyond the duration of the course.

So in this video, I'm gonna talk about the brief summary

of courses and apps that I tried out this year

and how I made sure to get my monies worth

by taking notes and incorporating those learnings

back into my PKM system of choice, Obsidian.

You may notice I've taken a lot more non-technical courses

than technical courses, and that's because I felt like

I was already getting a lot of incidental exposure.

I work in IT, I'm surrounded by brilliant coworkers,

I know Google-fu

and it's basically my job to learn technical things

and teach it to people in a way that they might understand.

So the courses that I took are more on the advocacy side

of developer advocacy.

But I'm hoping that regardless

of what you are studying online,

you'll also be able to take inspiration

from how I took my notes.

First are the cohort based or self-paced online courses.

The biggest one by far was the Part-Time YouTuber Academy,

and that was founded by Ali Abdaal,

who is a famous YouTuber, if you don't know of him already.

And that cost €1,326 and 72 cents for the essential edition.

Now it is certainly the biggest single expenditure

on my list for courses, was it worth it?

Well, I took it in November and that's about the time

that I started my YouTube channel.

So I personally think that it was worth it

for what I've gotten out of this channel

and the way that it's helped me package my ideas

in a much more succinct and hopefully entertaining way.

The course wasn't perfect, but I did get

three different accountability groups from it.

An accountability group is a group of people

that have a shared objective.

In this case, they're all trying to be YouTubers

and trying to be content creators,

and it's been really helpful for me to have other people

along on this journey.

I think that money was worth it

for those three groups alone.

So here's how I generally take notes on these cohort-based

or self-paced courses.

I have a template here called course lesson,

and it looks a lot like a meeting.

I also have the TVZ tag,

I say that it is a meeting and it's also a class.

I have the date, I have the title.

I would normally put the course here

and then I have a summary.

So I wait to fill that out until the very end,

until I have put everything down on this log section.

So let me show you what that looks like.

Here's one that I did for,

I think the very first PTYA meeting,

I have the summary here, there's Ali over there.

And then I have a log of people that I met,

and I took screenshots while he was talking on video,

and then I also took a bunch of notes.

I also do a one sentence summary at the top,

just like I do for meetings.

So I can pull in all of these notes using a Dataview query

and the tag, or maybe something that's in the title,

and then get a one sentence summary, or in this case,

two sentences of what this lesson was all about.

After I create enough of these lessons,

I then have like a master page for it.

In this case, this is my Part-Time YouTuber Academy page.

And by the way, all of these are published

on my Obsidian Vault,

so if you're interested in what I learned,

I mean, Ali in particular was very, very transparent

and encouraged us to share what we learned.

So it's not like I'm in breach of any copyrights

or anything, you can go and have a look at

my public Obsidian Vault.

I'll put a link in the description to that one.

So this is the Part-Time YouTube Academy page,

where I have all of the weeks

and every single meeting that I go to.

And you'll see, I didn't go to all of them,

but I did go to most.

And then at the end here, now I won't show you this

because I don't wanna show you where people are located,

but I do have a list of people that I met in PTYA,

along with their location and their YouTube channel,

so that I can reach out to them and talk shop.

The next one was a filmmaking and storytelling class

with Casey Neistat.

I've been watching Casey Neistat for a while.

He's the person that got me into YouTube.

His vlogs were just so ridiculously entertaining.

So I was very curious to see his process.

And Casey's style is much more chaotic than Ali's,

and for that reason, I really liked it.

It was €226 and 32 cents.

And it presented me a picture of Youtubing

that is devoid of all the business side.

Casey is all about the storytelling,

it's all about the creativity, and he's much more in line

with where I am on that scale.

So I really appreciated it.

Here's the same thing for Casey Neistat,

with me embedding the summary page

for each of these lessons as well,

and they also link out to the full notes.

The next course I took was called Ultraspeaking,

and this is two things.

First I paid for the course, which was 937 and 4 cents.

And then I also signed up afterwards

for their online learning platform, which was €134 per year.

Ultraspeaking is all about speaking to the camera

or to the public,

anywhere basically that you have an audience,

Ultraspeaking will help you improve the way that you speak.

And a surprising way or surprising outlet

for all of these lessons

that I had in Ultraspeaking was D&D.

Because it turns out, D&D is like four hours of talking,

whether you're the player or the DM,

there's a lot of talking involved.

And so the lessons of being confident enough

to be on camera, made it all worthwhile.

I would highly recommend it.

And I also really appreciate their online platform too.

I still do it with some of my developer advocate friends,

because I think it's something that we all struggle with.

What you don't see beyond,

beneath this veneer of being on YouTube is the sheer panic

at turning the camera on

and basically talking to a hunk of metal and plastic.

Ultraspeaking helped me with that.

Course number four is Ship 30 for 30,

and this is an interestingly themed course

based on writing something every day for 30 days,

specifically to go on Twitter, because that's the platform

with the smallest feedback loop.

I picked up a lot of things from this course,

but I also really like Typeshare.

Typeshare is the app or platform that I think they created

or had created for the course.

And it turned out to be useful in so many ways

that I didn't expect.

It's I guess, a way to post on Twitter.

But what I really found useful was the templates.

See, when you post on Twitter, they recommend that you have

a format for atomic essays.

And those templates are things like five myths

or personal story and advice.

And it says like in the first sentence,

tell people what you did that changed your life.

And I found that really useful

because one of the most dreaded things of a creative

is looking at a blank page

and just trying to write something, anything.

So with the Ship 30 for 30 method,

you would never start from a blank page,

you start with a template.

And I found that a lot easier,

and I've used a lot of those templates for videos as well.

So video scripting is writing

and I found a lot of connections that way.

Ship 30 for 30 was €318 and 42 cents.

The next one is Master YouTube by Matt D'Avella.

That was another YouTubing course by another creative

that I really greatly admire.

Matt's course was more along the lines of Casey Neistat's,

where it was a lot about growing with intention

and integrity, something that I really resonated with.

It was about business, it was about making a living,

but doing so without sacrificing your principles.

Just to show you this briefly,

I did the same sort of thing for Master YouTube.

So I have these modules here.

I took notes on each of these modules separately,

and then linked them back to this master page.

And that Master YouTube course was €281 and 12 cents.

There are two other courses that I'm currently enrolled for

that's Project 24, which is like,

it's a little bit different, there's a bunch of courses.

And also it's a one year membership to a community

and then Pencil Pirates, which has just started.

And it's going to be about visual learning

and visual storytelling.

These are my notes for Pencil Pirates.

We've only had two meetings so far,

but because of the very visual nature of this,

I am also taking my notes a little bit differently.

So instead of having it mostly in text,

which is what I typically like to do,

I'm actually doing it in Excalidraw.

And here's, okay, so it's not so great, right?

I never said that I was great at drawing,

but I am taking notes visually.

And let me show you my second one.

This was the second meeting

and this was a little bit longer.

So if this is using Excalidraw

and with Excalidraw, you can either do it

in this pop out window here.

And that's how I normally like to do it

while I have the same notes opened up in my tablet

and it's an iPad Pro.

And I just like drawing on that because of the stylist,

the Apple Pencil,

but then it automatically updates here anyway.

And it also embeds this PNG version of it.

Check out my video where I interview the developer

of Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain, Zsolt Viczian,

that was live last Saturday.

Project 24 was €424 and 76 cents

and Pencil Pirates was €275 and 39 cents.

So what happens with all of these disparate courses?

I mean, they're all about the same thing.

And so I started to build up my own notes on the topic

and it is this page called producing videos.

As part of Ship 30 for 30 I got really into atomic essays

for a while, and in one of them, I did like a workflow

for making tech and travel videos online.

And so I happen to put it here.

This is a cool way of aggregating my thoughts on the topic.

So I led with that,

but then I also have different sections here.

If we bring up the outline here,

you'll see that I've got section on white to make videos

factors for success, channel strategies,

pre-production processes.

So I'm pulling in a lot of things that I learned

from the different courses that I attended.

This particular graphic is from Matt D'Avella's course.

And in preview mode here, you'll see that

there's like a little one here and when you click on it,

it goes to the reference here.

So that's just a cool way of being able to cite

where something has come from.

This is really where most of the work happened

because it's one thing to have notes on separate courses,

but it's another to combine them in the same thing.

So for example, in the idea generation section,

I've got a video that I made, and then I'm talking about

how a framework for idea generation is PKM.

This endless idea generator came from Ship 30 for 30.

This forms thing is for me,

the idea of signals was from Ship 30 for 30,

but then there's also a part here

those quoted from Matt D'Avella.

So as you can see, there are bits and pieces

from each course that I've mashed together,

along with my personal spin on things.

Now, I find that doing this and aggregating in this way

is where the real magic happens because it's not about

learning the course in the way that it was presented

and being able to, I don't know,

recite it off by rote memory,

but it's about being able to contextualize it

into something that matters to you.

In my case, it's about producing videos on YouTube.

So those are the courses that involved one teacher

talking to multiple students,

whether that was live or self-paced.

But I'm thinking now that maybe the best way

that I like to learn or the best way to learn from me

is when it's completely self-paced.

And so I do already subscribe to some learning platforms

and apps that are more for more individual learning

because these apps and services are ones

where I can just pick up anything and start when I want to,

and stop when I want to and go completely at my own pace.

So it's not even the self-paced courses that I had earlier

that I'd mentioned only open for enrollment

at certain times.

And this one is just like, I just like the simplicity

of signing up ones for a service for the year.

And then I can just hop in and hop out whenever I want.

One of those platforms is Coursera and that was €365 a year.

Coursera is a platform for MOOCs,

that's a massive open online course,

and it's really surprising the quality of the courses

that are on here,

because these are from real universities

from all over the world on a variety of subjects.

I've taken lots of courses here,

everything from Python to learning how to learn,

to basics of Mandarin Chinese from a Chinese university.

It's really cool to be able to have access

to so much of this education for €365 a year.

Now you could pay a little bit more

and get the official certificates per course,

but personally I don't really feel the need

to be able to put that on my CV or anything.

I think it's more important for me to actually learn

the material and be able to implement that in my work

and daily life.

And the other learning platform that I use is Skillshare.

Now, Skillshare costs €143 and 88 cents a year.

And it is, I would say, mainly on the side of creativity.

So there's a lot of video related courses

that I've taken there, some for video editing,

some for personal branding, so more on the marketing side.

My husband actually uses it to learn Portuguese.

So apparently language learning is really great

on Skillshare as well, because it is a video.

So there's audio and there's text

and there's some materials as well.

And he's been really rocking it with Portuguese

and really putting me to shame.

So we're both getting use

out of that Skillshare subscription.

For the most part, I take notes on Skillshare

and Coursera courses, the same way that I would

for the self-paced and cohort-based courses.

And here's an example of the output.

So this is my Python page or how to do stuff in Python page

that was largely taken from the excellent

University of Michigan's

Python for Everybody specialization.

I still really use this a lot.

So if I go to regular expressions in Python,

I just put in things that matter to me.

Like if I have to Google it,

well, then I'm gonna put it on here

so that it becomes like my personal Google

and it doesn't have to make that much sense,

I don't have to explain things too much,

as long as it makes sense to me

and it's useful, then it works.

So I really appreciate this.

So I do this for other programming languages too.

Like here is my JavaScript one.

JavaScript is something that I'm currently working on.

So I expect to continue to see this grow.

While we're talking about JavaScript,

I almost forgot a course actually,

I just bought this course,

The Best Way to Learn Modern JavaScript, ES6 for Everybody.

So I'm going to be working my way through this.

I got the master package, I believe.

Yeah, this one, which was $97.

Haven't started on that one yet, but I've bought it

and the work is going to be reimbursing me for it as well.

My last category is apps,

which is more for on-demand learning.

And the thing with apps is it's a little bit trickier

depending on the app to take notes on it because mainly

I use apps on my mobile and not on my laptop.

And so I don't have the web app open

and I can't send it to Readwise and all that.

But let me show you what I've done so far.

Brilliant is the first app I wanna talk about,

and it would be €83 and 85 cents per year,

but it's free for me

because Brilliant is a sponsor of this video,

but I never promote products or services

that I don't personally use every day

or at least incredibly regularly.

I think I missed a few days in my streak

with Brilliant, unfortunately.

But you can read all about my ethics statement over here

to see how I decide what companies I partner up with.

You also see in a second,

how I process Brilliant lessons into Obsidian,

Brilliant is a web app and there's a mobile app too,

that focuses on STEM topics.

But the way that it handles potentially dry concepts

is really refreshing.

I'm a developer advocate by profession,

but I'm mostly self-taught.

That means that I pick up what I could from my coworkers,

from researching on the internet

and from on the job experience.

So I still feel like there's a lot of fundamental things

that I missed because I didn't go to school

for computer science.

So of course, when I started using Brilliant,

I chose the computer science fundamentals course,

and I've been pleasantly surprised to find out

just how much it's teaching me

on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of foundations

and basic principles, like algorithms thinking

and also on the higher end where now on Brilliant

I'm actually learning Python on Brilliant.

And the fact that they're able to do this in an app

that can teach you something in like 10 minutes a day

is pretty mind boggling.

Here's the lead into a subject that I know very well,

application performance.

But instead of jumping into a theoretical definition

of latency versus throughput, this lesson talked about

a baker named Pierre who wanted to sleep in

as late as possible, relatable.

By the time the course got around to saying the words,

latency and throughput,

both concepts had already been explained

in real world terms.

I've explained this topic so many times

and never in such an elegant and simple way unfortunately.

Since Brilliant is web based,

I was able to use the Readwise reader browser extension

to bring in parts of the lesson to my Obsidian Vault.

Here's what that looks like when Readwise brings it over

to Obsidian using the Readwise official plugin.

This was a lesson about two different sorting algorithms

and how to determine their performance.

And here's one of my highlights

about the number of comparisons between array elements,

being the cost that you can assign to algorithms,

specifically sorting algorithms.

However, the best workflow that I found

involved just going through the Brilliant lessons

on my mobile app, because it's handy and I always have it,

and I can always spare a few minutes with it

and not worry so much about taking notes then.

And then later when I get back to my laptop,

then I go into the Wiki section

and their Wiki is a lot more of a detailed look

into each of those topics.

They're also presented in a way that lends itself

really well to being sent to Readwise and highlighted.

The Readwise Obsidian official plugin

imports them in this format.

So I've got my awesome TVZ tag, which just is a signal

that I haven't processed this yet.

This is one about algorithms,

and here are the different highlights that I took

on the Wiki page.

You'll have to check the price in your currency,

but for me, Brilliant is about €7 month on the annual plan.

But I recommend that you just get started for free

by clicking on the free trial link in the description below.

It's also a cool way to support me and a good way to support

a really awesome company trying to do great things.

Some other apps that I use, and actually all of these

I've been using for years are Duolingo Plus Family.

This is €122 and 99 cents.

I pay for this for myself and for my husband.

I think I have 16 languages that I've learned

on Duolingo now.

Some of them are useful like Dutch and have given me

literally a new home country and an entirely new life

I never thought to dream of.

And some of them are just for fun, like Klingon.

There's Headspace family, which is €101 and 19 cents a year.

This is also for my family.

And I guess you could say, it's not really a course,

but I think that it is,

it's just a different type of course,

rather than more of an academic style.

It's more about learning awareness

and learning how you're feeling.

Italki is an app that I swear by.

I've been using it for years.

I do have a referral link for this,

but that referral link is only gonna give me Italki credit.

So please use it

if you think that you wanna learn a language,

because then I can learn more languages.

This is the way that I learn languages really.

I'm very conversational based

because I like to learn languages

so that I can talk to people,

that's always my first priority.

And it doesn't make sense if your primary goal

is to be able to talk to people.

It doesn't make sense to learn grammar first or to learn,

I don't know, spelling or pronunciation.

I mean, just book a lesson with one of their teachers,

whether a community tutor,

meaning someone who's just a native speaker

or like a formal teacher.

So I use a formal teacher for my more advanced languages,

like Spanish or Dutch.

And then I use community tutors

for pretty much every other language.

And this is the way that

I've always been learning languages.

And the last app that I'm gonna mention is Memrise,

which is €99 lifetime.

So I really love Memrise because it's in a flashcard style,

but it has a focus on mems, which are mnemonic devices,

so when it teaches you a word,

it doesn't just teach you the word in, say Swedish,

and then English or whatever language

you're using to learn it, it also has a mnemonic device

that you can use, it could be a picture,

or it could be something with the words

that hints at the meaning and I really like that approach.

For €99, it's a steal.

I don't know why I didn't through this sooner.

I've been subscribing on a monthly basis for years.

I probably should have just bought lifetime up front.

I'm gonna talk about language learning in Obsidian

in another video, because this is a whole other topic.

And I have plugins and workflows that I wanna show you.

I'm gonna leave that for another video.

As you might surmises by that little do dad,

and the fact that I've spent over €7,000 this year

on learning, learning in general is important to me.

It is part of my job,

it's part of what I like to do for fun, honestly.

And most importantly, it's part of my identity.

And so I don't regret for a second or for a Euro,

everything that I've spent on learning

because it's an investment in the future,

but it's partially because of the fact that

I've fulfilled my deal

to incorporate those learnings into my PKM,

that I don't regret it

because I think that it may not be worthwhile

if I didn't have those notes to look back on.

But now that I do have them,

I know that 10 years down the road,

like I'm starting to do now with my notes from 10 years ago,

I'm going to be able to still glean insights

from the things that I'm learning now.

If you'd like to see the nitty gritty of how I would process

some new topic, some article on the topic

that's pretty new to me, then check out this video

on how I keep up with tech trends using Obsidian, what else?

(Nicole chuckling)

(Swedish) See you next time!

And thank you for watching.