Readwise Reader - How I Process EVERYTHING I Read

Summary

The video introduces Readwise Reader, a powerful app that consolidates various content sources into one platform, including YouTube videos, Twitter threads, and RSS feeds. It allows users to highlight, tag, and export content to their preferred apps like Obsidian or Notion. The app is still in public beta but offers a seamless reading and note-taking experience, with features like text-to-speech and customizable keyboard shortcuts. Readwise also integrates with Shortform, providing summaries and insights on various materials. The video emphasizes the convenience of having all reading materials in one place and the app's potential value once it exits beta.

Takeaways

• 📚 The introduction of Readwise Reader has revolutionized content consumption by providing a centralized platform for various content types, including articles, videos, and podcasts.
• 🔗 Readwise Reader seamlessly integrates with Readwise, automatically exporting insights and annotations to other apps like Obsidian or Notion, enhancing the user's note-taking experience.
• 🎥 For YouTube content, Readwise Reader allows users to import video transcripts, navigate through them, and make annotations, syncing highlights to their preferred apps.
• 📱 The Readwise Reader mobile app offers a text-to-speech feature, enabling users to listen to their saved content at their preferred speed and voice.
• 📰 The platform supports Twitter threads, allowing users to import and highlight threads just like blog posts, with the added benefit of searching and organizing within the app.
• 📅 Readwise Reader's triage workflow organizes content into an inbox, later, and archive system, helping users manage their reading list efficiently.
• 🔄 The app's powerful search function enables users to easily find saved content across different formats and sources.
• 📈 Readwise Reader suggests new RSS feeds based on users' reading habits, offering a personalized content discovery experience.
• 🔄 The app's feed tab consolidates subscribed content such as RSS feeds, newsletters, and Twitter lists, providing an all-in-one view of updates.
• 🔧 Users can customize their Readwise Reader experience extensively, from keyboard shortcuts to filtered views and the layout of their library.
• 🎉 Readwise is currently in public beta and offers a 30-day free trial, with lifetime access pricing set to increase once the beta phase concludes.

Q & A

What is the main issue the speaker discusses at the beginning of the transcript?

The main issue discussed is the difficulty in capturing information while consuming content, which takes away the pleasure from the content itself due to the friction caused by the process.

What was the solution to the problem of capturing insights from various sources before Readwise Reader was introduced?

Before Readwise Reader, the solution was Readwise, which aggregated insights found on the web from podcasts, tweets, books, etc., and automatically exported them into the user's app of choice, although it still required some manual work.

How does Readwise Reader differ from other note-taking apps like Pocket or Instapaper?

Readwise Reader is not just a reader app; it also functions as a Twitter newsletter and RSS reader, and it works on YouTube videos, funneling all content sources into one centralized location and automatically connecting to Readwise for exporting.

What is the current status of Readwise Reader?

Readwise Reader is in public beta, but it has been found to be very stable by the speaker, who has been using it daily without any issues.

The Home tab in Readwise Reader works like a Netflix homepage, allowing users to continue reading and suggesting different items based on parameters such as recently added, quick reads, and long reads. These parameters can be configured to the user's liking.

The Home tab functions as a personalized dashboard for content consumption, suggesting content based on user-defined parameters and recent activity.

What are the key features of the Library tab in Readwise Reader?

The Library tab consists of saved content from the internet, with an inbox for new items, and the ability to categorize content into 'Later', 'Archive', or delete it. It also supports keyboard navigation and annotations for efficient content management.

How can users take notes on YouTube videos using Readwise Reader?

Users can take notes on YouTube videos by using the Readwise browser extension to open the video in Readwise Reader, which pulls the transcript and allows for highlighting and note-taking in sync with the video.

What is the process for taking notes on Twitter threads in Readwise Reader?

To take notes on Twitter threads, users can share the thread via private message to Readwise, after which it appears in the inbox where highlights and annotations can be added just like with a blog post.

How does the Feed tab in Readwise Reader function?

The Feed tab consolidates all subscribed content such as RSS feeds, newsletters, and public Twitter lists, presenting the latest updates from these sources in an organized manner.

What is the benefit of using the Readwise integration with Shortform?

The integration with Shortform provides users with concise, research-backed summaries of various materials, along with additional input and perspectives that can support or challenge the original content, fostering critical thinking.

How can users configure their Readwise account with Obsidian for seamless syncing?

Users can configure their Readwise account with Obsidian by installing the Readwise official plugin, authenticating on the Readwise website, and setting up the desired folder structure, file naming conventions, and YAML front matter for the synced content.

What is the Ghost Reader feature in Readwise Reader?

The Ghost Reader feature allows users to invoke a command palette to perform various actions such as summarizing content, generating questions or QA pairs based on highlights, and more.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introducing Read Wise Reader: A Comprehensive Content Consumption Solution

The paragraph discusses the common issue of being more focused on capturing information than enjoying the content itself while consuming articles, YouTube videos, or podcasts. It highlights the limitations of previous solutions like Read Wise and introduces Read Wise Reader as a game-changer. This tool not only aggregates content from various sources such as podcasts, tweets, and books but also allows for seamless annotation and export to preferred apps. Despite being in public beta, the user found Read Wise Reader to be stable and efficient for daily use, providing a unified platform to manage and interact with content.

05:02

🖋️ Enhancing Reading Experience with Read Wise Reader's Features

This section delves into the specifics of Read Wise Reader's features and how they enhance the reading and note-taking experience. It covers the app's layout, including the Home, Library, and Feed tabs, and describes how users can customize their reading lists and take notes efficiently using keyboard shortcuts. The paragraph also touches on the ability to save articles for later, archive content, and search within the app. Additionally, it mentions the integration with other platforms like Obsidian for note-taking on YouTube videos and the potential for text-to-speech functionality in the future.

10:03

📰 Streamlining Content Management with Read Wise Reader and Short Form Integration

The paragraph discusses how Read Wise Reader can be used to manage various content types, including YouTube videos, Twitter threads, and newsletters. It explains the process of saving and organizing content within the app, as well as the potential for a dedicated video section in the future. The integration with Short Form is introduced, an app that provides insightful summaries and analysis of educational material, enhancing the value of the content consumed. The user's preference for managing RSS feeds and the app's ability to suggest new feeds based on reading habits are also highlighted, showcasing the app's comprehensive approach to content management.

Keywords

💡Content Consumption

The process of engaging with various forms of digital media such as articles, YouTube videos, and podcasts. In the context of the video, content consumption is often hindered by the need to capture and organize information, which can detract from the enjoyment of the content itself.

💡Readwise

A platform that aggregates insights found on the web from various sources like podcasts, tweets, books, etc., and allows users to export these insights into their app of choice. Readwise is presented as a solution to the problem of manually capturing and organizing information from content.

💡Readwise Reader

A powerful read-it-later app that functions not only as a repository for saved content but also as a Twitter newsletter and RSS reader. It integrates with Readwise to centralize all content sources and allows for annotation and highlighting within the app, enhancing the content consumption experience.

💡Annotations

The act of marking or commenting on a text, digital document, or piece of content. In the video, annotations are used to capture key points or insights while consuming content within the Readwise Reader app.

💡Integration

The process of combining two or more systems or applications to work together. In the context of the video, integration refers to how Readwise Reader connects with other apps like Obsidian and Notion, allowing for seamless transfer of annotated content.

💡Workflow

A series of structured steps taken to achieve a certain goal or outcome. In the video, the speaker discusses different workflows for managing content within Readwise Reader, such as the triage workflow with its inbox, later, and archive system.

💡RSS Feeds

A technology that allows users to subscribe to updates from websites and receive new content automatically. In the video, RSS feeds are one of the content sources that can be managed and read within Readwise Reader.

💡Twitter Threads

A series of connected tweets that form a continuous conversation or narrative on Twitter. In the video, the speaker shares how they use Readwise Reader to save and annotate Twitter threads for later reference.

💡Obsidian Vault

A term used to describe the personal library or database within the Obsidian app, where users can store, organize, and link their notes and other digital content. The video discusses the configuration of the Obsidian Vault to work with Readwise Reader.

💡Short Form

An app that provides concise summaries of educational material along with research-backed insights and commentary. In the video, Short Form is mentioned as an app that integrates with Readwise, adding value to the content by providing additional perspectives.

💡Ghost Reader

A feature within Readwise Reader that uses AI to summarize content and generate questions or QA pairs based on highlights. It helps users to quickly understand and review the key points from their readings.

Highlights

The introduction of Readwise Reader as a revolutionary app that consolidates various content sources into one platform.

Readwise Reader's ability to connect with Readwise and automatically export content to apps like Obsidian or Notion.

The public beta status of Readwise Reader, which, despite being in beta, offers a stable experience for daily use.

The feature of annotating and highlighting articles within the Readwise Reader app for better content interaction.

The keyboard navigation and shortcut capabilities within Reader, streamlining the article interaction experience.

The option to listen to articles being read back to you at customizable speeds, enhancing accessibility and versatility.

The seamless integration with YouTube videos, allowing users to take notes and follow along with transcripts.

The management of the reading library with options to save for later, archive, or delete content based on personal preference.

The customization of the Home tab in Reader, allowing users to tailor their content recommendations based on various parameters.

The practical use of Reader for managing Twitter threads, saving them for later reading and annotation.

The integration of Readwise Reader with Shortform, an app providing insightful summaries of educational material.

The ability to import and manage RSS feeds, newsletters, and Twitter lists directly within the Reader app.

The advanced filtering and organization options in Reader, including the creation of custom filtered views.

The Ghost Reader feature, which can summarize content and generate questions or QA pairs based on user highlights.

The configuration of Readwise with Obsidian, allowing for a smooth synchronization of reading data and notes.

The pricing and subscription model of Readwise, offering lifetime access to beta testers at a discounted rate.

The overall impact of Readwise Reader in transforming the way users consume, interact with, and manage digital content.

Transcripts

there has definitely been a point

perhaps multiple times where you're

consuming content whether it's an

article a YouTube video or a podcast and

as you consume it in the back of your

mind you're more concerned with

capturing the information and how you'll

do it rather than the content itself and

this friction alone takes a lot of the

pleasure away from the content you're

consuming and up until now the closest

thing we have to fix this was read wise

which aggregated all of our insights we

found on the web whether it's podcasts

tweets books Etc and automatically

export them into our app of choice

whether it's obsidian notion or others

this was a pretty good alternative to

doing everything manually but it still

has a major issue if you want to take

notes on something like a YouTube video

you have to rely on Chrome extensions

and a bit of manual work if you want to

take notes on different blog posts maybe

through an RSS feed you have to have

more apps and likely paid ones to do

that and don't even get me started on

podcasts however late last year read

wise released read wise reader and that

changed everything so what is reader

reader is probably the most powerful

readilyter app out there right now kind

of like pocket or insta paper but on a

whole other level because it's also a

Twitter newsletter and RSS reader and it

even works on YouTube videos it also

funnels all of your content sources into

one centralized location which

automatically connects to read wise and

exports all of it to your app of choice

it's important to note that reader is

still in public beta but I found it to

be very stable I've been using it daily

for a while now without a single issue

so let's move over to the screen and

take a look at it alright so you can

find reader by coming to readwise.io and

it'll be here on top if you don't yet

have a readwise account they have a

30-day free trial available so you can

follow along and if you use my link

below you get an extra 30 days on top of

that once you're logged in to read wise

you can just click on reader here or

just type in forward slash read and now

you're on read wise as reader when you

open up reader for the first time it'll

prompt you to install their readwise

browser extension as well as the IOS and

Android apps so it's now used that

extension to grab an article and I'm

going to grab one of the Articles I'm

going to feature in my monthly

newsletter for January and it's right

here so then if we click on the read

wise reader extension I now have the

option to annotate anything I want

straight here but I'd rather do that

inside reader because the experience is

much better I'm going to make this a

little bigger so you guys can see and

now this article lives in our inbox so

the first thing to understand about

reader is how it's broken down we have a

Home tab library and a feed Tab and the

Home tab is kind of like a Netflix home

page you can continue what you're

reading and you suggested different

things based on different parameters

such as recently added quick reads and

long reads you can configure this to

your liking by coming over here to the

top right press configure and you can

toggle on what it is you want to see on

the Home tab next up we have the library

and the feed Tab and the library is

stuff that you find online and saving to

reader so the article that we just saved

is over here in our inbox and I like to

manage my library the same way I manage

my to-do list if you're interested I

have a video on it as well but in short

nothing ever stays in my inbox it needs

to end up in either later archive or be

deleted so let's look at the article

that we just saved and let's do some

highlighting and the first thing is that

everything can be done with the keyboard

you can use up and down arrows to

navigate across your article you can

hide the side panels by pressing the

different brackets you can press h to

highlight the current paragraph which

will be exported to your app of choice T

to give it a tag and if you press o it's

going to take you to that website and

I'm just scratching the surface here if

you press the question mark you can see

a list of everything that you can do

with the keyboard you can yet customize

the keyboard shortcuts but you will in

the future and lastly just like notion

or obsidian you also have the command

palette which in reader is command or

control K so when you press it there's a

lot of things that you can do straight

from here if I press on the right

bracket you can see who the author was

you can see the domain when it was

published how long ago it was saved and

how long it will take you to read and

even have a notebook for the document

and you can write a document note and if

whatever I'm reading was recommended by

someone I just put that here and on the

left hand side you would see chapters or

headers for easy navigation but because

this is a short one it won't have

anything but I just added an article

here by Ali abdall and if you want to

search just press forward slash I'm

going to type all your doll

and this is what it would look like if

it was full and one of the best features

which actually already works on mobile

is to have it read back to you at

whatever speed you like you can even

change the voice this functionality is

not yet on the desktop but the readwise

team said they'll bring it soon and when

you highlight something and you know

it's going to end up in the obsidian you

can just use double brackets because

even though read wise can't read the

obsidian can so in this case here let's

say that I'm highlighting this here in a

nutshell and I make a note on the

Highlight I can just say

relates to Skin Care

and then when I open it up in obsidian

I'm going to have the link to skincare

active alright so let's now move on to

one of my favorite features which is

taking notes on YouTube videos so I'm

going to come here to my YouTube channel

so I'm going to play my last video

and I'm going to put it in reader by

clicking the browser extension and then

I can open this up in reader and as you

can see it pulls the transcript and you

can follow along where you are in the

video through the transcript so if I hit

play it's going to highlight where I am

on the video and this also works even if

I speed it up

and if I click on different parts of the

transcript it's going to take me to that

part of the video

and then you can highlight whatever you

want you can then come to obsidian

and I'm going to manually sync

as you can see the videos right here and

here are my highlights and I'm going to

get into the obsidian configuration in

the later parts of the video it's also

worth mentioning that at times there may

be some small parsing errors because

remember this is still in beta and also

for now the videos that you take

highlights on live over here in the

Articles folder but in the future I

imagine that read-wise will have a

dedicated video section because there's

a lot of demand for that another way

I've been using reader is for Twitter

threads so let's say I'm reading the

thread I got right here from Thomas

Frank and I can share this thread to

read Wise by sharing it via private

message and I just type in a t

and now I can just come back to read

wise and now it's here in my inbox and I

can just take my highlights on it as I

would with a blog post normally when I'm

going over my inbox in my library which

usually happens first thing in the

morning or at night I just go one by one

and if it's something I actually want to

read I'll just press L to save it for

later

and if I'm done reading it and I got

nothing out of value I'll just press D

to delete and then I'm going to say I'm

sure and then from the later tab the

ones that I want to save in reference to

in the future I'm going to Archive and

I'm going to press e for that and then

if I want to find a piece of content

that I archived I can just come to my

archive tab or I can just press forward

slash and search for what I want you can

also have different Library setups by

clicking here on the library and then

edit library locations by default you'll

have the triage workflow which uses the

inbox later archive system but if you

want you can choose the shortlist

workflow which gets rid of the inbox

altogether and everything lands on the

later page and then you can move the

documents you want to focus on into

short list and then to Archive and

lastly you can also have the classic

workflow which as they say is kind of

like insta paper or pocket and it just

has a later and an archive before we

move on to the feed tab I want to talk

about today's sponsor which read wise

also has an integration with and that is

short form short form is an app that

provides concise and insightful

summaries of the best books articles and

educational material over the holidays I

read one of Austin cleon's Books titled

keep going and the first thing I did

when I finished it was to head over to

short form to look at the summary now

you might be thinking why are you

looking at the summary of a book you

just read and the reason is that short

form isn't just summarizing what you

read it's also providing their own

research-backed input about each

important point in the summary these

short form interventions add a ton of

value to what you're reading because

they can support what you just read but

also at times they will provide a

counter argument to the author's point

which really helps Foster our own

critical thinking and that's what makes

short form great short form covers

dozens of genres including philosophy

productivity and self-improvement and

because short form integrates with read

wise whatever I highlight in short form

will show up in my obsidian Vault

seamlessly short form is constantly

updating their library with new books

and articles so there's always something

new to discover and subscribers get to

vote on what books to cover to get a

five-day free trial draw in short form

through my special link short form.com

from Sergio or click the link in the

description thanks short forum for

sponsoring this video alright so now

we're on the feed Tab and this is where

all the stuff that you already

subscribed to will land such as RSS

feeds newsletters and even Twitter lists

so if you create a Twitter list in your

Twitter account you can just make that

list public and then just paste the URL

for that list right here under manage

feeds and I'm going to come here to

Nasim talab's list and I have one here

for math Twitter and if I press the

share button copy link to List come back

to read wise then I can come here to add

feed and paste it here

then I'm going to give it a second as

you can see it's adding the newest five

items or I said already picked up math

Twitter so if I come back to feed I can

see math Twitter is here and the latest

tweets from the accounts on that list

will always be shown here this is one of

the few features of reader that I don't

really use I prefer to browse Twitter on

my app or the website and the tweets

that I do want to look into I'll save

those into reader another source of

content that you can have on your feed

are newsletter so if you come back here

and we press the blue plus icon and we

go into more import options and when we

scroll down we can see that read wise

provides us with two emails one to send

it to the library to our inbox and

another one to forward it to our feed

personally I prefer to have my

newsletters land on my feed and then for

the ones that I know I want to pay more

attention to I just move those to the

inbox so whenever I'm signing up for a

newsletter I just give them this address

right here which sends all the

newsletters to my feed but if you'd

rather have your emails land in your

email inbox you can set up Auto

forwarding with your own email provider

like Gmail you can make a all that

emails from a specific newsletter get

forward to this address right here if

you wanted to go to the feed or this

address right here if you wanted to go

to the inbox the other main thing that

lands in my feed are my RSS

subscriptions and if you don't know what

an RSS feed is it's just an automatic

subscription to a website's posts and

read wise lets you do that straight from

reader once you're on an article or a

blog post or even some newsletters

you'll see here on the side that we have

an option to subscribe to this person's

feed so if I subscribe to Olive doll

every new post that gets published on

Ali abdall's website will show up here

on my feed and before using reader I was

using three different apps to manage my

RSS feed I was using inner reader as an

RSS aggregator I was then using an iOS

and Mac app called reader to read my

feeds and then finally insta paper as my

reader letter solution and this was all

replaced by reader you can also head

over here to manage feeds to see not

only the feeds that you're subscribed to

but also this new feature called

suggested and as a name implies this is

suggesting new feeds based on what you

read so over here High signal feeds is

from source courses that you read a lot

and then here lower signal are from ones

that you've occasionally saved read or

highlighted I imagine that in the future

it'll suggest your new feeds based on

the ones that you already have and I

really like that read wise tells us the

frequency of the feed because if you see

something here that's like 100 posts a

day I mean it's obvious that you're not

going to sign up for that it's going to

clutter your whole Space so it's a

really nice addition to see that here

and over here on the left side ribbon we

have a bunch of these different views as

default and all of your content will be

automatically parsed into these

different folders so all of your

articles will be here your emails here

your tweets here Etc and if you click

here on the gear icon and then manage

filtered views and everything that's on

the sidebar can be managed here in the

filtered views so if you don't want to

see books on your sidebar just come here

and simply unpin from sidebar and as you

can see all these different views are

defined by the queries here and these

queries work kind of like SQL or data

view in obsidian you can tell it exactly

what you want as a filter as long as you

specify it using their syntax and I'm

going to leave a link to their syntax in

the description but in the future I'm

imagine it'll look very similar to

something like notion where you have a

user interface with drop down lists for

different filters the last thing I want

to show you before the obsidian

configuration is the ghost reader so if

you click on anything you have saved in

reader and press command k for command

palette you can type invoke ghost reader

or just press shift G and when you press

it we have all these different options

that we can do with it and you can tell

it to summarize the content and in here

you'll see this little ghost shows up

which means that it's working and once

it's done it'll add it to the documents

note over here on the right hand side

you can also ask it to generate some

questions or generate q a pairs based on

your own highlights I says now go over

the obsidian configuration so I'm going

to come here into my obsidian Vault and

I need to install a plugin so I'm going

to come here to settings browse and

we're going to search for read wise

official

and here it is we're going to install

we're going to enable then options and

now we need to go into the readvises

website to authenticate so in here I'm

going to go to read wise and I'll come

to dashboard

and here for export I already have for

this account I already have obsidian

here but if you don't you need to click

on obsidian and click connect and then

we can come back to the read-wise

official plugin settings and click

connect

and it's going to take us to the config

page inside readwise and by default the

plugin will create a folder called read

wise and inside that folder you'll have

a subfolder for books articles tweets

and podcasts and over here we can have a

custom file name and I do make a small

change here if you want you can go

through all the documentation but all I

do here is add the author followed by

title and you can see we have a preview

here on the right and then I'll leave

most of this as default but I do have my

own yaml front matter which is this so

this will just create a yaml here for

author tags and when this node was

created so then if you come back to the

plugin settings you can see we have an

option here to configure resync

frequency I'll choose the smallest that

they'll let me which is one hour but you

can also activate it manually by

pressing command P for command palette

read wise and we have the option sync

your data now and as you can see it was

already synced so over here on the left

we can see we have a readwise folder and

since we only looked up and saved

articles those two are already here as

you can see the yaml configuration was

already applied as well if you're

thinking of signing up with widthwise

now is probably the best time you could

do it because if you come here to

readwise.io read and you scroll all the

way down to the frequently asked

questions and you click on the second

one it tells you that once reader

officially exits beta we intend to

reprice read wise reader so they're

increasing the price which is fair but

they say here only for new subscribers

and they say it again this means that if

you subscribe while readers in beta

you'll get lifetime access for 7.99 and

you know read Y is not sponsoring me but

I really think this is a great deal and

in all honesty I was actually not a

read-wise subscriber until reader came

along it was a good service but it felt

more like a nice to have rather than a

need but with reader this is honestly a

no-brainer alright so that's gonna be it

for this video guys let me know what you

thought and also let me know if you

enjoyed the way I laid out the studio I

made a couple big changes and I love to

hear from you thanks for watching guys

and I'll see in the next one