# DeveloPassion's Newsletter 47 - Void Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨ If you enjoy this, please forward it to your friends 👍. If this email was forwarded to you, then don’t forget to subscribe and become a supporter ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter Logo.png|DeveloPassion's Newsletter logo: lightbulb sprouting colorful idea nodes]] ## Welcome to the 47th edition Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩 This week, my family and I were tested positive for Covid. We had a good run, we avoided it for ~2 years. Not bad! Luckily we caught Omicron and haven’t suffered too much. I was apparently the most impacted in the family, with a lot of fatigue and headaches. But it’s probably because I’m a fragile little thing… 😂 I couldn’t do much work this week, but I still managed to make some things happen. I’ve finished reading [Calmer Notes](https://gumroad.com/l/VtAjF?affiliate_id=535516275) and finally started Josh Kaufman’s bestseller: [The Personal MBA](https://amzn.to/3JnOMPP). So far, so good. I love the focus that Josh puts on mental models right from the start. LINK: [[The Personal MBA (book)]] Since I had a lot of “Zombie time”, I binge-watched The Blacklist and Spielberg’s [Amazing Stories](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5165368/) (which weren’t all that amazing, unfortunately). I’ve also watched a beta version of André’s course about VS Code, and let me tell you, it’s gonna be a great one! Alright, let’s goooooo! 🚀 ## Personal Knowledge Management News The [PKM Journal](https://pkmjournal.com/) now has 20+ followers. It grows steadily, which is great. People have spent 3x more time reading our articles this week. LINK: https://pkmjournal.com The PKM community on Slack now has 90 members, and the one on Reddit now has just hit 50. To be honest I hope the growth rate will not increase too quickly. I like getting to know all the people who join us, and I like our cosy space ;-) I’ve continued expanding the [PKM Library](https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/pkm-library) this week. The list of tools now includes 185+ different ones. It’s getting scary. There are so many apps out there! In the coming weeks, I’ll add a few views to help people more easily figure out which applications correspond to their specific needs. The project was [featured by Awesome Info Products](https://x.com/AwesomeInfoProd/status/1488196100246933508) this week. Aside from that, I’ve published a small post to give [more information about the project](https://www.dsebastien.net/blog//2022-02-12-personal-knowledge-management-library), as well as an introduction video: LINK: https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/pkm-library ## focusd: Zen productivity news With constant headaches and toothaches, focusing on focusd (pun intended) was quite complicated. I decided to take some time off. YouTube Channel This week I published the video intro for the PKM Library. This was the first time I actually used my [Rode microphone and my Canon EOS 70D as a Webcam](https://www.dsebastien.net/uses). It took me a while to get started, but I’m glad about the results. The most annoying part was finding something to hide the whiteboard and board games behind me 😂. My desk is very close to the wall, so it’s difficult to decorate nicely for a YouTube channel. I’ve been thinking about hiring an interior designer, but it’s just me being unreasonable again ;-) While recording, I also realized that I lacked a script. It’s something that I will need to prepare for my future videos. Lastly, I gave up editing for this first attempt; I didn’t have the time or energy to dive into a course. ## Void Sometimes when we’re in-between the important stages of our lives, we feel like traversing [cosmic voids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_(astronomy)) (those vast spaces between filaments — the largest structures in the universe). I’ve been having this feeling of going through the void multiple times in the past. I think that this state of mind is still related to the failure of my previous startup project. As if my life was currently “on hold”, waiting for the next big thing to start. But it’s not true of course. Life goes on. Things evolve, life and circumstances change; all the time. Even if we let negative thoughts take over from time to time, those are mostly disconnected from reality. Since I’ve killed my startup, I’ve grown, I’ve built new things, launched new ideas, and even created a new human being called Raphaël. My oldest son is now 12, almost ready to go to high school, and my daughter Amandine is already 9. Time flies! It flies, and it also feels like standing still, depending on what we think about and how we feel like. It’s the weirdest thing… Whenever I lose myself thinking about the void, I quickly remind myself that the void cannot exist in isolation. The void exists so that we can distinguish concrete things in the universe. If there was no empty space between galaxies, then would those be separate? The same is probably true with our lives. There’s no before and after if there’s no gap between those “big” stages of our lives. What feels like void is actually a transition. And transitions are as important as the rest of the show. We may want to skip ahead, but we would be missing important moments. ## Recent articles This week I’ve published a new article in the PKM Journal, explaining Why it’s critical to take notes while reading non-fiction books: LINK: [[Why you should take notes while reading non-fiction books (Article)]] ## How cool is that?! This week I discovered that I could root my LG TV. I haven’t done it yet, but it’s tempting :) LINK: [YouTube AdFree | webOS Homebrew Project](https://repo.webosbrew.org/apps/youtube.leanback.v4) ## Tips of the week If you want to stop wasting time looking for files on Windows, then give Everything a try! LINK: [Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/) ## Books corner A novel that I’m eager to start reading: LINK: [[How to Stop Time (book)]] ## Board game of the week LINK: [Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon](https://www.amazon.com/Tainted-Grail-Players-Gameplay-English/dp/B09B4GPYKN) Tainted Grail is a beast. A big and hairy cooperative adventure game for 1-4 players. Difficult, narrative, and simply epic. It’s one of the best games of 2019, and it’s now [ranked 80 on BoardGameGeek](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264220/tainted-grail-fall-avalon). ## Quotes of the week - [[Writing is an insurance against ephemerality]] ## PKM Links of the week LINKk: [From Fleeting Notes to Project Notes – Concepts of "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens • Zettelkasten Method](https://zettelkasten.de/posts/concepts-sohnke-ahrens-explained/) [[Sönke Ahrens]] discusses five categories of notes: three main descriptive categories of notes: fleeting notes, permanent notes and project notes; and two subcategories of permanent notes: literature notes and Zettels. These terms are defined and discussed in this article. The latest edition of Curtis’ PKM Newsletter: LINK: [PKM Weekly for February 12 2022 – Issue 006 – Curtis McHale](https://curtismchale.ca/2022/02/13/pkm-weekly-for-february-12-2022-issue-006/) Obsidian has become one of the most popular tools in the exciting and growing category of note-taking tools called “Tools for Thought.” In this article, I want to lay out the core principles behind… LINK: [Obsidian: Understanding its Core Design Principles | by TfTHacker | Feb, 2022 | Medium](https://tfthacker.medium.com/obsidian-understanding-its-core-design-principles-7f3fafbd6e36) Recently, I attended a training on productivity at my workplace. One of the asks from the trainer to improve productivity was to have a consistent capture system (aka note-taking). I didn’t realize… LINK: [Note Taking — The Underrated Productivity Tool | by Nam Nguyen | Jan, 2022 | Personal Knowledge Management Journal](https://pkmjournal.com/note-taking-the-underrated-productivity-tool-757412f21f70?gi=8f2536bcdaad) A couple of months ago I was browsing HackerNews and came across a post about the Johnny Decimal system — A means of organising projects in a manner to how the Dewey Decimal system organises… LINK: [Johnny Decimal-ising my life. I finally got round to using the Johnny… | by Colin Wren | Medium](https://colinwren.medium.com/johnny-decimal-ising-my-life-82ee453f79a4) ## Tech Links of the week Learn how browser turn your code into functional website from high-level architecture to the specifics of the rendering pipeline. LINK: [Inside look at modern web browser (part 1) | Web | Google Developers](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/09/inside-browser-part1) A nice tutorial about how to use Bézier curves: LINK: [Learn how to use Bézier curves](https://bezier.method.ac/) Is it green? LINK: [Node.js ES2015/ES6, ES2016 and ES2017 support](https://node.green/) Chrome 98 is rolling out now! If you’ve signed up for the Auto Dark Theme origin trial, there’s a new way to opt out at a per element level. There’s now support for COLRv1, an evolution of the COLRv0 font format. And there’s plenty more. LINK: [New in Chrome 98 - Chrome Developers](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/new-in-chrome-98/) A round up of the deprecations and removals in Chrome 99 to help you plan. LINK: [Deprecations and removals in Chrome 99 - Chrome Developers](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/deps-rems-99/) LINK: - [[10 Essential Knowledge Management Methods Every Professional Should Master (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/10-essential-knowledge-management-methods-every-professional-should-master/-every-professional-should-master// LINK: - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/why-obsidian-is-all-you-need-from-simple-notes-to-complete-productivity// LINK: - [[The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Obsidian (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-obsidian// LINK: - [[Knowii Community]] - https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/knowii-community ## Related - [[Feeling a void]]