Quiet Frontier

Leading or Being Led?

Video (MM:SS): If you’ve ever felt pushed, rushed, distracted, or redirected by the very tools meant to help you, this reflection is about getting your attention back. I walk through a few practical, low-drama shifts you can make so your tech supports your priorities instead of quietly reshaping them. Watch the video above, and if it resonates, consider subscribing for more Quiet Frontier reflections.

Transcript

00:00:08 Welcome to The Quiet Frontier. You know,

00:00:12 I’ve been thinking a lot about technology

00:00:14 lately and the way it impacts my life, the

00:00:18 way it’s changed certain aspects of my

00:00:20 life, and I think that kind of holds true

00:00:22 for all of us. We’ve all experienced those

00:00:24 changes, some better, some worse, but

00:00:28 regardless of how you look at it, some

00:00:32 tools of technology change what you do.

00:00:35 They change how you think, and depending

00:00:38 on how you use them, those changes can

00:00:42 either move you forward or they can steer

00:00:45 you right off course. So, I’ve been

00:00:49 thinking a lot about that lately,

00:00:50 especially with the note-taking app I’ve

00:00:53 been using. It’s called Obsidian for

00:00:55 anybody who’s not familiar with it. A lot

00:00:57 of people are familiar with it. It’s a

00:00:58 very popular note-taking app, and a lot of

00:01:01 people use it, and it’s great. There’s a

00:01:04 lot of other apps out there that are quite

00:01:05 similar to it, but this one is the one

00:01:08 that I kind of fell into using, and I’ve

00:01:11 been using it fairly regularly, and I’ve

00:01:12 been really thinking about the progression

00:01:16 of my use over time as I’ve integrated

00:01:20 that application more and more into my

00:01:22 daily workflow and my daily life. And I’ve

00:01:26 watched a ton of videos about note-taking

00:01:31 apps in general, Obsidian in particular,

00:01:34 and most of them talk about second brains,

00:01:40 things like Zettelkasten, the Para method,

00:01:45 or they give long, huge lists of plugins

00:01:48 that you can use with the app. And I did

00:01:53 try some of that, especially at first when

00:01:55 I started to use Obsidian. But I found out

00:01:59 it wasn’t for me. At one point, I had nine

00:02:03 or ten plugins that I was working with in

00:02:06 Obsidian. Now I’m down to using two

00:02:09 plugins. Because once I realized that I

00:02:14 was tinkering with the system so much, and

00:02:18 I was doing it all a lot more than I was

00:02:20 actually doing any work. So I knew

00:02:23 something was off. And what I realized is

00:02:27 the tool is only valuable if it actually

00:02:31 reduces friction for you. If it adds

00:02:34 friction, it’s just a way to

00:02:37 procrastinate. So this isn’t going to be a

00:02:41 tutorial. I’m not going to be showing any

00:02:45 information about the plugins I use or how

00:02:48 to use Obsidian. It’s a note-taking app.

00:02:51 It’s pretty straightforward. And as you

00:02:54 build your note-taking and you build your

00:02:57 notes and your folders and everything else

00:03:00 in Obsidian, a flow will emerge that works

00:03:04 for you. You just have to trust yourself

00:03:07 on that. Obsidian is a reflection tool.

00:03:11 It’s something to support your goals.

00:03:15 Tools can also serve to quietly get in the

00:03:18 way of your goals if you allow that to

00:03:21 happen. So before I started using

00:03:24 Obsidian, and one of the reasons I

00:03:25 continue to use it, my notes were

00:03:28 scattered. They were everywhere. Half the

00:03:30 time I couldn’t find them. They were on

00:03:32 little sticky notes that I’d lay around

00:03:33 the house. And they were in various

00:03:36 notebooks. And sometimes I’d jot something

00:03:39 down on a napkin. There was stuff

00:03:41 everywhere. And I just was never able to

00:03:44 find anything I needed. So it was just a

00:03:47 bunch of random files. Even my computer,

00:03:50 the file folders were disorganized. The

00:03:53 names were inconsistent. I didn’t know

00:03:56 where I put stuff. It was a lot of mental

00:03:58 clutter. I had information, but it was

00:04:02 everywhere. And it was also nowhere. So I

00:04:05 didn’t choose Obsidian because it was

00:04:07 hyped. Because there was a lot of, you

00:04:10 know, videos about it. And people saying

00:04:13 how great it was. It really, honestly, it

00:04:15 just happened to be the very first thing

00:04:17 that crossed my radar. When I started

00:04:19 looking at note-taking apps. And I needed

00:04:23 it for class notes. I teach some classes.

00:04:25 And I needed a way to track the notes that

00:04:29 I use for those classes as I develop ideas

00:04:32 and presentations for the classes. So it

00:04:35 worked. And I just kept on using it. Then

00:04:40 my notes started to grow into other areas

00:04:44 that I was interested in. Technology,

00:04:46 consciousness, society, history. And the

00:04:51 vault, the Obsidian vault, the storage

00:04:54 area for my notes, it started to just turn

00:04:57 into a big tangle of loose ideas. They

00:05:01 were just scattered everywhere. Maybe one

00:05:03 or two folders. So I tried to organize it.

00:05:07 And in hindsight, that was a huge mistake.

00:05:11 Because the more I tried to fit my

00:05:14 thoughts into the elaborate systems, the

00:05:17 Zettelkasten systems and the Parra method

00:05:20 and all of those things that are out

00:05:22 there, the further I actually started to

00:05:26 drift from the ideas themselves. So

00:05:30 eventually I stopped forcing it. I went

00:05:33 back to simply just writing my thoughts

00:05:34 down. No structure, no grand plan, just

00:05:38 notes with ideas, notes with concepts. And

00:05:42 over time, something really interesting

00:05:44 happened. A structure started to emerge

00:05:47 anyway. And it wasn’t because of any

00:05:50 method, any second brain type of

00:05:55 methodology that I was using. It was

00:05:58 because I had a goal. Those notes had

00:06:01 eventually emerged into a goal-focused

00:06:05 idea. And that idea was Quiet Frontier,

00:06:08 the website. That’s what came first,

00:06:10 quietfrontier.com. Then that emerged into

00:06:15 the Quiet Frontier wiki that I’m still

00:06:18 developing and will hopefully be open to

00:06:21 the public fairly soon. I’m really kind of

00:06:24 finishing the final touches on that. So

00:06:28 Obsidian naturally adapted to those goals.

00:06:33 The system wasn’t built from templates and

00:06:37 it wasn’t built from theories. It grew

00:06:40 organically. It evolved. And it evolved

00:06:43 from a sense of purpose. Trying to explain

00:06:48 that process, it’s kind of like trying to

00:06:50 explain how you think. When something

00:06:53 becomes second nature, it almost just

00:06:56 disappears. You don’t notice it anymore.

00:06:59 That’s a good tool. People talk about

00:07:03 second brains all the time, but I’ve never

00:07:06 ever really liked that term. It kind of

00:07:09 suggests that the tool is where the

00:07:11 originality comes from. And it’s not.

00:07:15 Obsidian or any other note-taking app,

00:07:18 they don’t create ideas. You do that. A

00:07:22 better concept really than the second

00:07:25 brain concept is something called the

00:07:27 extended mind. It’s the idea that tools

00:07:31 and the interactions we have with tools

00:07:34 and with technology really does shape how

00:07:38 we think. And what it really does is helps

00:07:41 us to outsource the parts of our thought

00:07:45 processes that don’t require innovation,

00:07:49 ingenuity, creativity. It helps us to put

00:07:54 those in areas that we can kind of

00:07:57 outsource those thought tasks, the

00:08:01 maintenance tasks, and things like that,

00:08:03 so that we can focus on the creative

00:08:06 aspects and the inventive aspects and the

00:08:09 innovative aspects of what we’re trying to

00:08:12 accomplish. But within that concept of the

00:08:16 extended mind, the idea that tools are an

00:08:19 extension of our thought process is also a

00:08:24 warning. Think about the scene from the

00:08:28 series The Office where Michael drives

00:08:31 into a lake because the GPS told him to

00:08:34 turn. Very funny episode. But that’s where

00:08:39 the warning is, too. Tools can really be

00:08:43 helpful to us, especially technology

00:08:45 tools, until we start letting them think

00:08:47 for us. Technology doesn’t just support

00:08:53 our thinking. It can reshape it. That can

00:08:57 be really helpful. When your goals are

00:08:59 clear and when you have focused

00:09:02 objectives, the shaping of our thinking

00:09:05 can be very refining at that point. It can

00:09:08 help us focus. It can help us have

00:09:10 clarity. But when we don’t have those

00:09:14 clear goals, when we don’t have those

00:09:16 clear objectives, it can be completely

00:09:19 paralyzing. Trying to mold your mind

00:09:23 around someone else’s second brain method

00:09:26 is just another way of driving into the

00:09:29 lake because the system said so. There’s

00:09:33 no wrong tools. There’s no wrong

00:09:36 technology. There’s only tools that get

00:09:39 used in the wrong way. The right tool will

00:09:43 lower the friction, ease the path, and

00:09:46 make things smoother as you try to

00:09:49 accomplish your goals. It lets your mind

00:09:51 do the real creative work. The wrong tool,

00:09:55 or the wrong use of a tool, I should say.

00:09:58 There’s really not such a thing as a wrong

00:09:59 tool. The wrong use of a tool replaces

00:10:03 thought with compliance. Compliance to the

00:10:07 system. Compliance to the rules of

00:10:11 thinking that are dictated by the system.

00:10:15 Everybody’s heard that phrase, the

00:10:17 computer won’t let me. Whether it’s in a

00:10:19 checkout line or whether it’s on a

00:10:21 customer service line or in some other

00:10:24 capacity, it’s become the modern day

00:10:27 excuse for inaction. The computer won’t

00:10:31 let me. That’s the hidden danger. It’s a

00:10:36 perfect example of how the tools can

00:10:40 become the master. We build the tools, and

00:10:44 then quietly, slowly, they start to

00:10:47 reshape us. They start shaping how we

00:10:50 think. They start shaping who we are, our

00:10:52 very identities. So, tools shape our

00:10:57 thinking, for better or for worse. If this

00:11:00 all resonated with you, feel free to

00:11:02 subscribe, or visit Quiet Frontier for

00:11:05 more reflections that are similar to this.

00:11:08 If you have a tool that has been quietly

00:11:11 becoming part of your thinking, whether

00:11:13 it’s for the good or for the bad, I’d love

00:11:15 to hear about it in the comments. Thanks

00:11:18 so much for watching. I appreciate it.

00:11:21 Take good care.