Building my second brain on Obsidian
The Monday Newsletter
Summer 2024 I bought my first journal. I was visiting my parents in Columbia, MD [unbeknownst to me I’d end up moving there in six months] and after swinging by Target, I picked up a wire-bound mole-skin journal that would house my deepest thoughts for the next six months. The entire concept of journaling was kind of new to me. I’d tried to do the diary entries as a kid, but the formulaic nature of them dissuaded me from keeping up. With my internet dopamine-addled Gen Z brain, I am a creature of novelty, craving an array of stimuli to push the right buttons to make the insides of my skull go brrrr! Something that I found was destroying my creativity. The constant barrage of information left my brain exhausted and unable to keep up. I needed something different.
Upon my foray into journaling, I opted for the framework of a “commonplace book.” My notes were free-form, sometimes containing doodles, jotted down into invisible boxes that turned the pages a quilted patchwork of different ideas, bordered by half-inches of white space to differentiate which was which. It was a way for me to unplug from the world and reconnect with me. I wrote whatever came to my mind, and shocked myself with how much easier it was to figure things out when my ideas sat in front of me. I felt as if I was coming to know myself in a new way. My best nights were spent riding out edibles and exploring the limits of my consciousness, my words on paper evidence of my truth.
At the cusp of 2025 I completed my first journal, and then bought a second one. This time with an outer shell made of harder, stronger paper, and the pages neatly woven into the spine. I finished it by the end of March, and bought my third journal. With an illustration of wetland flowers coating the exterior and a turquoise ribbon used as a page-keeping bookmark. But as I wrote and wrote and wrote, and the blisters on my hand grew larger [because pen and paper is not nearly as forgiving on my skin as the keyboard], I ran into a bit of a snafu.
Journaling, my brain was on overdrive, dumping information onto the page. But my mind ran faster than my hands could legibly write prose, and keeping up with my own flow of ideas left me fatigued. Too fatigued to write, really. Then, of course, was the fact that it was all on paper, chronologically. I couldn’t easily refer back to key insights or concepts the way I wanted to, and if I really needed to, it’d take me five minutes of flipping through old journal entries to find a page. It wasn’t sustainable.
I noticed that I was struggling to write. In esoteric spiritual practices, the throat chakra sits at the base of the neck. While the heart chakra governs emotions, and the third eye chakra governs ideas, the throat chakra is the bridge between the internal and external world. It’s the mechanism for self-expression, for voice, for writing. And my throat Chakra was blocked AF. I couldn’t write. I had ideas, sure. Feelings? Impressions? Absolutely! But they never amounted to anything. I’d feel a spark of inspiration flickering in my chest only to find it snuffed out quicker than I could open my laptop to type. I needed a way to fuel that fire.
Then, I found Obsidian. It’s a digital note-taking app which uses a system of tags and mentions to tie together different notes to create, essentially, a second brain. Right now, mine looks a little something like this.
Here’s how it works. I take a note and then I assign certain tags to it. Later, when I go to the tags, I find a comprehensive list of everything I’ve ever talked about with that tag on it. Over time, this creates a database of all of my notes and perspectives on different areas of interest. As I absent-mindedly jot things down, like I would in my journal, about whatever crosses my mind, I’m actually building up with a wealth of information from, by, and for me. My own note-taking, without my realizing it, organizes itself into the bases of different projects.
I’ve only been using it for a week, but I’ve already felt the benefit. My hot takes, quick notes and logged chats with my tarot deck about life are weaving together to create a portrait of my inner world reflected back at me. Little nudges of ideas about creative projects come together to form real foundations for things I want to write. Before I know it, I have the bones for an article or an essay in front of me.
It’s not perfect. No note-taking system is a match for the depth of the human brain. But it has allowed me to throw some logs into the fire. My flickering spark has grown into a steady flame. Hopefully soon, I’ll have something to share of her beauty.
Latest Read: Absolute Batman - Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta
Scott Snyder has been without a doubt the defining voice of the greatest stories DC Comics has told in the 21st century [Court of Owls, Zero Year, Drowned Earth, Death Metal]. Now he has done it again, reinventing Batman for the Age of Aquarius. Bruce Wayne is not a billionaire playboy this time, but a working class man whose father’s life was taken when he was 10 during a mass shooting. A new type of crime, where violence is not a means to an end but the whole point. Years pass and now Gotham is overtaken with the Party Animals; everyday Gotham citizens paid in crypto for the violence they commit. Terrorism meets the gig economy, and just like in every version of Batman, a new kind of crime births a new kind of crime-fighter: An idealist. Batman has gone Luigi Mangione. Fighting to give the people hope for something more in a broken world. Absolute Batman is the world of superhero comics integrating late-stage capitalism. The concept of a superhero updated for the current day; a completely new meaning as we watch the fall of America.
Latest Watch: American Crime Story: Impeachment
Seen by many simply as a saucy sex scandal, the Bill Clinton impeachment was a turning point in American politics. “American Crime Story: Impeachment” details how a loosely-knit network of conservative professionals worked their asses off with the goal of removing the sitting democratic President; and the fact that it almost worked. This was a major escalation of partisan political aggression from the right, and directly set up a long-game heist that ended with the 2025 MAGA takeover of the government. Bill Clinton’s impeachment set the stage for 21st century politics, and its echoes can still be heard now. This scandal set the stage for Hillary Clinton’s senatorial career and 2016 Presidential campaign. This scandal saw very guy’s “worst fear” becoming a false rape accusation. Which, to be clear, Bill totally [ALLEGEDLY!!] did that shit. Yet at its core, this story was an invasion of the intimate life of what was then a very young woman. And here-in lies the show’s greatest success: It’s deeply empathetic portrayal of Monica Lewinsky. Not as a seductive vixen or obsessive stalker, but as a young woman whose life was destroyed by the public. Whose only crime was not yet knowing all she deserved from love, and saying yes to the wrong guy.
Latest Listen: Something To Give Each Other - Troye Sivan
Spring is here! When I leave the house I’m greeted with the warmth of the shining sun, the cherry blossoms blooming, and fields of flowers abounding with nature’s abundance. I’m feeling the Rush! My sad weepy winter listening habits have shifted to pop princess behavior in a way that can only be achieved by warm weather. I find myself suddenly anxious for movement; happy to be alive. No album scratches that itch in my brain to make my dopamine receptors dance quite like Troye Sivan’s 2023 album, “Something To Give Each Other.” In fact, shortly after its release I wrote a blog post inspired by it: The Queer Sex Anthem Essay. The essay is a treasure trove of bad writing habits that I used to frequent, but I still stand behind all opinions expressed. There is an audience for raunchy, sweaty, gay pop, and it’s me. I may be a woman now with self-respect and mounds of flesh sitting on my chest, but deep down I’m still just a fag. And when I hear the chorus to “One of Your Girls”… What can I say? I feel seen.