I was working long hours on another show.

It wasn’t Better Call Saul. It was a TV pilot. TV shows can be brutal.

When you start a new production, you say goodbye to your family and friends. Literally. You call them up and say, “I’m about to start a new show, so, bye!"

It’s better to let everyone know so they won’t think you disappeared.

After one month on the pilot, I was feeling that feeling again.

Scattered. Ungrounded. Floaty.

That’s the same feeling that got me started with "managing knowledge".

It’s a story you might know yourself…

First, you want to keep track of things.

You find Evernote. You start managing a tiny bit of knowledge.

Managing knowledge helps you remember more stuff. It feels good. So you spend more time doing it. You try things. You get better. You feel progress.

Then one day you connect the dots. Wait a minute! I have stuff I’m doing. And my ability at “managing knowledge” can help me do my stuff better!

And that’s enough for some people. They get more things done.

But there is more.

Hidden.

Hard to describe.

But it’s there.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true ;)

It’s a sense that you’re building something special.

Not because it helps you complete projects.

But because you have put a part of yourself into it.

It’s not a lifeless brain, in a jar, on a desk.

It’s an old friend…

After two months of 12 hour days on that TV pilot, my mind was fried. I was feeling totally disconnected from the rest of my life. Outside of work, I was not fun to be around (just ask my girlfriend).

Exercise helped. A little.

But I needed something more to truly ground my floating mind.

I needed my old friend…

My old friend has been with me for a long time. And if I take care of my old friend, it will be with me as long as anyone in my life—possibly with the exception of my family and my oldest friends from high school.

My old friend will be with me until the end.

A true digital companion.

And then it will continue to outlive me.

It will tell my story. The inner story.

Likely no one will care. But maybe a nephew or niece will find some value in it. Maybe it will help them understand themselves just a little bit better…

So after two months of overload on that TV pilot, I turned to my old friend.

In the short-term, my old friend calmed my scattered mind.

I would spend 15 minutes after work to just…wander. To fiddle around. And that was enough.

That tiny walk around the forest with digital thinking companion re-centered me.

I was able to be more present at home. Which makes me a lot more fun to be around (just ask my girlfriend).

Thanks old friend…

This part of the internet is obsessed with “projects” and “productivity”.

They would scoff at my old friend.

That’s because I tend to my old friend like a Japanese “garden master” tends to their beautiful landscape.

That’s not efficient, they say. Stop “wasting” time, they say.

They are the kind of people who speed walk through a Japanese garden.

I’m not. I explore and wander.

And yet I still “get things done”. How?

Perhaps "not all those who wander are lost"...

My old friend is my digital thinking companion.

It is special to me.

Not just because it helps me get stuff done.

But because it resembles a part of me.

My old friend laughs at the same jokes I do.

My old friend knows the same stories.

My old friend surprises me with insights and reminds me of valuable things...

Does your digital thinking companion bring you joy? Because it can.

It can bring calm too.

If you are ever feeling scattered, ungrounded, and floaty; try this: open up your digital companion and say:

“Hello, old friend.”

‍

YOUR REPLIES

​

Last week I asked "Do you even need a knowledge network?"

​

Here are a few of the reasons you gave for wanting one:

​

 * to help me improve my learning and understanding

 * to organize things the way my mind actually works

 * to have a place to expand on all of my ideas

 * to help me find past ideas and goals I had

 * to apply what I learn more effectively

​

My old friend is special to me largely because it's a robust network of

knowledge.

​

If it was just a bunch of project folders, it wouldn't be my old friend.

​

Let's spend a moment to admire the Webb telescope, which just sent us it's first

images last week. I threw my network of knowledge over the top for fun:

​

‍

​

Stay connected,

​

Nick

​

PS: I think of my network of knowledge as my "old friend". But the clearest,

simplest and most accurate way to describe it is to call it my "digital thinking

companion". I will talk more about this later.

​

​

​

👣 A LYT footnote 🎵

​

The noise 🗑 is deafening. I promise to focus on the signal 🌿. For me, the

signal is high-value, evergreen stuff like:

• how to think better and with more joy
• how to be a better note-maker instead of just a note-taker
• getting past the shiny surface and asking the deep questions
• spotlighting 🔦 people and ideas that have stood the test of time ✨