Articles

Set Up a Minimal Obsidian Vault with this step-by-step beginner guide to notes, Daily Notes, properties, templates, backlinks, search, and Bases.

Here's how to reverse-engineer an obsidian workflow from an expected outcome.

The basis behind an Obsidian vault that actually works for you is that it’s designed around solving problems, not for the sake of making it look good. Here's how to build an obsidian workflow to do just that.

When you download a ready-made Obsidian vault and start using it, it will eventually have to adapt to what you want to achieve with a personal knowledge management system. And when that happens, no matter how clean and organized someone else’s workspace seems at first, it can quickly become a mess. The more pages, databases, dashboards, plugins, and workflows it comes with, the messier it may become for you. Instead, it’s far more productive and time-saving to build a simple Obsidian workspace from scratch and add complexity only when you actually need it.

Why am I so risk averse? Learn what drives risk aversion and use a seven-step process to take smarter, more calculated risks without being reckless.

The competence trap is continuing to do something we don’t really like simply because we have all the skills for it, rather than focusing on what we like, even if we’re not that good at it yet.

What does risk-averse mean? Learn how risk aversion plays a major role in everyday decision-making, when it’s useful, and how it can help us make better decisions.

How to read a non-fiction book with a clear goal, skim with intent, take useful notes, and turn the best ideas into real-life action.

A practical guide on how to choose the right nonfiction books to read and avoid shallow takeaways.

Here's how to find your strengths using evidence from psychology: interest, ability, feedback, practice, and fit, instead of relying on vague self-reflection.

Should I do a PhD? It seems like a rather simple question to ask yourself, but if you dive into it, you'll find that it's a lot more complicated than you anticipated.

How to take notes in college with practical strategies that help you understand lectures, revise faster, and prepare for exams with confidence.

A complete guide to the 48 Laws of Power, with notes, favorite quotes, and practical lessons from every law.

Are multiple intelligences tests worth it? Learn how to use Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences as a guide for finding your core strengths and building a better-fitting career.

Even though your email to a potential supervisor is well crafted, you might not get a reply right away. But, if you know the ins and outs of writing a follow-up email to a potential supervisor, you can quickly turn things around.

A personal guide to the best dystopian books, comparing 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Giver, and The Dispossessed by the different ways each book warns about oppression.

Learn how to find your core strengths for your career by looking beyond job titles and passion toward the patterns of attention, learning, energy, tolerance, contribution, and environment.

“Follow your passion” is too vague to guide a career. A better alternative is to follow your contribution: to ask what your strengths can become useful for in the world under real conditions.

A practical guide to the 48 laws of power that organizes the laws by career stage, power type, and everyday use so the book becomes easier to understand and apply.

A good personal knowledge management system isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that gives you lasting leverage, fits how you actually think, and keeps working when life gets messy.

Researching potential graduate programs is one of the most important parts of the application process. Here is how to do it well.

Follow your passion sounds inspiring, but it is weak career advice. This post explains why follow your passion fails, what it gets wrong about work and identity, and how to build toward real career fit instead.

Career fit is not just about matching skills to jobs. This post shows a better way to think about career fit through your core strengths, the external forces acting on them, and the long-term alignment that follows.

Do you actually need a personal knowledge management system? Here’s what 10+ years of building one taught me about what actually works.

The apps we use shape who we are. Obsidian comes up frequently in conversations about personal knowledge management for this very reason, and here's why it deserves that attention.

Ikigai meaning is best understood in its most traditional sense: that which makes life worth living. It's not a framework or a career plan, but rather the ordinary, everyday things that make someone feel alive. It's plural, personal, and already present in our lives right now. It describes a reason to live.

I switched to a Kindle-first reading system for one reason: less friction. In this Kindle vs physical books breakdown, I share my digital workflow, the devices I use, and how I export highlights into Obsidian to get the most out of every book I read.

How to build a productive morning routine that actually fits grad school, starting with "Step Zero".

Learn how to find research papers quickly using the workflow I built in my PhD: seed papers, Google Scholar + Scopus, citation mapping tools, and alerts.

Knowing how to organize research papers is a superpower for graduate students. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Here's a short list of risk management books that help you think clearly about uncertainty; in life, money, and work

Choosing one or two colors for a scientific presentation from the one million colors accessible will always be difficult. Here's a simple three-step process to find the best colors for your next presentation.

How many books should you read at once? Here's my personal three-book system that helps me read 50+ a year and enjoy each one of them.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a no-nonsense guide to understand how the world really works. Here are 10 most powerful 48 laws of power quotes and their interpretations.

Here are 30 lessons I learned from life itself and/or from somebody else.

Explore how loss aversion influences consumer buying decisions and everyday choices, and learn practical strategies to make smarter decisions.

Most PhD supervisor emails fail before they’re even written. This post explains a research-first strategy for emailing PhD supervisors that gets replies and opens doors to your dream program.

Learn how strategic quitting helps you read more by teaching you to pick better books and abandon the wrong ones deliberately.

This is a complete Sony A6000 series camera setup guide for street photography.

The opposite of risk-averse isn’t reckless, it’s strategic. Discover how understanding your risk preferences can improve decisions, reduce regret, and unlock new opportunities.

Why fiction matters more than non-fiction, and how to make time to read both.

Discover the key differences between loss aversion vs risk aversion. Learn how loss aversion drives fear of losing what you have, while risk aversion avoids uncertainty.

In this blog post, discover how to read more using a decade-tested system that turns small pockets of a busy day into reading time.

Is the “4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratio” debate settled? Is 4:3 outdated, and how to use both ratios for maximum impact in your next PowerPoint presentation?

Discover a simple, practical framework to remember what you read, designed for people with busy lives.

So, you’ve just received another dreaded “We regret to inform you” email. Here are the most common reasons PhD applications get rejected, and how you can avoid them to improve your chances of getting in.

How did Andy Weir cram so much hard science into the novel Project Hail Mary and still make it a story that everybody loves?

Discover how black and white photography can elevate your street photography game. Learn why shooting black and white sharpens your eye and lets you tell better stories.

Learn how to find a good book to read, using ratings, recommendations, and proven strategies to choose books that perfectly match your taste.

So, you need to write an email a potential supervisor, but don’t know where to start? It can feel overwhelming to figure out what to say and how to manage all the back-and-forth. This post will help with all that.

Discover how price floors impact your daily life - from minimum wages to market prices.

Struggling with note-taking apps? Discover how I built a personal knowledge management system that finally works.

Explore the key differences between risk appetite and risk tolerance. Learn how these concepts shape decision-making in real life.

Struggling to choose an academic supervisor? Here’s how to find the right one for your success.

Discover how risk aversion shapes our choices in work and life. These real life risk aversion examples will show you how to spot when caution holds you back and make smarter, braver decisions that help you grow.

It's never easy to pick the best font for a scientific presentation. However, spending some time picking the correct font for your next presentation would not be a waste of time.