I never really write anything, but I think a lot. I can’t stop, really. In that way, I’m constantly writing.

Narrating my experience is an every day joy, but constantly forgetting what I think of haunts me. I think that’s why I’ve become so obsessed with archiving things. Archiving is the next best thing to creating. Thinking through an idea, planning it, and writing it down breathes the idea into matter - a different form of creation.

I’ve known for my entire life that my memory is horrible. The next thought after a good idea is always one of dread that I must catch the idea as it flutters about, before it escapes through one of the many open windows. Maybe if I follow any thread of energy that is willing to write anything down at all at any hour of any day, I will somehow capture enough of my own essence to satisfy it. It’s chaotic. There is no way to plan when I’m ready to write something down. I’ll have a sudden urge and I have to grab on for dear life.

Places where I catalog thoughts & ideas

• My commonplace journal
• My personal Notion
• Notes app on my phone
• This website
• A paper planner
• Instagram stories
• Text messages to friends
• Sticky notes in scattered places
• Receipts
• Pinterest boards
• Photos in my camera roll (not even marked as a ‘favorite’… 😅)

… and many more places I’m likely forgetting.

It’s organized. I swear. It’s just one large digital data doom pile that makes sense to only me. Generally, each “medium” serves a purpose and holds ideas according to their placement on the spectrum of bookmark <—> fully fledged action plan.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about this system. Especially the Notion element. It’s by far the most robust system I have that captures a lot of my refined life’s work. If I had a “Second Brain”, it would be this. I use it for all of my private ideas - craft project planning, goal planning, content ideas, etc. The list goes on.

There are a lot of fantastic things about the product - it’s probably my favorite bit of software released in the last decade. It holds the things I mentioned above really, really, really well. It meshes well with my chaos. However, there are some major concerns I have about it that I can’t ignore. I have been feeling like my personal knowledge base is too fragmented and that I need to invest in making it more holistic + scalable. Even though I’m Notion’s biggest fan, I can’t bring myself to invest any more work into the platform. We’ll get to that, though.

the Problem

Over the last year, I have invested an immense amount of time exploring what it means to document my ideas in what I’m calling my “personal knowledge ecosystem” (I’m working on it the name) and I’ve finally gotten a handle on what V1 of this looks like. After a year of all this work, I’ve identified a ton of issues with my system. This sounds like a bad thing – it’s actually very good. That means I’ve stuck with this long enough to form strong opinions.

1. Data ownership is practically nonexistent.
2. It is not easily indexable or searchable (mostly).
3. I cannot reuse that data programmatically or query it for quick results. The Notion API is too annoying.
4. All data is private, when a only relatively small amount of it has to be.
5. Notion does not spark joy for me anymore.

I’ll expand on a few of these below.

Data exists in too many places – so much redundancy.

There are 11 areas where I hold important information on that list in the introduction of this post. That’s actually just insane. My ADHD brain is overwhelmed. I think ideally I’d like 3-5 places that hold ideas according to each level of ‘refined’. It’s so hard to remember where I put things in this system, much less recall that I even have it. Well… I have a lot of tools, but I don’t necessarily have a system, I guess. Yikes.

Data ownership is practically nonexistent.

Ok, now we’re going to hate on Notion a little. I’m at the mercy of it. Not the product, but Notion Labs, the Silicon Valley Startup™️. The type of company most known for keeping data safe and secure. /s

Ok, for real though, my data can be leaked at any time by this company. That’s still true with any solution, like markdown files/Obsidian vault on a self-hosted server that my boyfriend hosts for me (tech-y couples are the best couples). In my opinion though, it’s a lot less likely to leak when set up the correct way. At least it would be my own fault at that point.

Notion’s workspace backup is just not good. It outputs markdown files that are gobblygook in a lot of places. Offline mode is sailed ghostship after many years of promises. It’s likely not possible for them to implement at this point. Plus, there’s no way to do automated backups besides just syncing to their cloud. Notion workspaces and any data on it aren’t end-to-end encrypted. The list goes on.

It’s more important than ever for us to own our data. I need to start living this practice, even if it doesn’t happen right away and takes work to get there. If I shepherd all of my data into it’s new home as a repository of self-hosted markdown files, I can have it all, babes. Even if it’s more work than downloading an aesthetic Notion template from a cool Notion Youtuber and adding in fancy blocks.

Notion does not ✨ spark joy ✨ anymore.

The Web Revival has awoken something in me that’s always been there but has finally been inspired to act.

Notion is great for productivity, companies, teams, collaboration… but my god, it’s like the sterile hospital of archiving tools. 3 font choices? 2 sizes? A limited palette of like 6 colors? Pages? Blocks? Come on. The inner machinations of my mind need to be more than that. The web, creation, the vessel that holds the information that makes up the most important things in my life… it has to be more than that. I honestly cannot say it better than Melon has.

The web revival above all else values action; we avoid perfectionism because it limits action - its better to make a messy site that inspires you to add more, than a perfect site that does not inspire you. Its better to make a site that can stay online and be maintained, instead of one that will vanish if you dont pay your bills. The web revival encourages creating and sharing things, even if they are small, broken, incomplete and Warning Under Construction - broken things can be improved, non-existent things can be nothing.

– Melon, Thoughts on the Web Revival in May 2023

The Solution

Developing moonlight-computer into my new knowledge base using markdown! Yay!

I am so invigorated by the idea that this shell of markdown files can just…be anything. I can change it to any aesthetic shell I want. I’m not limited. I have the skills to do this, so why shouldn’t I? It’s a canvas like anything else. I didn’t start coding for capitalism, even though it’s turned into that. I can write code for me. I can make something beautiful for me, even if it just so happens to be public.

I likely won’t get rid of Notion completely - I love using it for my crafting journal wayyy too much. It’s a great solution for a bunch of robust databases that require relations like my crafting journal system. That’s okay. I think having it supplement moonlight-computer instead of the other way around is tremendous step forward.

Challenges that are also kind of advantages?

1. Currently, I don’t know of a good mobile solution. Notion’s app is nice. Cloud sync is great.
   • I’m hoping i can combat this with refinement areas - like my phone’s notes app or my physical commonplace journal.
2. If I want anything more complicated than basic markdown supported blocks, I will need to code it myself.
3. This will require a lot of mental bandwidth at first.
   • I’ll need to dedicate and schedule time to focus on refining ideas to move into moonlight computer.
   • I’ll have to make decisions on if it can be public or not, and write accordingly.
4. It will take a long time. Rome was not built in a day, or something.
   • It’ll likely be another year of tinkering, but this time in the era of refinement instead of exploration.

It’s going to be challenging, of course. But I truly believe this process is going to guide me closer to living my values, allow me to own my data, and scale with my own life as I live it. All while giving me that sweet, sweet creativity again.