The Value of Nature: Hiking in The Adirondacks

Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash

Hello players!

I spent this last weekend in the Adirondacks with the Cornell Outing Club.

Amidst the breathtaking views of the fall forest landscape, the calm waters and puffy clouds of the lakes, and the cute cozy town of Lake Placid, I realized what it is I love about the outdoors and getaways in general.

They let you turn off your analytical thinking brain.

Instead of pondering new content ideas, studying for tests, and thinking about recently read books, I let my mind enter nature.

I felt this idea most during the nightly campfires with the rest of the 40 people on the trip.

It was cold during the weekend and the campfire provided just enough warmth to make it cozy. Despite the fact that I was surrounded by people, we couldn’t see each other very well. So instead of having a conversation, I simply stood by the campfire for hours and listened to what everyone else was talking about.

It felt wonderful to turn off my consciousness and simply be.

And of course one of the best parts about doing a trip like this is coming back and experiencing all the things you missed out on while camping. Great food, showers, internet, society, etc. But my favorite thing to return to is thinking.

It’s insane how much inspiration and creativity I have after doing an excursion like this. Writing this newsletter feels so much easier than it normally does!

What I’m trying to say is everyone needs time to turn off their thinking brains. Whether your a writer, teacher, student, or something else. It could even be a simple 30 minute walk around the block.

Here’s what I would like to share this week.

📸News From The Channel!

​How I Take Book Notes in Obsidian: Compound Your Knowledge!: In this video, I explain how I use Obsidian to create book notes. I show how I use Readwise to capture highlights into my Obsidian database and take you through my workflow for crafting a book summary by creating atomic notes. I will also explain the concepts of Maps of Content (MOCs), the idea of notemaking, and the importance of creating a filter to what you capture.

​The Extended Mind (Anne Murphy Paule): For most of human history, we have ascribed to the idea that cognition is brainbound, stimuli come into our brain, and we act based on those stimuli. Extended mind theory argues that cognition isn’t bound to only our brain but rather extends itself into the outside environment. Learn more about how you can integrate this concept to live a better life by reading the summary!

​Chris Lastovicka: Expressing Creativity and Researching Shame With Obsidian: Chris Lastovicka is a web designer at Cornell University in the College of Engineering and a former musician. They use Obsidian to delve into their research interest in Buddhism, systems thinking, and emotion. We discuss the emotion of shame and how MOC creation in Obsidian could help people do research more effectively and intimately. We discuss using system thinking to create a notemaking system that sparks your creativity rather than driving it into the muck.

💡My Best Insights:

📖Book — The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: we all have a limited number of fucks to give in life. The essential dilemma of life is then deciding where to put our limited fucks. It’s important that we put those fucks in problems that we enjoy solving because we will always have problems. Solving one problem simply leads to the creation of another one. Happiness, then is not something we achieve but rather an activity of aligning our values with our actions and solving problems we find enjoyable and meaningful.

✍️Blog Post — The Zettelkasten Method: this article describes in detail how the zettelkasten method of personal knowledge management works. It describes how to do it with analog methods, how to organize it for short term and long term goals, and the mindset of transferring your zettelkasten from a previous notetaking system ot a new one.

🎙️Podcast — Reality and the Sacred by Jordan Peterson: A good life lives on the border between chaos and order. Too much order creates routine depriving your life of novel stimuli and making time pass unconsciously. Too much chaos and your life feels overwhelming and stressful. You don’t have the cognitive space to reflect and content with where you have come.

This post was originally from my newsletter Aidan’s Infinite Play. Subscribe to Aidan’s Infinite Play and you will:

• Get a curated list of my coolest learnings over the past week
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• And a personal essay in the realm of gamification, relationship psychology, or Personal Knowledge Management.