Vin Varma’s thoughtful notes on his note-taking process.
As my understanding deepens, it naturally precipitates into action.
Projects start to emerge at various scales.
The form follows the understanding. As confusion decreases, experimentation naturally increases.
For collaborative projects, crystallization takes on another dimension. My role often becomes directional, translating insights and patterns into clear documentation or prototypes that guides team decisions.
Also worth observing his latest workflow merging Obsidian and Claude, on Greg Isenberg’s recent podcast.
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April 11, 2025 • # Messy worksspaces as buffers for fast retrieval.
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Low-tech dictation is a new technique I’ve adopted for creativity.
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August 1, 2024 • # Thinking through dictating your ideas.
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May 11, 2023 • # On the flexibility to change your mind.
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April 28, 2023 • # How ecosystems are smarter than we are.
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October 31, 2022 • # A card deck to help spark creativity.
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September 20, 2022 • # Sometimes the best way to find a breakthrough on a problem is to do the simplest thing, not necessarily the cleanest, best, or most complex.
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September 2, 2022 • # Seek out simple solutions over complex ones.
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August 30, 2022 • # A memo chock full of insights from Sam 'Trust the Process' Hinkie.
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August 29, 2022 • # The power of second-order thinking, and being more probabilistic.
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November 12, 2021 • # On atomic notes and how they encourage generating new ideas.
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March 2, 2021 • # On getting out of your normal work environment to spur creative thinking.
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October 19, 2020 • # Downtime as a critical context for deep thinking.
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October 8, 2020 • # David Perell on intellectual phase transitions.
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August 16, 2020 • # Kahlil Corazo reviews a plethora of techniques and thinking frameworks for going from ideas to reality with your work.
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May 31, 2020 • # A deep look at how the Zettelkasten note-taking system works.
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May 28, 2020 • # Thinking about a 'digital garden' for evergreen notes.
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May 23, 2020 • # ✦
May 9, 2020 • # American industrial production, why we bikeshed, and an app for glyphs.
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May 6, 2020 • # Roam as a tool for knowledge synthesis.
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April 15, 2020 • # A dive into Roam Research and how it fits into my workflow so far.
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March 27, 2020 • # Sarah Constantin compares Roam to Vannevar Bush's memex.
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March 23, 2020 • # Roam Research as a tool for networked thought.
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March 21, 2020 • # ✦
March 8, 2020 • # A framework for analyzing product ideas by simulating your path through the maze.
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March 7, 2020 • # Tagging data with Turf, Curiosity high-res photo, and different kinds of easy.
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February 21, 2020 • # ✦
December 21, 2019 • # Ubiquity of tradeoffs, outsiders vs. insiders, and FAQs as a tool for goal setting.
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November 20, 2019 • # Rory Sutherland on changing your mind as a virtue in business.
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September 19, 2019 • # On the power of starting with no baggage, sunk costs, or past poor decisions.
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August 3, 2019 • # Universal laws of the world, Tandem for live collaboration in Slack, and the forward march of vision for computers.
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July 18, 2019 • # Slate Star Codex thoughts on biases.
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June 17, 2019 • # A book review becomes a great insight into how the brain works.
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May 28, 2019 • # Occam's razor and when to avoid oversimplification.
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May 24, 2019 • # Long-term investments and the potential of the 'Adjacent Possible'.
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May 13, 2019 • # Morgan Housel's framework for scales of confidence.
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May 6, 2019 • # Shane Parrish and Sam Harris discuss mental models.
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April 20, 2019 • # Planning runs, Vannevar Bush on the future of thinking, and best practices for remote work.
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April 13, 2019 • # The brain storing native language, Joe's work on hillshading, and living antifragility.
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April 4, 2019 • # On writing memos for meetings at Amazon.
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March 30, 2019 • # NSF program using Fulcrum Community, playing long games instead of short ones, and how AirPods are like the iPod.
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March 28, 2019 • # A quote from Marcus Aurelius.
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March 16, 2019 • # Shane Parrish's archive of mental models, visualizing git history, and page templates for Notion.
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March 12, 2019 • # A great piece from Shane Parrish on the degradation of trust in subject matter expertise.
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