*A narrative post documenting my information stack and tools behind it* Original Published Date : 23-07-2023 ***** ## Beginning I have reached the current stack after running a version of it for the last 8 years now. It started with using RSS (Really simple syndication) which is a feed update protocol. The podcasts of the world have been running on this protocol for decades now. My time with them started around 2013-2014. I set up an account on [Feedly](https://feedly.com) and started adding sites to it. Every site hosted on Wordpress, ghost or any other blogging platform has a built in feed / RSS capability. Even the recent phenom, substack, has a RSS feed for every newsletter. My habit of reading started back in college itself, circa 2011, but there was no cataloguing system as such. Feedly had a read later functionality that could save the article from the web as well. In the beginning, most of the feeds were different verticals of [Verge](https://verge.com) and [Techmeme](https://techmeme.com/) site. You could call this stage of my set up to be focused on feeds of publications. I was a news junkie at that time. Subscribed to all the news sites through RSS. ### Why I stuck with it? It was a personal choice. Algorithmically defined feeds were not acceptable for me. I wanted to read every article and decide for myself if it's relevant for me. The most engaged content may not be relevant to me, most times. In the end, it worked out well, but it can also be my own bias due to the nature of domains I inhabit, logistics and agriculture. You need a reader app and feed service. In my case, [NetNewsWire](https://netnewswire.com/) and Feedly are the reader app and feed service I use, respectively. ### Forming a network I joined Twitter in 2014. But, did a hard reset around the same time I started getting serious with managing feeds, 2016. Reset comprised of starting to use it with ”Lists”. It was always there. I happened to stumbled into it. But it kind of shaped the way I use Twitter even to this day. I will let M.G Seigler who is also a fellow Twitter Lists user explain the essence of “Lists”. [Twitter had made lists great again](https://500ish.com/twitter-has-made-lists-great-again-79fa003220d9) > Twitter lists, when curated well, tap into this power, cutting through most of the noise. Again, it’s not the sexy new product. It’s a decidedly old one. ![[Twitter’s List Feature.png]] The collective minds of people are smarter than your own. This was my learning after coming to know of people who are pursuing their interests in each of their fields. My lists feature every domain / vocation I have dabbled as a founder and operator. I have benefited immensely from so many people that I follow over here. They tweet articles, papers and personal knowledge. I got good at curating people in these lists over the time. The rule I follow to manage these lists is to cull the people who are no more relevant or move them to different lists if they have changed what they tweet. All my lists are private. The people in those lists are not notified on being added to my lists. Else, when you create lists , public is the default option. Then, they are informed that they are part of your list. The reason behind why my lists are private is to not cause any discomfort to the people I follow. For example, folks in “Different List” are normal people who talk about different topics. The lack of context can cause a lot of irritation to folks who are added to the list. Hence, the decision to keep them private. ### Categorising and Cataloging Categorising all the blogs and their feeds that I stated following has helped me immensely. My current view of RSS Reader app, [Reeder 5](https://reeder.app). I have 800+ feeds subscribed over there, but many are dormant. ![[Reeder App_Screenshot.jpeg]] All substack(s) I follow are subscribed through the RSS feed for me. This makes me an invisible follower to all my favourite writers. Article once read but, will be referred later will go into a [Trello](trello.com) board. I keep sending articles to people, and one of the ways I can do it quickly is when I have them catalogued. The reason behind Trello as it has a beautiful share card functionality on both iOS and Android. ![[Trello_Screenshot_Knowledgehub.jpeg]] ### Audio Explosion: New Channel of consumption Podcasts exploded into the scene around 2018. If you have been following my past writing. The origin of my foray into agri-space is attributed to one episode of a [podcast](https://buttondown.email/ontheside/archive/stumbling-into-founding-a-venture/). I follow a couple of them but only listen to a few shows very diligently. Current stack is filled with podcasts of Supply chain and logistics. ![[IMG_2866.jpeg]] ## Remixing : Building a Wiki In the course of 8 years. The people I follow on Twitter, blogs on RSS and articles in catalogue have compounded significantly. Additionally, I have become a fully functioning operator. Moreover, from just a content consumer, turned into a writer. I wrote in a previous post while talking about my [change in writing](https://buttondown.email/ontheside/archive/the-change-in-my-writing/) > The major shift I see in my writings is the approach. I now write from a lens of an operator. I believe when you practice something and write about it, the chances to it being helpful to the reader are higher because it scores high in  [believability](https://commoncog.com/believability/). So, many of the articles that I read are absorbed and put to use. And once I do that. I have notes on them. This led to a new usecase of [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md). It helps me make notes on reference articles and interlink across domain and time-space. [Tiago Forte](https://twitter.com/fortelabs) is the pioneer on building second brain. In essence, it is building a personal wiki intermixed with your notes on reference document. His [PARA](https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/) method is a good place to start if you are intrigued. This is also information because I spend sufficient time cleaning, rewriting and updating notes. Each time, I am updating my priors and learning something new. At some point you will reach a stage where reading newer articles will not be enough. There is only so much you can read “What is design” or “How to do product management” or some other domain. Its then that you need to rely on your own experience of having implemented advice and start recording it. For example, my reading [Derek Siver’s](https://sivers.com/) post on Checlist Manifesto when intermixed with System’s thinking helped me develop my own [product development workflow](https://vsvivek.in/buttondown.email/Understandings+Systems+at+work). Such interconnecting and layering of notes helps me gain newer information. The inspiration of this all comes from this very famous essay, [Reality has a surprising amount of detail ](http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail). John, writer of the post, talks with few relevant examples to answer an important question. > … why its so easy for people to end up intellectually stuck. Even when they’re literally the best in the world in their field. Just consuming information for me reached a level of intellectual stalemate. With the practice of wiki building, I am learning more. Current state of my interconnected mind map, titled “Graph View”. A lot of orphan nodes. ![[Gaph View of Wiki.jpeg]] ### Few words of advice Any system that we build. We need to continue to use it for some initial time before it starts producing outcomes. Optimise information for an outcome. What is the reason you want to process information. Make it clear for yourself. For me, it is to up-skill myself through an unstructured maze of resources. Traditional curriculum reading didn’t suit me. So, I have built this convoluted and diverse source of feeds to just get by. Need not be the same for you. All of this is possible if you have an interest to read at length, and online. I have been made aware that it is not the dominant mode of media consumed online. If you want to be part of this minority, this could help you get started. **** Tag: #ontheside #published #information #PoV