What Is This?
Second Brain
My āfirst brainā gets tired if it thinks about one thing for more than ~5 minutes, which means that the attention required to complete a full blog post is rare. Hence, this is:
- Partially a shameless ripoff of Cosma Shaliziās notebooks, and
- Partially an attempt to force Obsidian to be a Personal Information Management engine, Where Iāll post the fleeting thoughts that pop up as I read books and make connections between things š.
To some extent theyāre separated into categories, but there are two things that Obsidian+Quartz gives me that Iām hoping will help organize my otherwise-chaotic ADHD brain: Ontology and Cross-References.
Ontology
At some point between high school/beginning of undergrad, I had my mind completely blown by Object-Oriented_Programming. To me it was like, discovering the internal language that my brain had been using my whole life to store/organize information.
So far, the main issue with Obsidian is justā¦ itās designed around a bunch of Markdown (
.mdformat) files, which is great for a ton of reasons, but it just doesnāt exactly match the OOP way of thinking that fires so many serotonins in my brain. Itās the closest thing I can find, though, especially when combined with the Metadata Menu and Dataview plugins!Cross-References
Though there are a few top-level categories[^1], the exciting part is when thereās a Crossover in Categories, like my main math interest (Insolubility of the Quintic) being solved by a 20-year-old Evariste Galois, who had just recently been released from prison for his participation in the July Revolution š±. Or, even more straightforwardly, how I put Bertrand Russell in the Math category because I linked to him in the context of Axiomatization of Mathematics, but he also led a super inspiring campaign to hold the US accountable for War Crimes in Vietnam (the Russell-Sartre Tribunal)!
Iāmā¦ still figuring out how in-text citations like @wood_chechnya_2007 work, so bear with me on that part!
Top-Level Categories:
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| The_World | 54 |
| Text_Notes | 20 |
| Misc | 1 |
| Math | 11 |
| Growth | 2 |
| Art_Things | 1 |
Notebook Index
| Page | Title | Last Updated |
|---|---|---|
| @reader_africa_1999 | Africa: A Biography of the Continent | 1:32 AM - March 01, 2026 |
| @carr_mikhail_1975 | Mikhail Bakunin | 1:04 AM - March 01, 2026 |
| @williams_our_2015 | Our Enemies in Blue | 1:03 AM - March 01, 2026 |
| @kasy_means_2025 | The Means of Prediction | 6:50 PM - January 18, 2026 |
| @hacking_taming_1990 | The Taming of Chance | 6:45 PM - January 18, 2026 |
| @hare_language_1952 | The Language of Morals | 7:22 PM - December 23, 2025 |
| @wolin_politics_1960 | Politics and Vision | 7:20 PM - December 23, 2025 |
| @hodges_mexico_1983 | Mexico, 1910-1982 | 7:06 PM - December 23, 2025 |
| CunninLynguists-Brain_Cell | Brain Cell | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| CunninLynguists-Nothing_to_Give | CunninLynguists-Nothing_to_Give | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| NENE | NENE | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Teddy_Faley | Teddy Faley | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Chipmunk_Soul | Chipmunk_Soul | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Camron-Oh_Boy | Camron-Oh_Boy | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Camāron | Camāron | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| CunninLynguists | CunninLynguists | 3:37 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| ZAPU | Zimbabwe African Peopleās Union | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| ZANU | Zimbabwe African National Union | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| SWAPO | SWAPO (South West African Peopleās Organization) | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Southern_Africa | Southern Africa | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Soviet_Union | Soviet Union | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Second_Indochina_War | Second Indochina War | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Ukraine | Ukraine | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Terrorism | """Terrorism""" | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Rhodesian_UDI | Rhodesian UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Russell-Sartre Tribunal | Russell-Sartre Tribunal | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Russian_Imperialism | Russian Imperialism | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Russian_Federation | Russian Federation | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Population_Transfers | Population Transfers | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Portugal | Portugal | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Quantification | Quantification | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Office_of_Public_Diplomacy | Office_of_Public_Diplomacy | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Occupied_Namibia | Occupied Namibia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Palestine | Palestine | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Lesotho | Lesotho | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Liberia | Liberia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Namibia | Occupied Namibia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| July_Revolution | July Revolution | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Lenin | Lenin | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Lao_Peoples_Democratic_Republic | Lao Peopleās Democratic Republic | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| July_Monarchy | July Monarchy | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Italy | Italy | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Italian | Italian | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Greg_Grandin | Greg_Grandin | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Ian_Smith | Ian Smith | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Ingushetia | Ingushetia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Ghana | Ghana | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Germany | Germany | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Fidel_Castro | Fidel Castro | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| First_Chechen_War | First Chechen War | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| French_Revolution | French Revolution | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| France | France | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Cuba | Cuba | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Eswatini | Eswatini | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Decolonization | Decolonization | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Caribbean | Caribbean | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Cote dāIvoire | Cote dāIvoire | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Cold_War | Cold War | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Chechnya | Chechnya | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Anti-Apartheid_Struggle | Anti-Apartheid Struggle | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Apartheid_South_Africa | Apartheid South Africa | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Angola | Angola | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Apartheid_Rhodesia | Apartheid Rhodesia | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @wood_chechnya_2007 | Chechnya: The Case for Independence | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| African National Congress | African National Congress | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Amharic | Amharic | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @sartre_existentialism_2007 | Existentialism is a Humanism | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @runciman_treatise_1983 | A Treatise on Social Theory, Volume 1: The Methodology of Social Theory | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @wedeen_ambiguities_2015 | Ambiguities of Domination | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @horne_white_2019 | White Supremacy Confronted | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @louis_imperialism_1977 | Imperialism at Bay, 1941-1945 | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @runciman_social_1969 | Social Science and Political Theory | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @may_southern_1973 | The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @grandin_empires_2006 | Empireās Workshop | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @hacking_representing_1983 | Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @branford_lula_2005 | Lula and the Workers Party in Brazil | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| @fisher_capitalist_2009 | Capitalist Realism | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Set | Set | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Triple_quotes | Triple Quotes | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Group | Group | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Gƶdelās_Incompleteness_Theorem | Gƶdelās Incompleteness Theorem | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Insolubility_of_the_Quintic | Insolubility of the Quintic | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Object-Oriented_Programming | Object-Oriented Programming | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Principia_Mathematica | Principia Mathematica | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Alfred_North_Whitehead | Alfred North Whitehead | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Bertrand_Russell | Bertrand Russell | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Evariste_Galois | Evariste Galois | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Galois_Theory | Galois Theory | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| NENE-ć¢ćć | NENE-ć¢ćć | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| Self-Help Summer 2024 | Self-Help Summer 2024 | 3:10 AM - November 26, 2025 |
| 101 Coping Skills | 101 Coping Skills | 7:23 PM - July 05, 2025 |
| tf-idf | tf-idf | 4:42 AM - May 06, 2025 |
| What Do All The Flags Mean? | What Do All The Flags Mean? | 9:58 PM - January 04, 2025 |
| El_Salvador | El_Salvador | 4:57 AM - December 23, 2024 |