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PTPL 063 · Your Obsidian Graph is Not Your Compass

Plus a trick for horizontal rules in Markdown, and habit-stacking a secret code

Connections in action are a better compass than the Obsidian graph view. Also horizontal rules in Markdown that don’t turn the next line into a header, and habit-stacking a new-to-me way of writing English.


The right kind of connections—not your Obsidian graph—are your compass

I rarely visit my Obsidian graph, but when I do …I like it to look like this:

Black ink on a light grey background. Abstract lines and shapes in a roughly circular shape, surrounded by a heavy, uneven border. Looking closely, one believes they can see shapes in the mass that represent objects in the real world, such as eyes, a woman, buildings, a ship. Kleine Welten VIII (Small Worlds VIII), print, Vasily Kandinsky (MET, 31.10.15), Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1931


What do you get if you cross a dad joke with modern art? Kandinsky’s map of my PKM by Alex Qwxlea, (qwxlea) that’s what! Love it.

I’m not into the eye-rolling post-bashing that some indulge in when enthusiastic Obsidianites air their PKM maps in public, but I’m not against a little light hearted ribbing of the same.

Occasionally I’ll take a glance at my graph—and by occasionally, I mean once a year or so—for a casual bird’s eye view of the mélange, but it’s not the compass of my vault and it’s not something I feel the need to compare with anyone else’s version.

So if the graph view isn’t your compass to PKM bliss, what is?

The connections you make between your notes that are actually useful, and which surface when you need them, are the best indicator that you’re on the right track to building a truly useful body of notes. Your graph could be the fairest in the land and still not be connected in a way that works for you. Your graph could also look disjointed and scattered, but work perfectly for where you’re at right now.

Do you find the graph view in Obsidian useful? If yes, that’s wonderful. In any case, feel free to hit me up on Mastodon with your cleverest memes on the topic.

Horizontal rules in Markdown

Recently I learned something about Markdown: I now know that horizontal rules composed of three asterisks, or three dashes with spaces between them avoids turning the line immediately above into a header.

Three asterisks are now my choice for horizontal rules. I’ve set up a hotkey in Keyboard Maestro that’s easier to reach for than Shift+888: when I press Option + Delete, KM enters three asterisks for me, followed by a blank line.

Habit stacking a new way to write English phonetically

A few years ago I wrote an article on the secret codes I loved as a child, and the one I still use to this day. This week I learned that Shavian, phonetic writing system and the original variant of Quikscript, is the only one of the two that’s Unicode compatible. Ease of sharing online is a significant plus.

Challenge accepted! 𐑗𐑨𐑤𐑩𐑯𐑡 𐑩𐑒𐑕𐑧𐑐𐑑𐑩𐑛!

There are many similarities between the two writing systems, so I’ll be approaching the task by applying James Clear’s habit stacking principle.

  1. Take what you already know (and find easy)
  2. Connect the new thing to it

I know this technique works, as I’ve been leveraging it for years in all sorts of productivity, and physical movement related areas.


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