#94

Thanks for all this information on MOCs; this is quite a helpful topic.

Something I did not came across (or perhaps overlooked) is what the optimal number of notes/links on a MOC is.

I understand that MOCs are flexible and that is a good thing. But as humans we of course have limitations in how much information we can process. And how much we can read without losing the overview. As an extreme example, a MOC with 500 notes on it would not be useful.

So in your experience, what’s a nice size of a MOC note? And at which point do you split a MOC into ‘subtopic MOCs’?

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#95

Hi, I downloaded the ‘On the Process of Making MOCs.zip’ as well as the latest LYT. I unzipped the files, and when I open the folders, they are md files. I can’t open them. I have a macbook with Big Sur OS and all my software is up to date. How do I use these files? I dragged and dropped the folder into my ‘plugins’ folder in my ‘obsidian folder’ on my desktop. Thanks! -Triya @nickmilo

#96

Hi @Triya ,

The LYT is an entire Obsidian Vault, including all of the markdown files (which is the content itself). You will not want to add this to your plugins folder or your own vault.

Instead, extract the LYT files to their own folder on your machine. Then open Obsidian, click the Open another Vault icon. Next, select Open folder as vault. Then pick the folder where you extracted the LYT files.

I hope this helps. I don’t use a MacBook, so I hope the steps are the same.

image

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#97

Thank you! So I opened a vault that is now LYT. There it is! Do I copy and paste the pieces I want into my other vault, or is there a way to add them to my vault?

#98

From your OS file system, you can copy the .md files from the LYT vault folder to the root folder of your own vault. However, I recommend creating your own notes with your own ideas so you get the full benefits. LYT is a great reference.

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#99

I like the idea of MOCs, but often have issue deciding where content/information goes between different levels of MOCs.

Example: I have a note for Personal System, which consists of my Goals, Habits, Routines, and Tracking. At least three possible approaches here:

(A) Parent note (Personal System MOC) only contains a brief description and link to respective MOCs under each subheading (Routines MOC, Habits MOC, etc).

(B) Parent note (Personal System MOC) contains a bullet list of relevant information under each subheading in addition to links to the Routines MOC, Habits MOC, etc.

(C ) Do away with the parent note and simply use Routines MOC, Habits MOC, etc.

How do you make decisions like this?

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#100

@ekafyi - Honestly, I genuinely believe you are over thinking structure. One of the tenets of emergent structure that MOCs are a large part of is that there is no rigid system, rather, it is built as your knowledge grows.

My two cents’ worth? Ditch the smaller topics and link everything to Personal System. If you see a bunch of links that seem similar and find a need to group them, make an MOC for it then.

Bottom line… write notes and worry less about where they go. When you try to fit a note to a subject, you lose the freedom to let the thought go where it may.

Structure will come, let it happen naturally.

5 Likes
#101

Good point! I tend to think in either of the polar opposites: (1) database-like relations and structure, or (2) free-for-all, anything goes but no way to retrieve information later. I also tend to get FOMO from other people’s systems (Person A divides their MOC this way, Person B that way, I have to collect all the structures and choose from those); trying to get rid of this.

2 Likes
#102

Also really often you will structure when it emerge (I like folders, but I create them only if already have a bunch of notes that fits to that folder and when I feel that having this folder benefit me more than not having it)

#103

Hey @nickmilo, thank you so much for publishing the IMF vault. It’s really widened my perspective in how I can approach my vault. One question: what do you do with short, unfinished notes that wouldn’t current fit under any MOC? How do you make sure you’re able to come across them again and they don’t get lost in the void?

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#104

Give it a tag like #develop or something

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#105

Without having read all the posts here: In this post I described a simple workflow which I am using at the moment. It is a preliminary attempt to switch from ZKN3 (note sequence principle) to Obsidian.

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#106

What I’m doing, coming from DEVONThink with folders as the main structure is as I migrate notes over I create a MOC type note for each folder. Then as part of y regulalr weekly working in my PKM Itry to link more htings and sometimes I find that I can etierh delete the MOC note then or can adjust it/ The multiple links mean nothing is lost and I can use the graph view to find any orphans and link them in wherever they belong.

#107

Thanks very much for this, Nick!
A very basic question for you: does the book icon in the name of each book note get produced automatically from the metadata & tags (if so, how?) OR do you just manually put that icon in each book note? And how can I easily produce these icons?

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#108

I put it in manually. After I tag it with #source/book📚 I’ll just copy and paste the 📚

#109

On a purely personal basis the jury is still out on MOCs but I think that they may come more into their own as the size of my slipbox increases. At present I am experimenting with auto-generated MOCS. The MOC page only contains one or more Obsidian Query Language or Dataview code sections and builds up the MOC dynamically when the page is opened. This has the advantage of not having to manually keep them up to date. It is also a slight plus on the alternative (to my mind) which is to use the built in query system every time.

#110

Would you be so kind as to share your method for auto-generated MOCS?
I expected the concept to be native to the system or for someone to have created a plugin for it. I may also have misinterpreted what a MOC is.

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#111

I would suggest that you take a look at the Dataview plugin. It’s a bit of a rabbit hole so I recommend taking the time to look through this video and doing some experimentation.

I personally don’t use dataview that much, i only use it to make a simple list of all my diary entries.

Dataview is one of those things where you can do “anything” and as such you need to spend some time thinking about what problem you want to solve for yourself personally and tinker a bit to get a grasp of the possibilities.

Hope it helps!

On the topic of MOCs i can say that i view a MOC as a note that binds together and adds context and information to a set of common notes or a topic. I don’t see it as an index and as such I wouldn’t really benefit from automatically generating one. When i link a note in a MOC i also write about that note or topic in the MOC itself.

When researching MOCs i noticed that many people have their own takes and there is no right or wrong way to do them as long as they love up the name of being a Map Of Content.

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#112

It’s okay. MOCs can refer to any “notes with mostly links to other notes”, but for clarity I’d suggest you are desiring more auto-generated “index” and @amrnt has a good suggestion with dataview for that.

For what it’s worth, most of my MOCs are purposely active thinking spaces to help with sensemaking and value creation.

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#113

Hey there … that’s a wonderful inspiration. Can I read the research report you mention here? thx

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