Stop studying, start learning: How to stay focused in the world of shiny tools

Great article, thank you! I struggle with prioritising what to learn so some of the points here are really useful. I still need to check out NotebookLM properly, but in the meantime my "AI as a teacher" is a skill that I've set up to point at my Obsidian knowledge base. It can generate notes based on a set of templates. So for example, "generate a [note / how to guide / checklist] about [topic]".

Thanks for the comment, @Adam! I've recently explored the topic of using AI (LLMs) with Obsidian notes. At first glance, it looks like a nice tool. But then it becomes easy to delegate learning tasks (finding connections, generating ideas) to AI. But we actually learn when we do these things. So if we delegate them - we learn nothing. We are just consuming information. So the only AI thing that I am using is the default Obsidian plugin called "Smart Connections". It scans notes and builds a local RAG showing the most relevant notes together.

Yeah it's a bad idea to delegate learning. The only time I ask it to generate something without providing any source notes is when I need a quick reference for something that I already know (or have forgotten), e.g. "create a quick reference note for all http status codes". I have a separate section in the vault dedicated to notes I've taken whilst reading articles / completing courses / watching videos etc., which is where the bulk of my learning takes place. The skill helps me slice things up into an easily digestible format with the templates, which I can then review and update if I don't like what it generates. That plugin sounds nice, I'll take a look!

Really helpful piece, thanks for sharing! I think the "5 minute rule" could also be useful when you're feeling overwhelmed / low on brain power and finding it difficult to focus. I will try it out. I didn't know about Study Mode in AI tools, and tried to look for it in ChatGPT and Gemini, but I didn't find it.