Learning in Public on Nicole van der Hoeven

Top 10 Ways I Learn in Public

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 18:00:50 +0200

In this video, I talk about the different ways that I learn in public, including how I use Obsidian, Readwise, social networks like Mastodon, YouTube, and Buttondown to do so. I also announce my new in-progress book, Doing It in Public.

How to publish your notes for free with Quartz

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:00:47 +0100

Quartz just won Best Tool in the Obsidian Gems of the Year 2023 awards, and with good reason. It’s a free, open-source static site generator that works really well with Markdown-based note-taking apps– including Obsidian, which it was originally designed for.

Here’s what Quartz looks like when published.

Personal Branding for Engineers (Adobo & Avocados #23)

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 16:57:23 +0100

This week we’re talking about personal branding for engineers and how you can reframe that as learning in public. Whether you’re a software developer, a tester, or a platform engineer, creating a personal brand can help you learn faster, get noticed in your niche, and make meaningful connections. We discuss some practical tips we’ve learned throughout our careers for how to advocate for ourselves in a humble, authentic way.

Resources

Tools for publishing and distribution (Nicole’s notes)

More Than Just Taking Notes: Learning Exhaust

Fri, 12 May 2023 21:18:45 +0800

For me, using Obsidian is about more than just taking notes– it’s about creating learning exhaust. Learning exhaust is the byproduct of real learning, and thinking of my notes as learning exhaust has helped me shift my focus from taking good notes to learning new things well.

Emergent Note Taking

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 18:21:15 +0200

Emergent note taking is the process of turning individual notes into something more than the sum of their parts and combining them in different ways. In this video, I talk about how to take notes to be found and how to explore your vault in ways to help ideas emerge in Obsidian.

Resources Mentioned

Emergence, by Steven Johnson: book that prompted this idea (book)
Zsolt Viczián - Book on a Page about Emergence (video)
Visual atomic note taking with ExcaliBrain (video)

Informed Life Podcast Interview

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 20:14:56 +0100

Information architect, author, and educator Jorge Arango interviewed me on his podcast, The Informed Life, about how I apply the principles of CI/CD to taking notes, why I use Obsidian, and how I use it to learn in public and play roleplaying games.

Learning how to use k6 live with Nočnica Fee from New Relic (k6 Office Hours)

Fri, 14 May 2021 21:53:09 +0100

We were happy to welcome Nočnica Fee from New Relic to k6 Office Hours. She very bravely volunteered to learn how to use k6– live! Talk about pressure. But she handled it like a champ!

We also talked about why observability is both particularly important and particularly difficult in serverless architecture. There will definitely be a part two at some point!