From The Vault: Notes on a YouTube Video
This is an unedited note in its entirety that I'm sharing from my personal Obsidian vault to show how I take notes (in Markdown) on things I like, or hate, or feel entirely neutral about but has something I might want to refer to later. The might is doing a lot of heavy lifting there but being a mostly text hoarder doesn't require much digital storage space. What's a few megabytes in this modern era of scale where a billion views on the internet or a trillion dollars are commonplace terms?
I read Herman's post on his journaling process recently (thank you for sharing it!), and it made me think of the way I take notes, which really is part journaling because it is more about me than summarizing data. I have studied note-taking methods with their boxes and maps and outlines. AI summaries exist now and I'm sure LLMs can also replicate any of those note-taking methods if extracting information is all that's needed. What I do when I take notes is have a conversation with myself, with the work. Why is this important to me? Why do I like it? What does it make me think of? What can I do with it? The I that AI can't replace.
This note is not how I write all notes. I used this specific format exactly once. I use bullet points sometimes, but I don't write in small caps everywhere, just to be clear. I like my sentence case. It's very precious to me. But occasionally, I can dabble in small caps for effect.
i suck at Logo Design… so I made 1000 in a day
2025-06-23
16:52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpkE55wTajw
Okay, so I liked this video, and had some thoughts. What thoughts are these?
- it's about graphic design, technically - and then becomes about ADHD and also life
- it's not the content - it is about the presentation
- there was a format to the video - and by format, I mean structure - 1-100 and then reflecting on it - insights, something - showing the work and then on to the next set
- it is also about the creative process - not just the design process - there's something being created here and it is 1000 logo designs but also the video itself
- it took a year to make this - the filming of the 1000 part (which turns out to be 900) didn't take a year, but putting it together into this format did - the post-production
- it works because it's compelling to watch and it's presented well
- what does presented well mean? it means - there's video, but the music also counts, there's humor
- humor takes you far - and I mean far
- we can do a lot with just humor, really. it can be engaging in different ways, and by it I mean content, but humor is 'fun' and the easiest way to make something 'fun'
- and then visuals and audio helps to make it look 'professional'
- it can be lo-fi but it still has to be compelling to watch
- the graphic design is not the point, the topic could be anything
- you have to be good at video editing to put this together - on a technical level - know what's possible - but also how to put it together
- because you can make a video about 1000 logos by recording yourself, you can put that up unedited - it's still content
- you can also do a recording of an intro before and conclusion after - or splice it together, make it a set - reflection of every 100
- but to make something like this, where every part fits, that requires skill
- the experimentation part of this is nice - and also - there's a relatability factor
- The relatability factor is a big one - and that's also where the humor comes from - who doesn't overestimate what they can do and set a higher target than they can accomplish and feel bad when they can't?
- who hasn't thought - that would be easier to do if I just made a video in one day = or did a challenge that was a quick shortcut, you'll learn something
- there's the experimental framework of hypothesis and doing the work and then figuring out what worked and didn't
- Doing the work is the biggest chunk of this - he had an idea, and then he did it - and then took a year editing it - but but - it happened and now it's out there and it's a great video
So, what are my lessons? Do something, share, and do something again. Do something first. Don't just let a challenge be a challenge. Or, when you do end up doing something, share it with people. And not just one or two people, put it out into the world. Or, a community, at least. Reach more people than just the immediate circle, you want a network effect - you already have people talking about you, but you want to reach people in the third degree, who don't know you but have heard about you and then want to talk about you with someone else
It could be the 100 day writing challenge. It could be something else entirely, but start it, do it, finish it, share it - or share it as you do it.
It's storytelling (stealing this from a comment on the video) at the end of the day. And I like stories.
I'd love to tell you that I wrote this and then went and created something and shared it right after. It's been long enough that I don't even remember writing this note. I'm fairly certain I did nothing.
Now, I've shared the note itself, which was not my plan. Even when I did start writing this, thinking I should share a note from my vault and picked this one, I did not recall it being about doing and sharing things, which is what I am doing right now.
If you did see the video, you'll know that was a year in the making, and this post only took me... less than four months. If you think about it, it would've been a betrayal to the process to have jumped into doing and sharing something right away. The point is to get there when you get there, and take the guilt off. And also, have some fun.