In today's digital world, we are all knowledge workers 🧑💻, constantly swimming in a sea of information 🌊. Whether it's code snippets 💻, research papers 📚, meeting notes 📝, blog posts 📰, or just our daily reflections 🤔 – we are bombarded with digital content. We rely heavily on search 🔍, often keyword-based, to navigate this information. But what if there was a way to go deeper 🤿, to find connections based on meaning, not just matching words?
What if your note-taking system could understand the meaning of your notes, not just the specific words you happened to use? 🤯
This question has been a driving force for me. Keyword search is undeniably useful 👍, but it has inherent limitations for effective Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) 🧠. Consider this 👇:
- You might have notes on "improving focus and concentration" spread across different documents, using varied phrasing each time. Keyword search might miss these connections if you don't use consistent terminology. 😔
- Related ideas might be expressed using synonyms or different language entirely, making it challenging to link them using simple keyword queries. This hinders our ability to build a truly interconnected understanding of our knowledge. 🔗
The Idea: Semantic Similarity for PKM ✨
This is where the concept of semantic similarity becomes incredibly valuable for Personal Knowledge Management. Instead of solely relying on matching keywords, semantic similarity aims to understand the underlying meaning of your notes and documents.
Think of it this way 👇:
- Keyword search for PKM: It's like organizing your physical notes by only looking at a few keywords you wrote on the top of each page. You might miss the deeper connections and broader themes across your notes. 🙈
- Semantic similarity for PKM: Imagine having a system that understands the concepts within your notes and can intelligently group together related information, even if you used different words to express those concepts over time. 💡
Semantic similarity for PKM means moving beyond surface-level word matching to capture the essence of your ideas 💫, allowing you to discover connections based on meaning and build a richer, more interconnected personal knowledge base. 🕸️
For example, consider these notes someone might have in their PKM system:
- "Need to find strategies to minimize distractions during deep work sessions."
- "Experimenting with time-blocking techniques to improve concentration."
- "My focus is scattered; looking for ways to enhance attention span."
A semantic similarity approach can recognize that these are all related to the core concept of "improving focus and concentration" within a PKM system, even with varied phrasing. 🎯
Exploring Semantic PKM with Cipher 🛠️
This exploration of semantic similarity for PKM led me to build a tool called Cipher. It's a personal project, driven by my own need to better manage and understand the connections within my digital notes and reflections, with the goal of enhancing my personal knowledge management practices.
Cipher, at its core, is an experiment in applying semantic similarity to organize and analyze my journal entries and notes. It's not about replacing traditional search, but rather augmenting my PKM workflow by offering a new, meaning-based perspective on my information.
(Watch a quick demo of Cipher in action!)
How It Might Work ⚙️
Cipher uses what I call Contexts — groupings of thoughts that seem to naturally appear as I write. These contexts might emerge on their own as I’m writing, suggesting connections I might not have consciously made. It’s a bit like having a conversation where things you’ve thought about before might naturally come to mind. 🔄
These Contexts aren’t strict categories or folders, but more like flexible connections that seem to shift as my thinking evolves. As I write, Cipher looks for links between my entries, perhaps building a kind of map 🗺️ of my connected thoughts. The system seems to learn from what I write, noticing if certain ideas or themes come up repeatedly.
Sometimes, seeing these connected thoughts might offer a slightly different perspective on things I’ve experienced. Some of these observations might resonate immediately, while others might take longer to consider. There’s no pressure to do anything with these observations — they’re simply there as potential starting points for further thought, if I choose to explore them. 🤔
The goal isn’t to force a strict structure. Instead, Cipher offers a flexible way to see if there are natural rhythms and patterns in my own life, based on the idea that understanding might sometimes come from careful observation, rather than actively searching for it. It’s about creating a space where understanding could potentially arrive in its own time. 🧘
This idea of connected Contexts is vaguely similar to how our own brains work, right? We might create webs of connections between different thoughts and experiences. Our minds seem to constantly link things together, building a rich understanding of the world that perhaps changes as we learn. Cipher, in a small way, is inspired by this, hoping to help me (and maybe others) connect the dots in my own reflections. 🧩
My Own Experience 📝
Cipher started as something I built for myself, a digital way to keep a journal. I wanted to try and track not just my thoughts, but potentially how they might shift over time. Regular journals and note apps often felt either too structured or not structured enough for what I was looking for. I was hoping for something that could adapt as my understanding grew, maybe helping me see broader patterns in my daily thoughts.
What began as a simple journaling tool gradually became something that seemed more interesting. The patterns that appeared in my writing sometimes hinted at connections and insights I hadn’t consciously noticed. This somewhat natural process of discovery is what Cipher is about today. ✨
If This Resonates 🤝
This isn’t about widespread adoption or any commercial goals. It’s about sharing something that came from a personal need and has been quietly helpful in my own experience. If the idea of a subtle aid for noticing patterns in your own thoughts sounds potentially interesting, you’re welcome to explore Cipher through a small beta program - https://cipher.sysapp.dev. I’m keeping the group small to allow for thoughtful development and refinement based on genuine feedback. My hope is simply that it might be valuable to others who are curious about exploring their own thoughts in this way. 🙏
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