I haven't researched where the color-coding thing started, though I suspect content creators/influencers online in the last decades as a means of making their content "pretty" rather than necessarily functional.

Historically commonplaces were based on huge varieties of topics/subject headings, so colors and symbols were not frequently used. Most who needed greater organization or search capabilities indexed their commonplaces. One of the most popular means was detailed by philosopher John Locke in 1685. Here's some pointers to his work in this area in my own digital commonplace using Hypothesis: https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=tag%3A%22commonplace+books%22+tag%3A%22John+Locke%22

reply to u/_cold_one at https://old.reddit.com/r/commonplacebook/comments/1hhavye/20_topics_colour_coding/

Venkataraman, Bina. “How Latino Influencers Are Fighting Misinformation in South Florida.” The Washington Post, May 30, 2024, sec. Opinion. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/30/misinformation-spanish-latinos-south-florida/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtwaJu80Rk4

Two people ostensibly in sales (influencers selling products: courses, books, etc.) holding themselves out as learning researchers... curious to see more of the science underlying their methods and whether it bears out.

Note the click-bait headline and how the two are sharing their platforms of users.

reply to jameslongley at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2532/personal-knowledge-management-is-bullshit

I find that these sorts of articles against the variety of practices have one thing in common: the writer fails to state a solid and realistic reason for why they got into it in the first place. They either have no reason "why" or, perhaps, just as often have all-the-reasons "why", which may be worse. Much of this is bound up in the sort of signaling and consumption which @Sascha outlines in point C (above).

Perhaps of interest, there are a large number of Hypothes.is annotations on that original article written by a variety of sense-makers with whom I am familiar. See: https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.otherlife.co/pkm/ Of note, many come from various note making traditions including: commonplace books, bloggers, writers, wiki creators, zettelkasten, digital gardening, writers, thinkers, etc., so they give a broader and relatively diverse perspective. If I were pressed to say what most of them have in common philosophically, I'd say it was ownership of their thought.

Perhaps it's just a point of anecdotal evidence, but I've been noticing that who write about or use the phrase "personal knowledge management" are ones who come at the space without an actual practice or point of view on what they're doing and why—they are either (trying to be) influencers or influencees.

Fortunately it is entirely possible to "fake it until you make it" here, but it helps to have an idea of what you're trying to make.

Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother (17, UK) housemate, has gained popularity among young men for promoting a "hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle".

Where does Tate fit into the pantheon of the prosperity gospel? Is he touching on it or extending it to the nth degree? How much of his audience overlaps with the religious right that would internalize such a viewpoint?

Twitter had banned and then later reinstated Andrew Tate for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted.

https://view.lists.wnyc.org/?qs=c21e51f10535486454406231c332604f2f1294f7dc1e092cc447aecc921a7afea43d909cff18f5632556038806bd1478ef38f4a01571075f8ab2569693d3d5f772f504793f123055e5985cba29893530

Examples of momfluencers from the early 20th century onward.

https://joshduffney.gumroad.com/l/take-smart-notes-obsidian

$2.99 for "How to Take Smart Notes in Obsidian"

(not a recommendation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX2p-1afdRA

wrt: https://hypothes.is/a/uDIE9q70Ee2xxiszhAZGOQ<br /> I'll give him a little credit that he's at least aliasing his notes as he "files" them, but I suspect that over time he's making more work for himself than not. This seems unsustainable over time.

It also seems like he's doing a lot more make-work here than he otherwise ought to?

Notice that he's making this to sell a course: https://joshduffney.gumroad.com/l/take-smart-notes-obsidian

He doesn't directly link the GitHub repo as he indicated, but it can be found here: https://github.com/Duffney/smart-notes. In looking at it, the timestamped notes will become problematic.

This was from 2021-10-17. I'm curious what his "system" looks like today? Has it changed through time and experience?

reply to u/theinvertedform at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/zkguan/is_zettelkasten_gamification_of_notetaking/

Social media and "influencers" have certainly grabbed onto the idea and squeezed with both hands. Broadly while talking about their own versions of rules, tips, tricks, and tools, they've missed a massive history of the broader techniques which pervade the humanities for over 500 years. When one looks more deeply at the broader cross section of writers, educators, philosophers, and academics who have used variations on the idea of maintaining notebooks or commonplace books, it becomes a relative no-brainer that it is a useful tool. I touch on some of the history as well as some of the recent commercialization here: https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/22/the-two-definitions-of-zettelkasten/.

Evidence of the influencer culture of social media meeting the zettelkasten/note taking space.

Announced sponsorships by celebrities and influencers

One such arrangement was with Moonpay. Earlier was the example of Bieber's manager.

She's probably right that too many" influencers" in the space don't have actual context for use.

Love that she links to Andy Matuschak's admonishment about this...

scathing, but broadly true...

The link here to Luhmann's article is a https://geniuslink.com/ which is specifically built for influencers to use for tracking and affiliate marketing.

Note that he explicitly calls out that his is an adapted version of a preexisting thing--namely a system that was taught to Ryan Holiday who was taught by Robert Greene.

Presumably there is both some economic and street cred value for the author/influencer in claiming his precedents.

It's worth noting that he mentions other famous users, though only the smallest fraction of them with emphasis up front on his teachers whose audience he shares financially.

rewards for fast production (see influencer culture) can also be seen in the broader social media space which doesn't provide space for the depth of potential rhetoric of Harris' five "moves".

https://www.bundleiq.com/post/the-history-of-pkm

I positively don't recommend this article... good example of someone "trying on" information they've been reading about, but haven't quite mastered or gone deep enough on yet. Also potentially a good example of the sort of issues that can be seen when learning in public and potentially attempting to be an influencer in a space in which one is not an expert.

https://discord.com/channels/686053708261228577/710585052769157141/990296615053049926

https://discord.com/channels/686053708261228577/710585052769157141/990295586664243250

Context: influencers in the PKM space telling you the "one true way"

People who write extensively about note-writing rarely have a serious context of use https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zUMFE66dxeweppDvgbNAb5hukXzXQu8ErVNv

This idea can be extrapolated to a much larger set of practitioners. It could be termed "the curse of the influencer".

link to: - aphorism: "Those who can't do, teach", from the original line ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ in George Bernard Shaw’s 1905 stage play Man and Superman.

I will agree that there are far too many "influencers" and "gurus" out there selling something in the note taking space. Almost none of them know what the hell they're talking about.

An early statement of the problem of distribution which has been widely solved by many social media algorithmic feeds. Sadly pushing ideas to people interested in them (or not) doesn't seem to have improved humanity. Perhaps too much of the problem space with respect to the idea of "influence" has been devoted to marketing and commerce or to fringe misinformation spaces? How might we create more value to the "middle" of the populace while minimizing misinformation and polarization?

What a fantastic glimpse of our current culture.

https://therebooting.substack.com/p/the-roaring-20s-of-digital-publishing

A somewhat analytical take on where media and particularly journalism, is with respect to decentralization caused by newsletters and influencer journalists.

Hypehouse (collab house) examples: * https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22877013/hype-house-netflix-show * https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a34655703/tiktok-sway-house/ * https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-house-the-anxiety-of-influencers/ * Does Clubhouse, the app, count? It seemed like a hypehouse for hyping hype.

What happens when hype runs amok?

Caveat emptor. A lot of these "influencer" methods are leaving 30% or far more of their value with the platforms they're using for distribution. A better path is to build and promote your own platform and have a direct relationship with one's readers (in newsletter spaces, it's about "owning"/having your reader's email address). Some other newsletter options can be found here: https://indieweb.org/newsletter as well as methods for building and owning your own technology stack across its site. If nothing else, consider having a website where you can have a portfolio/archive of your work.

Careful watchers of the newsletter space will notice that almost all of the highlight examples on these services are established big names with pre-existing platforms and audience. Where are the stories of the other 99.9% and how well they're doing? Who is actually making a full time living doing this without a significant leg up to start? As examples, look for major writers leaving the New York Times to set up newsletters, or people like Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg leaving The National Review to set up The Dispatch (as a newsletter platform)—it's a good bet that they're getting a better deal from Substack than the average person. The NiemanLab has some relatively good coverage of some of this space. (Their annual predictions series also has solid forward looking coverage of the journalism/technology space: https://www.niemanlab.org/collection/predictions-2022/.)

(Apologies for lurking... 😅, but happy to chat technology/publishing with anyone interested.)

When manufacturers, like Pietra, help influencers manufacture their own product lines, we've taken another step from big celebrities having their own product lines (think Martha Stewart cookware and other lifestyle plays her company has made).

This is splitting the difference between the Tupperware parties of old where you're empowering your users to sell your product and having celebrities sell your product.

What is the next step along this evolutionary path of breaking down the sales funnel? Can it be disintermediated further?

Another example of this are the thousands of small Etsy shops that are churning out products as intermediaries. An example of this is the proliferation of sticker companies that are selling somewhat custom designs for 2-3x the going rate and adding a rather large mark up for themselves. In this case there are at least some modest creative pieces being added in the value chain, but at what overall cost?

Will everyone be a manufacturer? When does it all become Amway?

But what are these people really making? Besides one or two of the highest paid, what is a fair-to-middling influencer really making?

the lie underlying almost all ideas of being an "influencer"....

Aaron, to change the famous quote, "It's not the number of characters (140 or 280), but the content of your character that define you." I far prefer reading your links, analysis, and even thought leadership here to people I've never met on twitter with thousands of followers.

An interesting look at "influencer morality".

The other portion of the problem is then turning this social capital into actual money. This gives way to the rise of influencers.