Lately I’ve been testing a simple idea: can AI turn Obsidian into a genuinely useful second brain for me? The answer was a complicated but resounding “Yes”.
My first step was to find an experienced Obsidian user whose ideas resonated with mine. This turned out to be a YouTuber called Callum (aka Wanderloots). Callum’s channel has over fifteen videos relating his personal experience in building a second brain, and offering advice about all aspects of Obsidian for that purpose.
I satisfied myself that Callum’s approach would be a good basis from which to develop my own, but didn’t have the time to watch every video in order to benefit from their content. I needed a quick and efficient way to fast-track that process. Step forward NotebookLM.
One of the great things about NotebookLM is that you can give it fifteen YouTube videos and then have a conversation about their content. The discussion can encompass the content of one, several, or all of the videos. To help you structure the conversation, NotebookLM can produce a mind map setting out all the concepts or ideas contained in the videos.
On top of that, to help you reflect on these ideas while strolling round the park after work, the AI can produce an audio overview. This takes the form of a podcast-style discussion between two hosts, and you can set the ground rules for their discussion, for example the focus points, audience, technical level. Listen in for yourself.
Intriguingly, the discussion is interactive when you’re online to the AI. You can join in to ask questions or steer the discussion in a particular direction.
With the big picture in place, the next step was the hands-on work of shaping Obsidian to fit my needs. That will be the subject of my next post, where I’ll dig into the practicalities of building it and explore how a local AI might give my second brain extra intelligence without compromising its privacy.