PKM systems promise coherence, but they often deliver a kind of abstracted confusion. The more I wrote into my vault, the less I felt. A quote would spark an insight, I’d clip it, tag it, link it - and move on. But the insight was never lived. It was stored. Like food vacuum-sealed and never eaten, while any nutritional value slips away.

This hits close to home. I also went through that phase of hoarding information ‘just in case I might need it someday.’ The digital equivalent of keeping every receipt in a shoebox.

Now I’ve learned to be much more intentional about what I capture. I ask myself: ‘Will this genuinely help me make a decision or take action?’ If the answer isn’t a clear yes, I let it go. Only the real gems make it into my system—the insights that actually move the needle.