Knowledge Management on Michael-F-Bryan

Obsidian Tricks: Daily Notes

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0800

If you’re new to Personal Knowledge Management, let me share something that took me years to fully appreciate: daily notes are the secret sauce that transforms a collection of random notes into a living, breathing knowledge system.

Here’s the thing most people miss when they start with PKM—it’s not about having perfect notes, it’s about connecting your notes to real moments in time. Daily notes do exactly that. They’re like having a personal assistant who remembers not just what happened, but when it happened and who was involved.

Obsidian Tricks: Entity Notes

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0800

An entity is a person, place, or organization that you want to track in your Second Brain. By creating separate notes in your Obsidian vault for each entity and using the power of backlinks, you can create a rich, interconnected knowledge base.

The Power of Backlinks Link to heading

When you create a dedicated note for an entity like [[Michael Bryan]] or [[Wasmer]], every time you mention that entity in any other note, Obsidian automatically creates a backlink. This creates a dynamic, interconnected web of knowledge that reveals patterns and connections you might not have noticed otherwise.

Obsidian Tricks: The Summary Callout

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 22:36:07 +0800

Purpose and Structure Link to heading

Quick Overview: Provides readers with essential information without requiring them to read the entire note
Placement: Always at the top of the note, after Front Matter (if present)
Format: Uses the blockquote syntax with callout type: > [!summary] (variations like [!SUMMARY] or [!Summary] are acceptable)
Length: Typically 1-3 sentences or 3-5 bullet points for complex topics

Content Guidelines Link to heading

Focus:
- Capture the core idea without including supporting details
- Answer “What is it?” and “Why is it important?”
- Include key relationships to other concepts when relevant
Style:
- Clear, direct, and professional tone
- Active voice and present tense
- Avoid jargon unless essential to the concept
Links:
- Include essential [[wiki-links]] to related core concepts
- Don’t overload with links - only the most relevant ones
Formatting:
- Use emphasis (italics or bold) for critical terms
- Include code snippets in backticks for technical terms
- Break complex summaries into bullet points for readability

Context-Specific Patterns Link to heading

Technical Concepts Link to heading

---
aliases: Access Tokens
---

> [!SUMMARY]
> A token, typically in the [[JSON Web Tokens|JWT]] format, issued by a server
> when the user logs in that lets users make secure calls to an API server.

User tokens can be used by client applications to access protected resources on
a server on behalf of a user.

Anyone that holds an access token can use it. As such, you need a way to
minimize the fallout from a compromised access token. One method is to issue
tokens that have a short lifespan.

Here is an example access token that might be issued by [[Auth0]]:

```json
{
 "iss": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/",
 "sub": "auth0|123456",
 "aud": [
 "my-api-identifier",
 "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/userinfo"
 ],
 "azp": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
 "exp": 1489179954,
 "iat": 1489143954,
 "scope": "openid profile email address phone read:appointments"
}
```

Entities Link to heading

From my note on Anduril Industries: