Does a picture truly convey a thousand words? Could one distill the essence of a 40,000-word book into 40 visuals? Would fewer or more suffice? In conducting such an experiment, what would qualify as a picture? An icon? An illustrative scene? A Visual Zettelkasten card?

Though I haven't executed this experiment verbatim, I've crafted one-page summaries for over a dozen books, including "How To Take Smart Notes," "Building a Second Brain," "Emergence," "Rationality," "Finite and Infinite Games," "Storyworthy," "The Practicing Stoic," "Decoding Greatness," "The Extended Mind," and more. I'm deeply enthusiastic about this method of reading and comprehension, which led me to establish the Visual Thinking Workshop. Here, similar to a book club, we dissect a book in each cohort and construct our own book-on-a-page summary while learning key concepts about visual thinking and PKM using Obsidian, and the Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain plugins.

I call my 4D Visual Thinking Methodology The MindSET. It's 4D because it goes beyond traditional 2D and 3D thinking. In 1D, we have linear text on a page. 2D involves organizing documents into folders. 3D adds hyperlinks between notes, while 4D means our notes are visual, allowing instant intake of information without linear reading. This innovative approach builds on several key insights:

1. Illustrating an idea is like paraphrasing it in a different coordinate system.
2. Creating effective visual metaphors is tough. This difficulty functions as a filter, so the act of illustration helps us focus on the essentials.
3. Consistently using a library of Think & Link icons creates a serendipity engine, it helps uncover unexpected connections between ideas.
4. Drawing is fun! It makes working with ideas feel lighter and more enjoyable.Visual ZK notes are the building blocks of our Idea Palace - a reference to the Memory Palace. Arranging Visual ZK notes into a visual story help us recall our insights better.
5. Dual coding, combining short text with simple imagery, enhances long-term memory retention through stimulating both verbal and visual pathways in our brain.
6. The Card Forcing Function sharpens focus, while LEGO-style illustrations promote easy idea reuse.

In this session, through examples from my Obsidian Vault, I will briefly introduce 5 of the 32 cards in The MindSET Visual Thinking Framework. We'll delve into Visual Thinking, Link & Think Icons, the Forcing Function, LEGOized Ideas, and Visuals as ZK Notes. My aim is to illustrate how The MindSET can elevate your own PKM practice to new heights. Join me on this journey of exploration and transformation as we unlock the full potential of visual cognition... and if you want to explore further, Cohort 8 of the Visual Thinking Workshop is scheduled to start on April 6th, where we'll be delving into "Atomic Habits" by James Clear.