Information Filtration System v1.0

Note: I have had recent success in completely reworking my entire mental model for this idea, so v2.0 will be posted here sometime next week. This new version is incredibly more simple drawing many elements from this initial draft but I believe it to be much more refined and universally applicable.

Hopefully v2.0 with be easier to communicate and useful for anyone looking to focus on more productive information processing. For me it's all about the information itself and not the overly complex systems surrounding the processing of that information.

This is my filtration system for processing digital information, from read-it later tools to email, from bookmarking to note taking, I want to try and outline some of the tools I use to filter down and curate information I want to consume and archive.

Rework this to be more of an outline of the sub-headers which can be turned into their own individual drafts then summarized here

Browsing, Bookmarks, and Bad Information

Most people seem to interact with web based information through their browser, although there are numerous ways to bring information into your system without manually browsing to the source/site.

To start with I will outline how I compartmentalize my browsing habits, some of the browsers I use, and the structure I've built around this idea over time.

Brave Browser

Brave is my general purpose browser, I use the standard version of Brave with multiple profiles for 3 of my "compartments."

1. Personal - My personal profile in which I manage bill payments, online ordering to my physical address, and general finance management. This profile has no extensions installed, I only browse the sites that are on my bookmarks bar, maybe 8-10 sites.

2. Work - My work profile is where I keep all of my work related research, bookmarks, and tools isolated. This profile is a little messier and in constant flux as I am constantly trying to improve information management at my job through the research and implementation of new tools/platforms. I have a few extensions for specific work accounts/tools and many bookmarks related to my work. I use a lot of the same extensions/tools in other compartments but they are separate accounts as to not cross contaminate my browsing habits.

3. Crypto - This profile is for research on various crypto/web3 projects. Here I only have uBlock Origin installed (although it may be redundant with Brave's built in ad blocking). Here I use a simple bookmark folder structure specific to this profile, where I have 1 folder called "Inbox" that I dump incoming or interesting links into the later sort out across the bookmarks bar. Top level / frequented sites are plainly listed in the bookmarks bar, categories that naturally arise in the process get split off into their own folders. I do however like to revisit these and trim them down periodically.

4. Psuedo - This final profile is actually under a completely separate install of Brave using the nightly build, this is my primary browser/profile for most of my browsing. If it's reading random article in Hacker News, perusing blogs on listed.to or bear blog, watching videos, etc. it happens in this compartment. For convenience I have the Bitwarden extension installed, although I waver between its true necessity since I always have the desktop version running in the background on my computer. And for the phase 1 filter I have the Omnivore.app extension installed, since this is my primary general use browser where I do most of my random lookups / research.

Min Browser

Min browser is my reading browser, it's minimal by design and very enjoyable to use. When I want to sit down and read articles or essays I will typically open those links in this browser. There is a little cross contamination potential here, since I usually browse in my Brave's Pseudo profile and save links for later with Omnivore and then revisit them later in Min browser for a better viewing experience. But with my further use of Omnivore I need a dedicated "distraction free" browser less and less. Omnivore provides an easy clean view of saved links for reading later.

LibreWolf / Firefox

I use both these browsers for similar stuff, but primarily have them installed just to mess around with. They are remnants from my systems' earlier iterations and have a less significant role than they used to.

Tor Browser

This browser is for looking up more sensitive topics and checking out random links that I might not be so sure about. Nothing too nefarious but if I'm browsing torrent sites or find some link in a forum I almost always open them in Tor browser first.

Now this all might seem a bit overkill for the "average user" but I am just outlining some of my process as I refine the system itself. Most people can get by with a couple of profiles using the standard version of Brave or Firefox with a couple tweaks. They both support multiple profiles which help to compartmentalize different areas of your digital life. I'm just into messing with software tools, reconfiguring and refining my digital system and to be honest it's kind of a mess. Which is the point of writing about it, to help me refine and minimize my own digital footprint.

Emails, Endless Feeds, and Entropy

Following the principles of minimalism it has taken me a long, and I mean years and years long, time to figure out my preferred approach to email, subscriptions and managing a seemingly endless flow of information.

Tutanota x Addy.io

The first and most crucial combination of tools I have for my email system is combining my Tutanota aliases with my Addy.io aliases. The structure is basically like this, I set up my 4 email aliases within my Tutanota paid plan (~$12/year), these aliases become the receiving addresses for all my other aliases in Addy.io, so they act as category/group filters for all the different accounts / emails I create in Addy.io.

So the Tutanota aliases can be seen as high level receiving addresses for groups of accounts based on type or category. My setup is as follows but might change in the future:

1. Personal Alias - This is actually just my primary Tutanota email address that I only have receiving from accounts that I mark personal.

2. Pseudo Alias - This is to receive emails for all pseudonymous accounts

3. Crypto Alias - This receives any and all crypto/web3 related emails

4. Shopping Alias - This receive emails pertaining to products / stores I actually care to receive promotional emails from

These 4 top level aliases receive all of the emails from my Addy.io addresses (which with my plan allows me up to 50 active aliases). For me, this setup makes managing my online accounts very easy insofar as emails are concerned.

Outlook.com

Yes .. I use outlook for my professional / work emails. It's not my favorite but it works fine for what I use it for. Which is mostly for government related accounts, financial accounts, anything to do with my legal identity goes here as my email is firstname.lastname@outlook.com. Not the best privacy but the only accounts / entities that I use this address for are the ones that already know my real name. So it doesn't really matter or make sense to use some pseudonymous email address and add complexity to this setup.

Skiff Mail

I have recently been dabbling with Skiff's suite of software which includes encrypted email. I really like the UI for this product and can definitely see it having a use case for a variety of pseudonymous accounts, I primarily use it for this blog / pseudonym.

Curating Content, From Filtration to Consumption, From Research to Archive

Earlier I mentioned Omnivore, which is a cross platform web based read-it later tool, which just recently got updated with a beta feature to incorporate RSS feeds into your feed list. When I first started dabbling with Omnivore it was in an attempt to replace Raindrop.io with something more minimal and less "feature-rich." But I didn't need to replace Raindrop.io I just need to restructure my use of it to be more minimalist and now that Omnivore can handle RSS feeds I can ditch all the other programs I was playing with just for my half dozen or so feeds I follow.

Omnivore is the first layer in my filter system when it comes to browsed content. Typically if I run across an article of any noteworthy length I will save it to Omnivore and tag it "Later."

I use Omnivore as a first stage inbox/filter for all incoming information saved from the internet. It utilizes 3 primary tags which come into play during the second pass or second filter stage. These 3 tags are as follows:

1. Later
2. Revisit
3. Archive

Now for me when I sit down for "browsing time" (dedicated time to peruse the Internet) I do just that, I browse for content that I might want to consume now, later or share to someone specific. I generally only consume content during this time if it is short and not all that thought provoking, otherwise it's getting binned for "Later" and the second stage of filtration/curation.

Once I bring content into Omnivore I have a separate time to sit down and do a second pass on the content I saved for later. Usually, I can consume an article, extracting all the important information and simply dumping it into a tag called Archive, this is just a second stage siphon for info I have consumed but don't necessarily care to revisit or archive. This second pass will now include a first pass on RSS feeds I have added to Omnivore, but these RSS feeds are from curated sources and typically information that would pass the first filtration layer anyways.

Information that makes it through this filtration stage will now make it's way into Raindrop.io. Just to mention here I use Omnivore because it is simple and browser based and has a decent extension that works nicely with my process, I use Raindrop.io as a desktop application and do not have it's browser extension installed for any of my profiles. I manually take links that I have read in Omnivore and sort them into my Raindrop archive.

Drafting all this out in writing allows me to reflect on the complexity and structure of my curation system as well as make improvements on the fly during the process

I should create an overview/outline that I can reposition earlier in this post before publishing

PKM Curation Substructure

1. First Stage Filter - Coarse curation with Omnivore to consume and process content

   1. Incoming content is tagged 'Later' / 'RSS'

   2. 'Later'/'RSS' content is consumed then tagged 'Archived' or 'Revisit'

   3. 'Revisit' content is further filtered by moving content from Omnivore to Raindrop for second stage filtering

2. Second Stage Filter - Fine-tuned filtration with Raindrop to further research / archive content long-term

   1. 'Revisit' content moved from Omnivore is placed into the 'Archive' collection of Raindrop

   2. 'Archive' content is consumed directly in Raindrop's webview where tagging and highlights can occur and 'Permanent Copy' or offline versions are created

   3. Content that is deemed useful to reference or worthy of archiving offline have a permanent copy made, the highlights and tags can be reassessed at this point and the information can make it's way deeper into my Personal Knowledge Management by being translated into Standard Notes

3. Third Stage Filter - Granular final stage filtration through Standard Notes

   1. Using Raindrop's various built-in filters I can easily take important text based information from my highlights in Stage 2 and copy them over to my Standard Notes account for long-term archive / backup.

   2. Once filtered in Standard Notes with the tags I use there, I can expand upon key ideas drawn from highlights within articles and other various notes taken out of Raindrop.

   3. Archival / Retrieval and further information processing, at this final stage I transmute ideas curated in the previous stages into new writing or notes within Standard Notes.

My general process / system for curating new information and content is outlined more simply like this

Content > Omnivore > Raindrop > Standard Notes

Video & audio content typically falls off in Raindrop, but notes I make in Raindrop pertaining to that video/audio content will get stored and referred to long-term in Standard Notes. My PKM's curation structure is made up of the 3 tools above, but my primary PKM structure is contained within Standard Notes, it's where my thoughts and notes on the digital content I have curated ends up for future ideation and reference.

Now this filtration process is NOT a strict rule, sometimes information can skip straight to Standard Notes if the content is short but significant I will consume it on the spot and make notes directly in my PKM. I primarily use this filtration tactic to wrangle in the endless stream of information we find on the internet. I have spent a lot of time finding content creators who use a critical eye to curate information, news, and ideas. These creators now end up on the other side of stage 1 filtering as I mostly have subscribed to their content via RSS which automatically puts them into the "revisit" stage of my process. Once I have given them a first pass in Omnivore I usually 'Archive' them and move them straight into Raindrop with notes.

I primarily curate random / unknown sources in this manner, it really keeps the clutter down in my digital process and what a load off my mind to be able to just sit down and consume things I already know I will want to spend time on. But there is plenty of information and sources I do put through this filtration process.

Simplify, simplify, simplify!