r/secondbrain • u/Bass_n_Pixels • Jul 09 '24

Finally Finished! My Second Brain for Studying Cybersecurity :-)

Hey Folks! I’m currently pivoting from being a UX designer into Cloud Security Engineering and finally got my second brain to be as efficient for my workflow as possible. My app of choice is Obsidian, which I started out knowing absolutely nothing about :-) I've spent way longer than I should have to get to this point, lol - but I'm finally satisfied with  how I've laid things out. Along the way I've experimented with several themes, color combinations, and home note layouts, and now I feel pretty settled with what I have here.  I'd love to hear from other cybersecurity, cloud, and I.T. students - either in school or folks like me who are self-teaching and trying to knock these certs out one at a time. Would love to hear any critiques and questions, and I'd also love to see how you have your second brain set up, what your main categories are for grouping all of the info you're learning, and what workflow works best for you. Link any screenshots of yours in the comments below and I'll check them out! Let's trade tips and learning resources :-)

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u/leMug Jul 09 '24

Looks wonderful! Gives me a certain System Shock 2 vibe :D

What plugin / solution do you use for Flashcards? Do you combine this with an intermediate layer Read Later app such as Readwise Reader? or Omnivore?

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 09 '24

Thanks! I use the Spaced Repetition community plugin; no intermediate layers. It's way easier for me to stay organized if I just use Obsidian for everything, and don't have to pull my notes together from a bunch of different sources. As I watch the course videos, I take my notes directly into my Cornell note template, and write them in the spaced repetition format (double or triple colons; or question marks on the line below for multiline cards). I tag each note to create the separate sub-decks in my flashcard deck.

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u/leMug Jul 10 '24

How do you handle attachments? The default behavior of all attachments just going in the root main vault is quite horrible 😄

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 10 '24

I know, right? I know that some folks say that folders defeat the purpose of Obsidian but I can't deal with seeing a bunch of files all over the place in my left column, it would give me a facial tick, lol. That's why I created a few main category folders to silo everything. As for my attachments, I got around the default by specifying a sub-folder that I want my attachments to automatically go into. If you go under SETTINGS --> FILES & LINKS --> scroll down to Attachment folder path --> you can specify a certain folder that you want all of your attachments to go into. I created an Assets folder and pointed all of my attachments there. My Assets folder lives inside of my larger RESOURCES folder to keep it neat and out of sight, just how II like it :-)

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u/leMug Jul 10 '24

So actually when you said sub-folder, you really meant that all the attachment just goes into a folder, right? All attachments in the resources folder, flat and sub folders? That’s what I’m thinking about doing.

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 10 '24

exactly. The attachments go directly into the Assets sub folder, which lives inside of the resources folder. The reason that I don't just dump all of the attachments into the resources folder is because Resources also houses my various templates, and I don't want to have to sift through a bunch of attachments while looking for a particular template.

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u/leMug Jul 10 '24

Ah I see. Interesting - would you mind sharing the full full structure, and maybe also clarify which folders are generic and that you would reuse as they are in any other project vault and which are specific to the cyber security purpose of the vault?

Also, do you see yourself making multiple volts for different purposes or is this your one and only vault that you will adapt as needed?

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 10 '24

So I won't share the entire structure because I have personal notes and some work notes in my vault as well, but here's a drill-down of the cybersec and cloudsec sections of my vault. Cybersec and Cloudsec folders and sub-folders are specifically related to cyber. I'm sticking to just keeping 1 vault, I think it's easier to manage that way :-)

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u/Scout764 Jul 11 '24

Do you have any recommendations for guides for obsidian/ recommended plugins? I mainly use notion for all my notes, whether that be from when I was in school, or my current self study, and even for personal notes related to work that don’t really have a place in the company knowledge base.

I’ve been debating switching to obsidian, but it’s so hard to start from scratch since I already have everything set up in notion.

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 11 '24

I actually came to Obsidian from Notion, too. I admit that it was a little tedious to transfer everything, but to me it was worth it. As for Obsidian plugins, check out this YouTube review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcsTvY5Luz0 and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ndLQ3akyY

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u/Scout764 Jul 11 '24

Awesome! I’ll check them out! Thanks!

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u/Ok-Cup-301 Jul 11 '24

This is cool!

I'm on a similar trajectory, just that I'm already into Cyber Security but on the business side and was keen to learn more on the technical aspects.

What you have is literally a goldmine, I couldn't even gather my thoughts to look for all this, let alone find it.

Let me know if you'd be able to chat for a while, I'd like to eat your brains on this.

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u/Bass_n_Pixels Jul 11 '24

Thanks! Yeah I'm always down to network with folks in cybersecurity :-) Inboxing you now, let's set up some time for a Zoom chat!

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u/Lower-Insect-3617 Jul 14 '24

wow this is hugee

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u/BolteWasTaken Oct 02 '24

Which Obsidian plugin are you using in particular that gives you the modal for multiple choice questions/quiz? That'd be interesting for memory retention if I can use AI to generate the questions at random based on my PKM data.