š§ caramelized onions + second brain + real life
Three things I am making, loving + thinking about this week
01 | making
In a past newsletter I wrote about how some things canāt be bought, they must be built. This week Iām highlighting an ingredient that canāt be bought, it must be made: caramelized onions.Ā
I canāt think of any other ingredient that is similar in that you cannot buy it somewhere. And not that you just canāt buy a good version, you canāt buy it at all ā not online, in the prepared section, or from a specialty retailer. So, if you want caramelized onions, youāre going to have to make them yourself. Step-by-step recipes for them are plentiful; here are a few trusted sources to get you started:
I use caramelized onions a lot. I put them on burgers and sandwiches, in frittatas, on pizza and focaccia, and I add them to soups or pastas. They are easy to make in big batches and freeze in smaller portions so you have them on hand whenever the need arises. Which is handy, since you canāt go to the store and buy them. š
02 | loving
Over ten years ago I read David Allenās Getting Things Done. Since then it has become so ingrained into my daily life that it doesnāt register as a āsystemā anymore and itās hard for me imagine how I functioned before practicing GTD.
I am three-quarters of the way through reading Building a Second Brain and I have a feeling this will be a very similar experience. In Building a Second Brain, Tiago Forte outlines CODE (Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express) and introduces the PARA* method (Project, Area, Resource, and Archive) for capturing and organizing all of the knowledge we accumulate on a daily basis.
I am a pretty organized person and after owning a design firm for 20+ years, I have a very good system in place for keeping track of client projects and business documents on a server environment. But thereās so much fuzzy, amorphous digital information that doesnāt fit neatly into a project folder: quotes, online articles, book notes, recipe ideas, inspiration, how-to guides, restaurant recommendations, exercise routine videosā¦ on and on and on and on.
As I read, my mind is spinning with ideas and ah-hahs. I am also reading it through the lens of how could this apply not only to digital information, but physical, tactile items as well? I have a lot of paper documents, sketches, studies, and reference material that I want to somehow corral, organize, and make searchable. Itās a tall order and for the past couple of years I have been working on creating a system based on the Zettelkasten method. Itās working really well as a stand-alone solution for analog information, but the holy grail would be to integrate it with a digital knowledge base. Enter: a Second Brain.
ā”ļø Tiago Forteās Building a Second Brain Ā»
P.S. There is no getting around this one: if you want to build a second brain, youāre definitely doing that yourself!Ā
* His second book The PARA Method comes out on August 15, 2023.
03 | thinking
When I say āthree things I am making, loving + thinking about this week,ā I really mean it. I donāt have any drafted newsletters in the queue or a list of canned topic ideas that I pull from. Every Friday or Saturday, I sit down to reflect on the past week and decide which three things I want to share.
Real life isnāt always art, mocktails, and inspiring quotes; sometimes bad sh*t happens. This week a friend of mine died. She was the wife of a childhood friend. She was the mother of three children. This week I have been thinking about her, our friend, and their kids.