- [<] Status Log - created:: 2022-06-16 - current-status:: #used/external posted to the [LYT forum](https://forum.linkingyourthinking.com/t/rss-is-useful-for-curating-opportunities-for-encounters/8696) - [S] Marketing - purpose:: Wrote it for the LYT workshop as a follow-up to [[LYT Guide Work]], but if Nick doesn't mind I might ask if I can spin it out into a free post for the [[Obsidian Roundup]]. (Nick says it's fine) Every now and then people ask me how I use RSS to centered on synthesis, I shared a screenshot of what my RSS feed looks like and a couple of people asked for more details about what RSS is and how to use it to have frequent **encounters** with things one might to make notes about. ## What is it? RSS (“real simple syndication”) is a protocol, a standard set of rules that allow electronic devices to communicate with each other. It’s similar to an API or the standardized way we use radio waves to send information from radio stations to car radios ([or your phone, but I digress](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-unlock-fm-radio-hidden-smartphone/)). In the case of RSS, it basically lets websites talk to content aggregators, which put together new posts from a variety of different sources into one combined, chronological feed under your control (instead of being at the mercy of an algorithm or having to visit 10+ different sites to find everything you’re interested in). It’s similar to how email is a host-neutral protocol, except RSS is for content instead of conversations. ## What can I do with it? The vast majority of web publications and podcasts put out an RSS feed; it’s a stock feature of Wordpress, which powers over a third of all the internet’s websites. Popular newsletter hosting services like Substack and Ghost also provide RSS feeds. Newsletter services that don’t (like Mailchimp and Convertkit) can usually be turned _into_ an RSS feed with services like [kill-the-newsletter](https://kill-the-newsletter.com/). Even forum software like this one, Discourse, support RSS. For example, according to my RSS app, over 400 people are currently following the feed for [Obsidian Update Announcements](https://forum.obsidian.md/c/announcements/13). ![[Pasted image 20220616093104.png]] I also pipe in Reddit communities I like and aggregated research feeds like [ScienceDaily](https://www.sciencedaily.com/). ## How do I use it? I am _personally_ in the habit of using the free tier of [Feedly](https://feedly.com/) for truncated or “complicated” feeds (like reddit threads and ScienceDaily) that I like to “click through” to the original site to read once I’ve identified something interesting, and [Readwise](https://readwise.io/i/ac9) Reader (currently in closed beta) for things I want to highlight, but you could just as easily use Feedly and something like [Hypothesis](https://web.hypothes.is/) or [Matter](https://hq.getmatter.com/). For things I my feed, generally I divide them into 5 categories: - things I haven’t seen yet (unread) - things that have an interesting title and I want to follow up on (read later) - things I read and want to take notes on but didn’t highlight or annotate, perhaps because I was on my phone and it was a reddit thread and none of my phone apps can handle highlighting reddit threads cleanly (starred) - things I read and liked but don’t actually feel a need to take notes on (archive — to make it easier to find when it inevitably comes up again and I find myself wishing I’d taken notes on it) - things I read and liked and took notes on (archive + in my Obsidian vault) ## When do I use it? I “filter the noise” of the RSS feed when I have short snippets of time, like for example in the bathroom or my husband is finishing up dinner. All I do is flag things that might be useful. When I have bigger blocks of time, but am not at my desk and can’t “be productive” (like at the doctor’s office or otherwise waiting for an appointment), I’ll read something from my read-later pile. When I am actually at my desk, but too tired or stressed out to “be productive” (often at night or before a big event, when I can’t focus on longform writing or big projects), I will “process” my highlights and annotations by making notes in my own words and organizing them.