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I was sitting at my desk, preparing for my second job change in two years, when I found myself saying something out loud to no one:

“Thank you.”

I was talking to a version of me from twelve months earlier. The one who documented every interview question, every coaching session, every lesson learned. Notes I’d completely forgotten I’d written — but there they were, exactly when I needed them.

That moment taught me something: note-taking isn’t about productivity. It’s about compounding. Every note is a small investment in your future self.

But I didn’t always think this way. For years, my notes were scattered across apps, half-organised, half-forgotten. It took an Evernote to Obsidian migration — and a philosophy called “digital bankruptcy” — to turn a messy habit into a system.

Let me start at the beginning: the instinct.

Running local LLMs at home is easier than it looks. With the right mini PC, Ubuntu setup, BIOS tweaks, and Docker containers, you can build a powerful lab that runs models like Mistral 7B and Ollama on AMD hardware. Here’s how I set up mine.

It started the way many of my tinkering projects do: with a cup of coffee and a quiet Saturday morning. For weeks I’d been thinking about building a small server — something quiet enough to sit under the desk, strong enough to handle 7B–8B (or even 12-14B!) models, and flexible enough to let me learn Docker properly without melting my laptop. This time, instead of just daydreaming, I actually pressed “Order”. A little box was on its way to become my home LLM LAB.