Thinking with Pictures: A Digital Commonplace Book Tour

Ember just got images. Yep, I’m pretty stoked (see what I did there?).

You can now save screenshots, photos, and drawings to your commonplace book right next to your quotes, then open a journal reflection and think out loud about what caught your eye.

In this walkthrough I show how images work, how Spark, Question, and Reflection help you go deeper on an idea, and the new time-based search that lets you ask things like “what did I save last week about creativity?” If you’ve ever saved something and never looked at it again, this one’s for you.

Video Chapters
00:00 - Introduction & Ember Updates Overview
00:32 - Adding Images to Your Commonplace Book
01:42 - Why Ember Pairs Commonplacing with Journaling
02:46 - Notes, Pinning to Mantle, and Card Actions
03:52 - Starting a Reflection (Voice Thinking with Whisper)
05:56 - Finding Sparks & Thought-Provoking Questions
07:44 - Connecting Prior Journal Reflections & Highlights
09:43 - Viewing Reflection Links & Card Interactions
10:03 - Semantic "Vibe" Search Explained
11:03 - New Time-Based Search (Dates, Ranges & Topics)
12:53 - Wrap-Up & Trying Out Ember

Introduction & Ember Updates Overview

Hello, Deep Thinker. I’m really excited to show you some more updates to Ember, the commonplace book app. If you watched my last video, I talked about the homepage and how it’s changed. You can go back and watch that, since I won’t rehash the whole thing here. Today’s update is mostly in the commonplace book area.

Adding Images to Your Commonplace Book

For the first time, you can add images to your commonplace book.

I’ve always been a fan of saving images, but I wanted to make sure I built this feature the right way inside Ember. So I took my time with it, and here we are. I’ve also updated search so you can now search by time. I’ll show you what that looks like in a minute.

If you’re on your computer and you have something you just took a screenshot of, all you need to do is click and drag it in. That’s pretty standard across other apps. If you want to remove it, just hover over it and hit the trash can icon. You can also go up to the top right and choose a file.

Why Ember Pairs Commonplacing with Journaling

Here’s the thing about Ember. It’s not just a place to store quotes, like a box of ideas you never touch again. Ember is a place where you jump in and talk with your ideas and think them through in your journal.

That’s why there are two tools in Ember. (Three tabs if you count the home screen.) The two tools that make this work are the journal and the commonplace book. You save ideas in your commonplace book, and now that can include images along with text quotes. I can filter by text or by images. Then you wrestle with those ideas in the journal. You save them, then you wrestle with them.

Notes, Pinning to Mantle, and Card Actions

You can add a note to any card. It’s a little line that sits at the bottom. So if I save these leaves, I can add a quick note about what drew me to it. That note is searchable too.

I can add a card to the Mantle, which is basically Ember’s way of pinning something.

I can also copy it. Copying images works really well if I want to send a friend something from my commonplace book. I just tap on it, hit the copy button, and text it to them.

I can also click into any card to see a bigger version of the image or quote, and all the same actions are right there.

Starting a Reflection (Voice Thinking with Whisper)

The big thing is that I want to start engaging with these ideas. I’ve saved something, and now I want to start a new reflection in my journal.

To do that, I hover over any card and click the chat icon. That opens a new reflection that includes whatever I chose to engage with. From there I can start typing, or, since I like to talk my ideas out, I can use Whisper from OpenAI, which is built into Ember, to capture my thoughts. Let me do that real quick:

I came across this drawing and it struck me, because I’m fascinated with a lot of things AI can do. But I want to remember not to only be fascinated with AI. I put a note on this card as a reminder not to take AI too seriously. There are things that are completely out of this world that AI can’t hold a candle to. And it’s funny, a lot of the things in here are things only God can make. Or like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s so ordinary, so simple. I never want to forget that the things right in front of me, the things that have nothing to do with AI, are things I can be fascinated with. So it’s both. I love AI and I think it’s awesome, but there are things that are cooler than AI.

All right, I’ve responded. That’s the idea with Ember: you respond to something that moved you. In this case it was an image, but it could be a quote.

Finding Sparks & Thought-Provoking Questions

Now here’s where it gets interesting. I can call up another quote, a question, or a related reflection.

If I hit Spark, Ember looks through my commonplace book and shows suggestions for this reflection. This is new too. Before, it would just show a single spark, but now it opens a window with a few items from my commonplace book that relate.

I can keep scrolling and see my whole commonplace book. I can search for something like “creativity,” and it’ll find everything related by vibe search. I can filter by text or images. Or I can hit Surprise Me, and it picks one of the top three. This time it chose: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”

So now I have another quote to respond to as I think about not just being fascinated with AI, but with things that aren’t AI.

I can keep going. If I hit Question, it asks me: What ordinary joys might you be overlooking while being fascinated by AI’s capabilities? It’s a thoughtful question that shows up in the moment and responds to whatever you’re thinking about. That’s how Question always works.

Connecting Prior Journal Reflections & Highlights

Or I can hit Reflection, which opens a similar window showing reflections I’ve already written that might relate to this one. Here’s one called “Physical Books and Aiming Higher,” another reflection from my journal, now showing up inside this one. (This reflection is now titled “Beyond AI: Embracing Simple Wonders.” Ember names it for you after a bit, and you can rename it.)

I hope you’re seeing what’s happening here. I started by responding to an image. I can save images in Ember, then engage with them by thinking out loud, by asking my commonplace book to chime in, by asking a friend to ask me a question, and by asking my past reflections what else relates.

I can also open Highlights from that other reflection. These are all things in my own words from “Physical Books and Aiming Higher.” Things like: I need to aim higher in how I gain clarity. Need to go to the Bible. I can add one of these to my current reflection or save it as a spark.

This is just the way I like to think with ideas. When you’re done, you can copy the whole reflection, text and all. If you want the images too, you can download it as Markdown with images. Everything in one spot.

Viewing Reflection Links & Card Interactions

Back in the commonplace book, you’ll notice this card now shows that I have one reflection. Every card has a little reflection link that shows what you’ve engaged with, which is really cool.

Semantic “Vibe” Search Explained

Now let’s talk about search.

In your commonplace book, you can search by vibe or by keyword. It’s set to vibe by default. When I think of vibe, I think of searching with a phrase or a question. Like “How should I create?”

I hit enter, and it says there are 70 sparks near “How should I create?” These are all ideas I’ve saved that relate to that question. So even if I’m in a journal session and just want to browse my commonplace book, instead of having it bubble something up for me, I can come in here and start asking questions. “How should I create?” “Who should I create with?” Each one brings up a different set of ideas.

New Time-Based Search (Dates, Ranges & Topics)

The newest feature is searching by time.

I can search today, and these are all the things I saved today. These are pictures I took on my walk. I can search yesterday.

I can search 45 days ago. What did I save then? This one from Sam Altman: “The days are long but the decades are short.”

I can search last 45 days to see everything I’ve saved in that window. It shows the date range too, which I think is nice: 114 sparks.

I can search an actual date, like April 14, 2026, and see what I saved on or around that day. I can search last month or last 30 days.

It’s really cool because I can ask, “Man, what was I thinking about last week? What caught my attention?”

And I can combine them. Last week + creativity: what did I save last week that has to do with creativity?

Wrap-Up & Trying Out Ember

So there you have it. Ember: commonplace book and journal in one app. The update is here, including the ability to add images.

Thanks for hanging out with me, and I’ll see you in the next video.

Try Ember.

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