Building a Second Brain
For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough. Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals. Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by Building a Second Brain.
Stats for nerds
16recommend
35mentions
30people
2020–2026years
49% recommend51% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There's a entire book out there about this particular subject called "Building a Second Brain", written by Tiago Forte.
https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/
I've read it and it's pretty good. Maybe you should give it a try as well.
- I bought the book "Building a Second Brain"[^1] by Tiago Forte and its recommended PARA methods is well-conceived, directly usable and tried and trusted for me. There is even a follow-up book from him about PARA only [^2]. I recommend to check it out (you'll also find many resources in the internet without the need to buy a book - although I highly recommend it and it would be an appreciation for the author)
- u/lifeisstillgood look into "Building a Second Brain" and Tiago's PARA method, could help?
- I think there's even more to unpack, though. Yes, there will be a fair bit of repeated knowledge, but what the 30+ books do is cement your mental map and expose the common agreement and disagreements in the general field. From there, additional work may not be novel because there are a handful of insights and 200 pages of rehash once you have that mental map, but there is no single book developed that can implant that mental map.
And that is true in most fields. It takes seeing multiple perspectives to figure out what will "stick" with you. Tiago Forte's "Building a Second Brain" stuck with me because I had already read "Getting Things Done" and a number of other productivity books. (As but one example.)
- I have issues with memory/retainment due to a traumatic brain injury from a car accident in high school, and am incredibly dependent on using Obsidian as sort of a "second brain."
While I've only adopted about half of the methods outlined in Tiago Forte's book, Building a Second Brain [1], it's been very effective for me. I prefer hierarchical folder structure for organization, but I do use his overall PARA structure.
I also use an "inbox" or intake folder inspired by Zettelkasten for newly created notes. I really believe significant cognitive overhead of sorting/tagging/organizing gets in the way of getting your thoughts/notes written down. I generally spend ~10-15 minutes after getting the kids to bed to organize any notes created throughout the day. This is part of my wind-down routine, involving quickly journaling an overall summary of the day on my daily notes and migrating any outstanding TODO's to the next day.
IMO though, the most important thing is to use whatever method of structure/routine/organization works for you. Approach it as an iterative process and play with interesting ideas or methodologies.
One thing in Tiago Forte's BASB that I _strongly_ agree with is that regardless of how much organization you put into your digital notes, search is often the fastest way to find something you're looking for, so spending immense time on organization is counter-intuitive to the reason to take notes. Spending some time to organize your thoughts can inspire connections between notes that you hadn't initially thought of, but it is a slippery slope: it is easy to get lost in the process of structuring your notes and end up with that as your sole purpose of your documented thoughts.
- markdown files
tools:
vim, rg, fd, fzf (ff as wrapper on Windows), sometimes ctags
Concepts learned with books:
- Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
- How to Take Smart Notes
- Building a Second Brain
Can be found here and some more:
https://github.com/vbd/Fieldnotes/blob/main/booklist.md#self...
