Building a Second Brain
Introduction
The Promise of a Second Brain
To be able to make use of information we value, we need a way to package it up and send it through time to our future self
In the same way that personal computers revolutionized our relationship with technology, personal finance changed how we manage our money, and personal productivity reshaped how we work, personal knowledge management helps us harness the full potential of what we know
When you transform your relationship to information, you will begin to see the technology in your life not just as a storage medium but as a tool for thinking
Whether you call it a “personal cloud,” “field notes,” or an “external brain” as some of my students have done, it is a digital archive of your most valuable memories, ideas, and knowledge to help you do your job, run your business, and manage your life without having to keep every detail in your head
personal knowledge management is one of the most fundamental challenges—as well as one of the most incredible opportunities—in the world today
Everyone is in desperate need of a system to manage the ever-increasing volume of information pouring into their brains
Note: Непокрепленно исследованиями Обобщение под всех Точно ли всем это так необходимо?
This book distills the very best insights I’ve discovered from teaching thousands of people around the world how to realize the potential of their ideas
The field of PKM emerged in the 1990s to help university students handle the huge volume of information they suddenly had access to through Internet-connected libraries. It is the individual counterpart to Knowledge Management, which studies how companies and other organizations make use of their knowledge
Other popular terms for such a system include Zettelkasten (meaning “slip box” in German, coined by influential sociologist Niklas Luhmann), Memex (a word invented by American inventor Vannevar Bush), and digital garden (named by popular online creator Anne-Laure Le Cunff)
PART ONE The Foundation Understanding What’s Possible
Chapter 1
Where It All Started
A Personal Turning Point—Discovering the Power of Writing Things Down
I took notes during meetings, on phone calls, and while doing research online. I wrote down facts gleaned from research papers that could be used in the slides we presented to clients. I wrote down tidbits of insight I came across on social media, to share on our own social channels. I wrote down feedback from my more experienced colleagues
Another Shift—Discovering the Power of Sharing
Information is the fundamental building block of everything you do.
meaningful pursuits like cooking, self-care, hobbies, resting, and spending time with loved ones.
Note: Interesting, that he puts cooking in the front for meaningful pursuits Why is that?
You need to put in the effort to create a note only once, and then you can just mix and match and try out different combinations until something clicks.
Note: This looks a lot like TANA Tana gives you an ability to treat each note as an individual component and mix and match them as you wish I believe there is a similar tool called Napkin to do that You can’t do that in notion or obsidian That’s bad that Readwise doesn’t have a powerful search in order to support this workflow
for an excellent introduction to extended cognition I recommend The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul.
The same way we have a genetic code that determines our height and eye color, we also have a creative code that is hardwired into our imagination. It shapes how we think and how we interact with the world. It is mirrored in the software code that runs the apps we use to handle information. It’s also been a secret code for most of history
Note: МЕ с табличек судьбы Шумеров из курса Эволюции Креативный процесс Но тут 4 шага, а там 6 шагов Здесь нет 2 бессознательных шагов, которые происходят без нашего влияния
keep only what resonates in a trusted place that you control, and to leave the rest aside.
The best way to organize your notes is to organize for action, according to the active projects you are working on right now.
Note: То, до чего я тоже дошел Организовать при помощи тегов, но тег, это проект, над которым я работаю
Every time you take a note, ask yourself, “How can I make this as useful as possible for my future self?”
Information becomes knowledge—personal, embodied, verified—only when we put it to use.
Swift has released five documentary films revealing her creative songwriting process. In all of them, she can be found with her head buried in her phone.
You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, “How did he do it? He must be a genius!”
Note: Почему именно 12? Ресурсов тоже именно 12 Есть ли тут связь?
The key to this exercise is to make them open-ended questions that don’t necessarily have a single answer. To find questions that invoke a state of wonder and curiosity about the amazing world we live in.
Sometimes you come across an idea that is neither inspiring, personal, nor obviously useful, but there is something surprising about it. You may not be able to put your finger on why, but it conflicts with your existing point of view in a way that makes your brain perk up and pay attention. Those are the ideas you should capture.
Note: Это прямо описание блога эволюции Он цепляет, потому что взгляд очень необычный и новый
Every time she begins a new project, she takes out a foldable file box and labels it with the name of the project
the Cathedral Effect.2 Studies have shown that the environment we find ourselves in powerfully shapes our thinking. When we are in a space with high ceilings, for example—think of the lofty architecture of classic churches invoking the grandeur of heaven—we tend to think in more abstract ways.
Note: I think this is why skoltech and skolkovo was built this way
Projects have a couple of features that make them an ideal way to organize modern work. First, they have a beginning and an end; they take place during a specific period of time and then they finish. Second, they have a specific, clear outcome that needs to happen in order for them to be checked off as complete, such as “finalize,” “green-light,” “launch,” or “publish.”
project-centric approach is increasingly finding its way into all knowledge work, a trend named the “Hollywood model” after the way films are made.
The number of active projects usually ranges from five to fifteen for the average person.
the moment you first capture an idea is the worst time to try to decide what it relates to.
Note: I use readwise to resurface my ideas and add tags and notes along the way
Researchers have called it the “Magic Number 4” because it is the highest number that we can count at a glance and hold in our minds without extra effort.
Ken Burns, the renowned creator of award-winning films like The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz, has said that only a tiny percentage of the raw footage he captures eventually makes it into the final cut. This ratio can be as high as 40- or 50-to-1, which means that for every forty to fifty hours of footage he captures, only one hour makes it into the final film.
The most common question I hear about Progressive Summarization is “When should I be doing this highlighting?” The answer is that you should do it when you’re getting ready to create something.
When the opportunity arrives to do our best work, it’s not the time to start reading books and doing research. You need that research to already be done
When she was twelve years old, Estelle watched the 1954 film Devil Girl From Mars, a sensationalist B movie that was so terrible it convinced Estelle that she could write something better
Note: Чувствую такое в клубах Когда слушаю музыку, которая там
“Until I began writing my own stories, I never found quite what I was looking for… In desperation, I made up my own.”
Note: Чувствую тоже самое с музыкой
“The painful, horrifying, the unpleasant things that happen, affect my work more strongly than the pleasant ones. They’re more memorable and more likely to goad me into writing interesting stories.”
The challenge we face in building a Second Brain is how to establish a system for personal knowledge that frees up attention, instead of taking more of it.
Every time you make a sketch, design a slide, record a short video on your phone, or post on social media, you are undertaking a small creative act that produces a tangible by-product.
Screenshots of conference websites you admire are the best possible starting point for designing your own.
It takes far too much energy to apply tags to every single note
serendipity is amplified by visual patterns. This is why I strongly suggest saving not only text notes but images as well
Some digital notes apps allow you to display only the images saved in your notes, which is a powerful way of activating the more intuitive, visual parts of your brain.
Note: Сделать специальный тег для заметок картинок в Readwise Чтобы можно было посмотреть сразу все картинки
quote about creativity is from the eighteenth-century philosopher Giambattista Vico: Verum ipsum factum. Translated to English, it means “We only know what we make.”
Creative products are always shiny and new; the creative process is ancient and unchanging. —Silvano Arieti, psychiatrist and author of Creativity: The Magic Synthesis
If you’d like to make a short film, start with a YouTube video, or if that’s too intimidating, a livestream. If it’s still too much, record a rough cut on your phone and send it to a friend.
The moment I created a dedicated project folder, I knew it was on.
Note: Это считается этапом старта сев?
Finding your voice and speaking your truth is a radical act of self-worth
Wherever you are at this moment—just starting a practice to consistently take notes, or finding ways to more effectively organize and resurface your best thinking, or generating more original and impactful work—you can always fall back on the four steps of CODE
Note: Вспомнилось про подход к креативному процессу через процесс посадки зерна Ведь на протяжении тысячелетий это было основной задачей для выживания
Thank you to Stephanie Hitchcock and the team at Atria for your willingness to take a chance on a novel idea and a first-time author. This book exists only because you saw its potential and committed to seeing it realized. I’m deeply grateful to my editor, Janet Goldstein, for wrangling my words (and sometimes me!) into a message far clearer and more elegant than anything I could have come up with on my own. My agent, Lisa DiMona, has graciously guided me through every step of the publishing journey from the earliest days of this project. I look forward to working together for many years to come.
Note: Good advice of people to work with on a book