Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Atria Books (2022), 272 pages
Description
"Building a Second Brain is Getting Things Done for the digital age. It's a revolutionary new productivity method for consuming, synthesizing, and remembering the vast amount of information we take in, allowing us to become more effective and creative and harness the unprecedented amount of technology we have at our disposal"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member scottjpearson
In the last few decades, computers and the Internet have provided humans with new access to untold masses of information. Humans are just now catching up on how to use this information for our own good. The technology needs to make our lives easier and more productive, not less so. Fortunately,
Habits of memorization and recitation are becoming things of the past. With a few new skills, we can use ever-present devices and computers to do these tasks for us. However, we have to learn to use them wisely. They must organize our lives more, not less, or we will become slaves to them. This field, called Personal Knowledge Management, aims to make computational resources our “Second Brain.”
Forte introduces readers how to use note-capturing software to organize one’s entire life – work and personal. He provides some basic, high-level organizational concepts that can get us started on using these. Two potential audiences are especially served: First, newbies to personal organization but old-hats to technology can learn how to organize life effectively; second, newbies to technology but old-hats to personal organization can learn basic skills to make their lives more efficient. These aids can manage both personal/private and business affairs.
Forte admits that in the long run, pragmatism wins out. Humans need to have a working system to organize the many things life throws at us. Those with superior systems – that is, systems that promote creativity and human flourishing – will capture the spoils. Many of us lack access to first-hand mentoring and education to teach us such a system. While Forte provides just a start in this quick read, it can move us in the right direction to changing our minds, hearts, and lives so that we can excel in the coming years.
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first-time author Tiago Forte points the way to use these tools to aid creativity. In book form, he teaches a method that he’s shared in seminars around the world to manage “personal knowledge” better.Habits of memorization and recitation are becoming things of the past. With a few new skills, we can use ever-present devices and computers to do these tasks for us. However, we have to learn to use them wisely. They must organize our lives more, not less, or we will become slaves to them. This field, called Personal Knowledge Management, aims to make computational resources our “Second Brain.”
Forte introduces readers how to use note-capturing software to organize one’s entire life – work and personal. He provides some basic, high-level organizational concepts that can get us started on using these. Two potential audiences are especially served: First, newbies to personal organization but old-hats to technology can learn how to organize life effectively; second, newbies to technology but old-hats to personal organization can learn basic skills to make their lives more efficient. These aids can manage both personal/private and business affairs.
Forte admits that in the long run, pragmatism wins out. Humans need to have a working system to organize the many things life throws at us. Those with superior systems – that is, systems that promote creativity and human flourishing – will capture the spoils. Many of us lack access to first-hand mentoring and education to teach us such a system. While Forte provides just a start in this quick read, it can move us in the right direction to changing our minds, hearts, and lives so that we can excel in the coming years.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Razinha
With a perverse convergence of serendipities, I happen read a book on better organization of notes right after I finally "update" my iPad to iOS 16. Some Jeenyus at CrApple decided to revise the Books app and take away the ability to batch export notes. And I tend to make a lot of notes. Time to
I'm not much for books with cute names, or self-help books for that matter, but there are exceptions to every rule. "Second Brain"? Sure. Four letter bacronyms? (CODE*) Once you get past that, you might find as I did, a few different approaches that just might work. Example: The temptation when initially capturing notes is to also try to decide where they should go and what they mean. Here’s the problem: the moment you first capture an idea is the worst time to try to decide what it relates to. First, because you’ve just encountered it and haven’t had any time to ponder its ultimate purpose, but more importantly, because forcing yourself to make decisions every time you capture something adds a lot of friction to the process.This may have been intuitively obvious to some, but I tended to either try to find the "folder" immediately, or let it sit in the stack (first in last out) rarely seen again.
Selected and distilled and curated Takeaways:
These makes good sense:Your Second Brain shouldn’t be just another way of confirming what you already know.
[...]
Building a Second Brain is not just about downloading a new piece of software to get organized at one point in time; it is about adopting a dynamic, flexible system and set of habits to continually access what we need without throwing our environment.
{I reinvent my dayplanner/calendar/handwritten vs iPad note taking all the time. We'll see if my takeaways from this book are another fad.}
[On "Capturing quotes from podcasts:"} "Many podcast player apps allow you to bookmark or “clip” segments of episodes as you’re listening to them. Some of them will even transcribe the audio into text, so you can export and search it within your notes”
{I wish that the audio book app had a bookmark or note ability.}
[A disagreement] “One of the most cited psychology papers of the 1990s found that 'translating emotional events into words leads to profound social, psychological, and neural changes.'”
{Not for everyone. Okay... profound changes might also be reinforcement of the disturbances. Not a good thing.}
[On Coppola and The Godfather] “Coppola then began to add his own interpretations, distilling and reconstituting his own version of the story. He broke down each scene according to five key criteria: a synopsis (or summary) of the scene; the historical context; the imagery and tone for the “look and feel” of a scene; the core intention; and any potential pitfalls to avoid. In his own words, “I endeavored to distill the essence of each scene into a sentence, expressing in a few words what the point of the scene was.”
{This will always amaze me - the relevance of everything in that creation.}
[Some of the data access suggestions] There are five kinds of Intermediate Packets you can create and reuse in your work:
Distilled notes:
Books or articles you’ve read and distilled so it’s easy to get the gist of what they contain (using the Progressive Summarization technique you learned in the previous chapter, for example).
Outtakes:
The material or ideas that didn’t make it into a past project but could be used in future ones.
Work-in-process:
The documents, graphics, agendas, or plans you produced during past projects.
Final deliverables:
Concrete pieces of work you’ve delivered as part of past projects, which could become components of something new.
Documents created by others:
Knowledge assets created by people on your team, contractors or consultants, or even clients or customers, that you can reference and incorporate into your work.
{Obvious, but when someone else packages them...} “Our creativity thrives on examples. When we have a template to fill in, our ideas are channeled into useful forms instead of splattered around haphazardly. There are best practices and plentiful models for almost anything you might want to make.” Templates. Like (*from above)Keep what resonates (Capture)
Save for actionability (Organize)
Find the essence (Distill)
Show your work (Express)
{Yes, quite useful.}
[And another summarization from a different template] How do you create a Hemingway Bridge? Instead of burning through every last ounce of energy at the end of a work session, reserve the last few minutes to write down some of the following kinds of things in your digital notes:
Write down ideas for next steps:
At the end of a work session, write down what you think the next steps could be for the next one.
Write down the current status:
This could include your current biggest challenge, most important open question, or future roadblocks you expect.
Write down any details you have in mind that are likely to be forgotten once you step away:
Such as details about the characters in your story, the pitfalls of the event you’re planning, or the subtle considerations of the product you’re designing.
Write out your intention for the next work session:
Set an intention for what you plan on tackling next, the problem you intend to solve, or a certain milestone you want to reach.
What did you learn? What did you do well? What could you have done better? What can you improve for next time?
Words for thought. And action.
Show More
apply some of the lessons, I guess. I'm not much for books with cute names, or self-help books for that matter, but there are exceptions to every rule. "Second Brain"? Sure. Four letter bacronyms? (CODE*) Once you get past that, you might find as I did, a few different approaches that just might work. Example: The temptation when initially capturing notes is to also try to decide where they should go and what they mean. Here’s the problem: the moment you first capture an idea is the worst time to try to decide what it relates to. First, because you’ve just encountered it and haven’t had any time to ponder its ultimate purpose, but more importantly, because forcing yourself to make decisions every time you capture something adds a lot of friction to the process.This may have been intuitively obvious to some, but I tended to either try to find the "folder" immediately, or let it sit in the stack (first in last out) rarely seen again.
Selected and distilled and curated Takeaways:
These makes good sense:Your Second Brain shouldn’t be just another way of confirming what you already know.
[...]
Building a Second Brain is not just about downloading a new piece of software to get organized at one point in time; it is about adopting a dynamic, flexible system and set of habits to continually access what we need without throwing our environment.
{I reinvent my dayplanner/calendar/handwritten vs iPad note taking all the time. We'll see if my takeaways from this book are another fad.}
[On "Capturing quotes from podcasts:"} "Many podcast player apps allow you to bookmark or “clip” segments of episodes as you’re listening to them. Some of them will even transcribe the audio into text, so you can export and search it within your notes”
{I wish that the audio book app had a bookmark or note ability.}
[A disagreement] “One of the most cited psychology papers of the 1990s found that 'translating emotional events into words leads to profound social, psychological, and neural changes.'”
{Not for everyone. Okay... profound changes might also be reinforcement of the disturbances. Not a good thing.}
[On Coppola and The Godfather] “Coppola then began to add his own interpretations, distilling and reconstituting his own version of the story. He broke down each scene according to five key criteria: a synopsis (or summary) of the scene; the historical context; the imagery and tone for the “look and feel” of a scene; the core intention; and any potential pitfalls to avoid. In his own words, “I endeavored to distill the essence of each scene into a sentence, expressing in a few words what the point of the scene was.”
{This will always amaze me - the relevance of everything in that creation.}
[Some of the data access suggestions] There are five kinds of Intermediate Packets you can create and reuse in your work:
Distilled notes:
Books or articles you’ve read and distilled so it’s easy to get the gist of what they contain (using the Progressive Summarization technique you learned in the previous chapter, for example).
Outtakes:
The material or ideas that didn’t make it into a past project but could be used in future ones.
Work-in-process:
The documents, graphics, agendas, or plans you produced during past projects.
Final deliverables:
Concrete pieces of work you’ve delivered as part of past projects, which could become components of something new.
Documents created by others:
Knowledge assets created by people on your team, contractors or consultants, or even clients or customers, that you can reference and incorporate into your work.
{Obvious, but when someone else packages them...} “Our creativity thrives on examples. When we have a template to fill in, our ideas are channeled into useful forms instead of splattered around haphazardly. There are best practices and plentiful models for almost anything you might want to make.” Templates. Like (*from above)Keep what resonates (Capture)
Save for actionability (Organize)
Find the essence (Distill)
Show your work (Express)
{Yes, quite useful.}
[And another summarization from a different template] How do you create a Hemingway Bridge? Instead of burning through every last ounce of energy at the end of a work session, reserve the last few minutes to write down some of the following kinds of things in your digital notes:
Write down ideas for next steps:
At the end of a work session, write down what you think the next steps could be for the next one.
Write down the current status:
This could include your current biggest challenge, most important open question, or future roadblocks you expect.
Write down any details you have in mind that are likely to be forgotten once you step away:
Such as details about the characters in your story, the pitfalls of the event you’re planning, or the subtle considerations of the product you’re designing.
Write out your intention for the next work session:
Set an intention for what you plan on tackling next, the problem you intend to solve, or a certain milestone you want to reach.
What did you learn? What did you do well? What could you have done better? What can you improve for next time?
Words for thought. And action.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sperzdechly
This book is a good introduction to personal knowledge management (PKM). It's targeted at novices, presenting simple rules to get anyone started and building up the motivation to keep going. However, there is little depth or nuance for PKM practitioners who would like to take their process to the
I really like how the BASB book breaks down PKM tools and practices, using simple language and metaphors so that everyone can understand their value. If you feel intimidated by the idea of PKM, think that it takes a lot of time and doubt if you'll get it back, or find yourself in analysis paralysis trying to strategize a perfect setup - this book is definitely for you.
The author takes the minimalistic approach, proposing a simple setup that can be done by anyone without any specialized tools, skills, or systems. He also points out that striving for a perfect setup is counterproductive - it's better to work with something suboptimal on a daily basis. Then you can adapt it to your needs as you go. To facilitate this, he gives some tips on the maintenance and improvement process with his personal examples.
Unfortunately, the value of the book stops here. There is more motivational speaking to get readers going with their PKM practice but it's quite a lot of words and not enough substance. If you know something about project management or have some process for creative work or experience with PKM - you won't find anything groundbreaking here. There is no secret to unlocking creative potential revealed, no revolutionizing PKM method, nothing to go into "advanced" level...
Because this is sold separately in the author's online course. I got a glimpse of it and it's pretty amazing to see Tiago working with his notes, refining them, building something coherent out of seemingly nothing. There is much more nuance discussed and more tips and tricks revealed to save time and get more out of one's notes. If you are serious about PKM and want to build a consistent habit - it will be a better choice than a book (but at a considerably higher price point).
I think this book does what it was intended to do - present the PKM idea to people who were unfamiliar with it and give them a basic intro to get them started. If you are already in the next stage, then I'd recommend searching YouTube for advanced material (there's quite a lot from Tiago himself) or taking a course (if you can afford it).
Show More
next level.I really like how the BASB book breaks down PKM tools and practices, using simple language and metaphors so that everyone can understand their value. If you feel intimidated by the idea of PKM, think that it takes a lot of time and doubt if you'll get it back, or find yourself in analysis paralysis trying to strategize a perfect setup - this book is definitely for you.
The author takes the minimalistic approach, proposing a simple setup that can be done by anyone without any specialized tools, skills, or systems. He also points out that striving for a perfect setup is counterproductive - it's better to work with something suboptimal on a daily basis. Then you can adapt it to your needs as you go. To facilitate this, he gives some tips on the maintenance and improvement process with his personal examples.
Unfortunately, the value of the book stops here. There is more motivational speaking to get readers going with their PKM practice but it's quite a lot of words and not enough substance. If you know something about project management or have some process for creative work or experience with PKM - you won't find anything groundbreaking here. There is no secret to unlocking creative potential revealed, no revolutionizing PKM method, nothing to go into "advanced" level...
Because this is sold separately in the author's online course. I got a glimpse of it and it's pretty amazing to see Tiago working with his notes, refining them, building something coherent out of seemingly nothing. There is much more nuance discussed and more tips and tricks revealed to save time and get more out of one's notes. If you are serious about PKM and want to build a consistent habit - it will be a better choice than a book (but at a considerably higher price point).
I think this book does what it was intended to do - present the PKM idea to people who were unfamiliar with it and give them a basic intro to get them started. If you are already in the next stage, then I'd recommend searching YouTube for advanced material (there's quite a lot from Tiago himself) or taking a course (if you can afford it).
Show Less
LibraryThing member dkalaluhi
Tiago has once again duped people into believing what he has to say is special and worth your hard-earned dollars. The collection of information in this book is nothing more insightful than what one might find on his blog, there's even a post there that was for all of us that were tricked into
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preordering his book! You can also get the same information by attending one of his free events, in which he convinces people to spend money on learning his productivity system, which is really just Luhmann's Zettelkasten system. Everything that is produced by Tiago is one giant advertisement for the class that he overcharges for and provides no real value especially if you have half a brain and a few solid hours to really think about what you do and how you do it. Show Less
LibraryThing member spinsterrevival
There was too much happening here for me to get much out of it. The concept worked well enough for the author because it did feel like he distilled pertinent information from other books and created his own here, but it didn’t really work for me. Basically it boils down to taking notes better,
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but I’m not sure who exactly was the best audience here (business or personal development or creative life or…). Show Less
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2023)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2022-06-14
Physical description
272 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
1982167386 / 9781982167387