Building a Second Brain: The Book
buildingasecondbrain.com
buildingasecondbrain.com
It all feels very surface level, though some of the challenges listed on the site (e.g., being exposed to too much info, not remember books well, reading too many articles, etc.) do resonate with me. Everything is so vague that I can't help but be very skeptical.
Yes if you've already read a lot of the productivity/knowoledge management advice out there, you'll find a lot of repeat or rhyming ideas (I will say that this was the first place I encountered the concept of "Intermediate Packets" stated in a way that made sense to someone with a technical background). But the value is in the curation, and as with most productivity/knowledge management advice, you have to actually apply the stuff to your life to see any result, so the goal of this or any advice book is to state it in convincing and memorable enough ways that you actually STICK TO THE PROGRAM. (kinda like how most health advice is just various forms of "eat less work out" but the feature is whether or not you stick to it)
with that context, Tiago's Second Brain stuff is the stuff that worked for me.
The main thing that hooked me first and foremost was PARA (https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/) - which is the first organizing system that not only made sense but I felt was actually 1) designed for results and 2) to be manageable (most knowledge management systems die under way too much categorization overhead).
I'd say that Second Brain is a system that basically adds a full end to end practical knowledge management system around PARA. (i don't think he'd agree with this categorization but PARA is that big a deal to me)
If you want to try before you buy, you can check out his blog, and he also put out a podcast a couple years ago that I summarized here: https://www.swyx.io/tiago-forte-second-brain in order to internalize it.
And then buy or dont buy the book, honestly this is the sort of thing where you get out what you put in. I will say that this content has been far more validated than most self help type books you come across because he's run dozens of workshops over the span of 7? years and had thousands of students paying thousands of dollars for these workshops so you are getting the end result of a lot of feedback and talking to users. as with all info products, the book is just the cheapest paid tier of the possible ways to engage with these ideas.
It feels like an immense investment of time and energy. In hindsight, has it led to new projects? More creativity? Another outcome?
Or am I missing the point?
These systems are guidelines, and it's rarely useful to get religious about following them exactly. The most important thing is to learn a system, modify it as needed, and stay consistent. A book won't give you discipline.
Cheaper than a $15 book and blog ?