I Deleted My Second Brain

I think the useful middle ground if it’s getting to be too much is not trying to merge every note into a “second brain”. But instead keeping a much smaller reusable layer for the things you actually want to come back to, ideas, links, AI prompts, quick replies, checklists, and notes you reuse often.

If my notes are not visually scannable in categories and easily retrievable then I just end up forgetting about them.

So I use a text manager with a custom keyboard so I can quickly find and paste things whenever I need. I use the app Snippeta for this.

> For years, I had been building what technologists and lifehackers call a “second brain.” The premise: capture everything, forget nothing.

Is that really what people think of when they hear "second brain"? For me, it doesn't mean "capture everything", it just means "capture things where you can retrieve them later", but setting out to "capture everything" sounds both like a nightmare for capturing, but as the author seemingly found out, it also seems like a nightmare to maintain.

The personal knowledge management systems turned into a mausoleum of old selves that replaced thinking rather than enhancing it.