Hello there
Mmm, look at you! It seems you’re a proud member of one of the smallest group of my friends, the **Curious Gang** (and hey, it also means that you’re part of another group, the smartest ones 😉 gj mate, gj). In this team we must support each other against dumberism...
Before diving deep into what a second brain is and what it’s used for, and more specifically into what I think it is and how it can serve us, let me take a moment to share the story behind my decision to build it, as well as the purpose of this space overall.
Good News and Problem Recognition
Probably you don’t know this, or maybe you’re not even interested, but I usually used Google Chrome as a browser on all my devices. I have a lot of tabs open on both my smartphone (I’m always at +99 counter) and PC. When a colleague of mine showed me (thank you Szymon 🖤) the Google Chrome feature that allows you to group tabs, my first honest thought was: This gonna change my life!
And that was true! I discovered a super useful feature that I already use while browsing, but what I was referring to at that time was something different.
Back then, I thought that what I had found was a solution for the information management issues that had afflicted me for a long time. What a fool 🤦♂️. Over the years, I tried many solutions to track informations from different sources, not only digital workarounds —using some mobile apps (like Evernote) or Google Workspace solutions (like Keep + Tasks)— but also analog ones (like pen&paper, w/ Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal method). For a while a lived simbiotically with Notion, for sure the most wonderful productivity and note-taking web application ever created, but nothing change. For a short period, I even tried to use the main engine of modern technology, social media (sharing everything privately on Facebook, or sending stuff to myself on WhatsApp - I still do this).
Nothing worked for me. And that was sad because I’m super curious about the world around me, and I cannot imagine how much information, how many images, thoughts, documents, videos, podcasts and posts I’ve lost forever during all these failing years!!
But the best stories have a happy ending, and this one does too. Because tryna solving my problem nothing worked but Obsidian. I have to admit: I’ve discoreved Obsidian too late (thank you Lele 🖤), hands down the most most versatile, powerful, free and simply to use note-taking application that the entire web had ever seen. But there is no place for regret in there! My mistakes can be opportunities for everyone who’s reading those words, and also for myself, because as a chinese proverb said:
[quote] «The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now»
What is a “Second brain”?
[quote] What the f@ck is a Second Brain? Is it “really” a second Brain? (semicit.)
First of all, credits: the idea of a Second Brain comes from Tiago Forte, how simply describe it as "a useful system to manage personal information, with the aim of helping in gathering, organizing a rec ideas a knowledge in the most possible efficient way".
This system literally work as an extension of our real brain and memory, allowing us to free our minds from memonic works and focusing on creative a strategic thinking. In our times, we know, manging information in an efficient way is crucial to ensure productivity and personal growth, and living w/o a tool like during the information era is a (loser) choice under multiple points of view (not only productivity, but also remember and knwoledge tout court).