Building a Second Brain

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Strategic Next Actions

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Strategic Learning Points

(Elaboration)

1. This book reminded me that the average person is suffering from information overload. This was the main reason why I originally created tommyoffe.com, which then later evolved into involgize.com. It was all about cutting through the overload to identify and focus on information that has the greater strategic importance and application. In terms of assisting others, it is important that I too do not become another source of information that just adds to the existing overload, which actually causes anxiety. That probably means that I should emphasis the significance of completing the first 10 books within the IVG intelligence program. And consistently explain how any new books relate to these initial ten. This is exactly what I have done with the book ‘Building a Second Brain.’ I explained that it is just an extension of personal development books within the productivity and personal effectiveness arena. Therefore, not urgent, but will probably be important to read in the medium to long-term.
2. This text really makes the point that it is all about first obtaining the best information to use to create our lives. So we need a way to package and send the information to ourselves in the future so that we cultivate a body of knowledge that serves our unique needs and opportunities. It all starts by writing things down.
3. Basically, the author has called the digital system that he has created a ‘Second Brain.’ Over time, I have built my own system which is part digital, including my website and now instagram; but I’ve never given it a name per se, as I’ve always seen it as something only I need to do because of the way I choose to be. However, I now accept that it is definitely a tool for expanding our thinking, organisation, and creativity that will apply to many people across the board. On further reflection, building a Second Brain is what Charles Munger and others refer to as creating a lattice work of mental models. Only this book stresses the importance of utilising technology when constructing your mental models.
4. The author claims that anybody that leverages technology to master their flow of information will achieve anything that they set their minds upon. This makes me think of involgizecapital.website. If the writer is right, It seems inevitable that using my new website to detail and catalogue my thoughts everyday concerning trading will cause me without doubt to become a master trader. But, without the prior experience of actually achieving this before, I have chosen to see it as an experiment.
5. Consistent with the writer’s experience, I have also seen that creating a digital version of my notes (blog posts) has enabled them to become a business asset. For example, I often use some of my blog-posts that were written as early as 2010, to decide how best to teach and coach my current clients. And I have even made reading them a form of homework.
6. Indirectly, the writer revealed that reading books has been key to him developing the technique and concept of building a second digital brain.
7. Six years ago, the writer created an online course called ‘Building a Second Brain’ which lead him to now writing this book. This makes me think about whether it would make strategic sense for me to create an online course, as well, concerning reading the first 10 books on the Involgize process? Ideally, I see myself creating an online course relating to how to process information strategically and rapidly.
8. The writer confirms what I have been arguing for decades: information is the fundamental building block of everything we do. Anything we might want to accomplish—executing a project at work, getting a new job, learning a new skill, starting a business—requires finding and putting to use the right information. Our professional success and quality of life depend directly on our ability to manage information effectively. This is why I have always prioritised reading in my life, and encouraged others to play the knowledge the game as soon as possible.
9. In total agreement with the writer, the internet has truly created a nation-wide poverty of attention! The question is how can I help remedy this problem immediately? (1) make sure that my videos tells the audience that they shouldn’t read the books I read until they are ready. (2) Explain how my latest books relate to the first ten on the IVG program. (3) Deliberately reduce the frequency of my posting.
10. Building my websites and instagram profile has definitely change the way I think in many ways to my advantage. To name just a few, it has made me (1) more brand and marketing conscious in every way, (2) understand exactly what and why my brand colour coding is black, white, and red (3) a 10x better photographer, (4) a 10x better videographer and video editor, (5) it’s currently improving my public speaking ability, (6) improved my written communication ability, (6) motivated me to become 700x book smarter, (7) a much better teacher or coach, (8) fashion conscious. All in all, instagram and my websites have been making me become a phenomenal person.
11. This book has allowed me to really appreciate that what has been making the difference for those who historically, and currently, achieve the phenomenal is the keeping of a daily journal (reading and writing as inseparable activities). Therefore, making this journaling process digital is an innovative steps that looks set to make another significant difference. It’s not coincidence that I evolved into creating digital book reviews as part of my mental filing process and system.
12. The writer recommends building a digital second brain in order to create a laboratory to experiment with our learning and growth, and test our ideas before we share them with the world.
13. The key is to be on our smartphone creating value by building a second brain instead of doing what most people do, killing their time.
14. The writer confirms that from his experience, the digital second brain acts as a feedback mechanism that allows us to see our patterns of behaviour. It acts like data, enabling use to tweak our intellect, imagination, and consciousness. 
15. The writer confirms my experience of becoming an information person when he states the following: ‘people can tell there is something different about you. They start to recognize that you can draw on an unusually large body of knowledge at a moment’s notice. They remark on your amazing memory, but what they don’t know is that you never even try to remember anything. They admire your incredible dedication to developing your thinking over time.’ All in all, this reveals to me that the reading and writing thing is no joke. It’s something not to be played with. Essentially, it also confirms to me that every 2 minute video that I produce will aid the revelation of the power of producing a digital brain.
16. The author prophesies that people like me will cultivate such a sense of confidence in the quality of our thinking that it gives us the freedom to ask deeper questions and the courage to pursue bigger challenges. We can’t fail, because failure is just more information to be captured and used as fuel for our journey. This appears to be what has happened with me concerning the creation of tommyoffe.com andinvolgize.com, which has now provided me with the freedom and courage to purse the bigger challenge of building involgize.capital. I know, in advance, that if I can just capture the best quality trading and investing information on a digital system, then use that system to apply the info and program myself now and in the future. In theory, this system will then ensure that in time I will easily become a financial expert or master in due course.
17. “Before we do anything with our ideas, we have to “off-load” them from our minds and put them into concrete form. Only when we declutter our brain of complex ideas can we think clearly and start to work with those ideas effectively.” This is exactly the reason why I am carrying out this book review. To turn the ideas that I have picked up from my reading into key strategic action points. This process will enable me to really connect the info to others stuff, making full use of the writer’s knowledge and experience.
18. Reminded of the fact that having a digital intelligence system means the passage of time starts to work in our favour. As we get older, this system will allow us to get smarter and smarter as it acts as an ageless and growing mental filing library of sorts.
19. Reviewing this book has allowed me to appreciate that everything does truly come down to information. Our ability to do business or pursue a career comes back to what information we have access too, and how we use that information to connect or communicate with others. What we pour into our brain is all that we can get out. Literally! Thus supporting the point that reading in many respect is not a optional activity.
20. Creating a digital brain is definitely a three step process. (1) We use it to capture the most important ideas that we would like to remember as a memory aid. (2) Then, it will naturally become something that allows us to connect all of the ideas that we have captured together. (3) Lastly, we will be able to use the synthesis of our captured ideas to create something new, or re-invent something that already exists. This is why reading 1000 books may be so important, as it almost guarantees the completion of the three step process. Someone with 200 books should, in theory, be better positioned to carry out the three stage process than someone who has read 100 only. Just as someone with 500 books should be better placed to carry out the process, than someone who has just read 300. And so on and so forth.
21. The writer’s “CODE”—Capture; Organize; Distill; Express system is similar to David Allen’s Collect, Process, Organise, Review. I guess the evolution of the productivity message is to, now, seek to carry out the key process of productivity digitally, using the technological tools that today are available.
22. Note-taking becomes extremely significant in the respect that we have to have the capacity to capture or collect the things that mean the most to us. This kick starts the entire process of us learning more about ourselves, and the world around us.
23. Similar to myself, the writer argues that capturing or collecting information that allows us to be practical with urgency, or take immediate action, is the only why to truly cut out the information noise or overload that we experience within our everyday lives. Because most information will not have any practical urgency for us, we will be able conveniently ignore the majority of the info noise in order to hone in on what truly matters or will make a difference.
24. In terms of note-taking, the book makes the point that the best way to make notes is to anticipate what our futures selves would need to know, and in my case, in a format that provides the information fast and succinct. Hence why I have three sections: (1) Strategic Next Actions, (2) Strategic Learning Points, and (3) Key Strategic Extracts.
25. Similar to the approach I have taken, the writer recommends that readers setup a website and start writing as soon as by adding pages to their site one at a time. He recommends that people do this in the knowledge that they can always come back and revise their pages. The key thing is to start creating something by writing instead of just being a consumer by reading.
26. The writer states that “Information isn’t a luxury—it is the very basis of our survival.” This is something that totally re-affirms my understanding and approach to life.
27. Everybody at the top of their game our following a creative process which is (1) capturing a memory of ideas, (2) synthesising the captured ideas, and (3) the application of the synthesised ideas to re-invent or create something new. “Think about your favorite athlete, musician, or actor. Behind the scenes of their public persona, there is a process they follow for regularly turning new ideas into creative output. The same goes for inventors, engineers, and effective leaders. Innovation and impact don’t happen by accident or chance. Creativity depends on a creative process.” I think it is time for me to look into the creative process more deeply.
28. This book touches on the importance of using questions in our lives as a north star (for guidance and direction). I would go further in claiming that the human mind is so powerful that any question that we pose with intention and consistency, it will eventually provide us with answers. My list of questions that I have used to guide the information that I consume strategically have been: 
    (1). How do we achieve true financial mastery with true independence? 
    (2). How does a person become truly limitless? 
    (3). What happens if a person from a poor neighbourhood reads 1000 books? 
    (4). What will happen if we build a new decentralised culture based on acquiring strategic intelligence?
29. I find it quite fascinating that when I make notes within a book, I usually highlight exactly less than 10% of the book as permitted by the author and Amazon Kindle. I wonder if it is a case of effective note-taking will always result in things being condensed from 100% to under 10%. Does the same also applies to books? If I read 1000 books the suggestion is that less than 10% of the books (100) will always be the most profound and effective. Raising the question, what would be my top 100 books?
30. Being violently original in our work will always require as to be ordinary and systematic in our everyday lives. In other words, completing success lists, answering the daily focus questions, carrying out weekly plans, reading books each week, and so on is what will be required to produce intellectual work that is aggressively unique.
31. As I suspected, the writer definitely read books about creativity like Twyla Tharp’s called ‘The Creative Habit.’ There is just no way that a person can be reading the most powerful books every week and not cause some form of radical change in their lives or in society. A clear sign that those who haven’t been reading are choosing to burn their time is some shape or form instead.
32. It is truly about arranging our digital workspace, just like we would arrange our physical workspaces, to enhance our productivity and creativity. There is no real difference, it just whether we realise it or not. Hence, my the creation of my latest website (trading Third Brain) to increase my trading productivity and continue my overall creativity.
33. We need to always be wary of accumulating so much information that we spend all our time managing it, instead of putting it to use in the outside world. This is something that I have become more conscious about in terms of my keeping a digital record of my handwritten daily notes or journaling. I feel that I can discard them in the respect that I have a process that takes all the best ideas and insights from them, and expresses them in other digitally written material or mediums that I use.
34. “A project-centric way of working comes naturally in the creative and performing arts. Artists have paintings, dancers have dances, musicians have songs, and poets have poems. These are clearly identifiable, discrete chunks of work.” The question is, do I have a project-centric way of working? In other words, what is my identifiable discrete chunks of work like a dancer that has dances, and a musician that have songs? I would say that Involgize is a project-centric way of working in the respect that its about 1000+ books, so each book is an identifiable discrete chunk of work (roughly 30 years of knowledge in fact). It’s what I am now using to create videos with 2 minute high value, and inject essence in an intelligence brand that seeks to represent the smartest people.
35. The best recommendation that I have already implemented from the writer in relation to digital note-keeping is to create project by project files, as opposed to generic files that contain everything relating to a particular type of medium. For example, instead of having an video file that contains all of the videos I have produced. It would be better to have separate files that relate to the actual project I am currently focused on like instagram videos, or the name of the book that the video is about. On further reflection, I’ve just realised that I already apply digitally many of the things that writer suggests in some shape or form. That said, there is always room for improvement (like I’ve already done for notes relating to Kess’ coaching sessions).
36. Creativity is all about distillation. To take something complex, and through consistent hard work, boils it down into something so simple. Artist carry out this creative process of reducing their technical drawings to key lines and shapes, just as I have completed the same process by reading hundreds of books to recommend a strategically significant starting ten.
37. It is distillation that it is key to the art of communication, success, and leadership as it what creates tremendous value. The person who is able to distil is the individual who can see what others cannot see, and do what others cannot do. Because others will lack the relevant insight that naturally flows from carrying out the relevant work.
38. Octavia Butler strategically choose to do menial jobs that were not too mentally taxing so that she could focus on her writing. This is similar to how I choose to work part-time (3 day week) throughout my life so that I could have time to find the answer to my pressing questions: how do we change the game forever? Create a situation where many people in the community can beat the unfairness and inequality in the system? How does someone with my background go right to the top intellectually and financially?
39. It is time for me to read one of Octavia Butlers books in order to intentionally work more on my developing my imagination and creativity.
40. Attention is our most scarce and precious resource.” “The ability to intentionally and strategically allocate our attention is a competitive advantage in a distracted world.” This is exactly the message I want Involgize to represents, encapsulate, and demonstrate powerfully. We are certainly on track!
41. The writer advocates the same approach that I am currently taking to sharing ideas in small pieces to test them and receive feedback early without waiting too long to test anything out.
42. This book really allowed me to appreciate that I have got to view every book review, book, or anything else that I carry out as a small package or product that will be a key part of a larger body of work in the long-term. Therefore, it is something that should be chopped up and recycled intentionally to create other profit-generating material, products, and services.
43. The key is to create just one small piece each time we sit down to work, without worrying about how viable it is or whether it will be used in the exact way we envision in the future. Because as long as we have a Second Brain system (website) that organises all of these pieces of information, it is just a question of time, before they all add up to create a library of invaluable information. With this understanding, this is why I have intentionally started creating my trading journal entries online on my new third brain trading website. For each post, I know that I do not have to concern myself too much with what value they will actually provide as long as I find currently find them personally useful and practical.
44. This text has reminded me that every website post and trading journal entry that I write will probably be material in the future for any book that I decide to write about the Involgize brand and experiments. Yes, I can see myself writing a branding book for sure about how I read the around the subject and applied the information to help create a unique culture. And how I create a personal brand around intelligence, reading, and so on.
45. Agreeing totally with the writer, I would argue that creating a strong digital profile (Second Brain) is about mastering-self. Using the digital workspace to inspire and motivate us to become increasingly limitless: better speakers, teachers, coaches, writers, photographers, leaders, creatives, storytellers, traders, and so on.
46. I made the right decision when I decided to first do a series of instagram video to discover my voice and what I wanted to be my actual message before doing anything else like podcasts.
47. The book ‘Atomic Habits’ has kept coming up as a text that may be beneficial to read.
48. The writer makes the salient point: being organised is a habit. No one is born organised. It is something that we have to work at establishing.
49. In essence, it appears that I was encouraging Noah and the others to build a Second Brain by assisting them to create an online booklist and an instagram profile based on reading. And as the writer claims, our Second Brain is very forgiving as we can fall out of the habit of progressing it, but it will still be there waiting for us to return and continue where we left off. This is exactly what I witnessed with Noah when he fell off for about a year or so, but was still able to just start again like nothing happened.
50. The challenge is not acquire more information, but rather to change the approach that we use to acquire information so that any knowledge that we gain will have immediate practical affect.
51. The writer made a truly profound point: there is no true divide between our inner selves and our digital lives. The beliefs and attitudes that shape our thinking in one context inevitably show up in other contexts as well. If many of us really understood this, we would make sure that our personal development was on point before deciding to engage with any form of social media.
52. The writer made another extremely important point: anyone who is still relying on their biological brain alone to learn about and navigate this increasingly complex world are going to fall behind. It’s that simple. This digital workspace stuff is not going to be optional in the future at all. Therefore, Involgize gave Noah a clear head-start.
53. Essentially, we have to learn to outsource the memory function of our brain to a manual or digital system. Something that we know will capture our most important thoughts and ideas for present and future use, whilst we focus entirely on being creative and acquiring and integrating new knowledge in novel ways.
54. The inevitable by-product of producing a Second and Third Brain is that it will cause the transformation of our identity in the process. This can seem very unsettling at first. However, it is something that we can learn to embrace as a sign of our growing competence, effectiveness, and productivity. To the extent that we will grow to expect nothing less.
55. Another by-product of building a strong Second Brain is leadership: the desire to serve others. Hence why assisting others to become more effective will typically have a positive outcome for all of us in the long run.
56. This text crystallised for me that knowledge becomes more powerful as it spreads. Because now we can speak the same language, coordinate our efforts, and share our progress in applying it. Hence, why spreading Involgize among the demographic may certainly be the next step.
57. How can we truly know what we want, if we don’t know who we are? The importance of the book ‘Is Your Genius at Work?’ And why information is key to our survival.
58. It’s interesting how self-expression is as vital to our survival as food or shelter. I guess this is a thing that Involgize focuses on assisting others to cultivate. For example, the reason why Kess may be responding brilliantly to her coaching session is because it is accelerating her self-expression, which is as important to her as food and shelter.
59. This book reminded me of the importance of always ending any document or use of medium with a positive and encouraging tone and message such as “you can do this.” 

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Key Strategic Extracts from ‘Building a Second Brain’

“As the amount of information we have access to grows, such experiences are becoming more and more common. We’re flooded with more advice than ever promising to make us smarter, healthier, and happier. We consume more books, podcasts, articles, and videos than we could possibly absorb. What do we really have to show for all the knowledge we’ve gained? How many of the great ideas we’ve had or encountered have faded from our minds before we even had a chance to put them into practice? (p. 1).”

“So much of the time we are “information hoarders,” stockpiling endless amounts of well-intentioned content that only ends up increasing our anxiety (p. 2).”

“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. We need a way to cultivate a body of knowledge that is uniquely our own, so when the opportunity arises—whether changing jobs, giving a big presentation, launching a new product, or starting a business or a family—we will have access to the wisdom we need to make good decisions and take the most effective action. It all begins with the simple act of writing things down (p. 2).”

“the first step in a system I’ve developed called Building a Second Brain, which draws on recent advancements in the field of PKM—or personal knowledge management (p. 2).*”

“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 (p. 3).”

“… 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 (p. 4).”

“Like a personal library in your pocket, a Second Brain enables you to recall everything you might want to remember so you can achieve anything you desire (p. 4).”

“Those who learn how to leverage technology and master the flow of information through their lives will be empowered to accomplish anything they set their minds to (p. 4).”

“From then on, I became obsessed with the potential of technology to channel the information all around me (p. 12).”

“… began to realize that the simple act of taking notes on a computer was the tip of an iceberg. Because once made digital, notes were no longer limited to short, handwritten scribbles—they could take any form, including images, links, and files of any shape and size. In the digital realm, information could be moulded and shaped and directed to any purpose, like a magical, primordial force of nature. I started using… (p. 12).”

“My collection of notes and files had always been for my own personal use, but as I worked on consulting projects for some of the most important organizations in the world, I started to realize that it could be a business asset as well (p. 14).”

“Casual lunchtime chats with my colleagues turned into a book club, which became a workshop, which eventually evolved into a paid class open to the public (p. 15).”

“An article I wrote about how to use digital notetaking to enhance creativity went viral in the productivity community, and I was invited to speak and teach workshops at influential companies like Genentech, Toyota, and the Inter-American Development Bank (p. 15).”

“In early 2017, I decided to create an online course called “Building a Second Brain” to teach my system on a wider scale.* In the years since, that program has produced thousands of graduates from more than one hundred countries and every walk of life, creating an engaged and inquisitive community where the lessons in this book have been honed and refined (p. 15).”

“You may find this book in the “self-improvement” category, but in a deeper sense it is the opposite of self-improvement. It is about optimizing a system outside yourself, a system not subject to your limitations and constraints, leaving you happily unoptimized and free to roam, to wonder, to wander toward whatever makes you feel alive here and now in each moment (p. 16).”

“What Is a Second Brain? Information is the fundamental building block of everything you do. Anything you might want to accomplish—executing a project at work, getting a new job, learning a new skill, starting a business—requires finding and putting to use the right information. Your professional success and quality of life depend directly on your ability to manage information effectively (p. 17).”

“Instead of empowering us, this deluge of information often overwhelms us. Information Overload has become Information Exhaustion, taxing our mental resources and leaving us constantly anxious that we’re forgetting something. Instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge through the Internet was supposed to educate and inform us, but instead it has created a society-wide poverty of attention (p. 17).*

“However, there’s a catch: every change in how we use technology also requires a change in how we think. To properly take advantage of the power of a Second Brain, we need a new relationship to information, to technology, and even to ourselves (p. 19).”

“For centuries, artists and intellectuals from Leonardo da Vinci to Virginia Woolf, from John Locke to Octavia Butler, have recorded the ideas they found most interesting in a book they carried around with them, known as a “commonplace book (p. 19).””*

“Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities (p. 20).”

“Commonplace books were a portal through which educated people interacted with the world. They drew on their notebooks in conversation and used them to connect bits of knowledge from different sources and to inspire their own thinking. As a society, all of us could benefit from the modern equivalent of a commonplace book. The media landscape of today is oriented toward what is novel and public—the latest political controversy, the new celebrity scandal, or the viral meme of the day. Resurrecting the commonplace book allows us to stem the tide, shifting our relationship with information toward the timeless and the private. Instead of consuming ever-greater amounts of content, we could take on a more patient, thoughtful approach that favors rereading, reformulating, and working through the implications of ideas over time. Not only could this lead to more civil discussions about the important topics of the day; it could also preserve our mental health and heal our splintered attention (p. 20).”

“However you decide to use it, your Second Brain is a private knowledge collection designed to serve a lifetime of learning and growth, not just a single use case. It is a laboratory where you can develop and refine your thinking in solitude before sharing it with others. A studio where you can experiment with ideas until they are ready to be put to use in the outside world. A whiteboard where you can sketch out your ideas and collaborate on them with others (p. 21).”

“It’s time to add digital notes to our repertoire and further enhance our natural capabilities using technology (p. 22).”

“So many of us share the feeling that we are surrounded by knowledge, yet starving for wisdom (p. 26).”

“You dictate a quick audio memo to your phone as you drive, which gets automatically transcribed and saved in your notes (p. 27).”

“You are on your smartphone just like everyone else, but you aren’t doing what they are doing. You are creating value instead of killing time (p. 28).”

“As this way of working with information continues over days and weeks and months, the way your mind works begins to change. You start to see recurring patterns in your thinking: why you do things, what you really want, and what’s really important to you. Your Second Brain becomes like a mirror, teaching you about yourself and reflecting back to you the ideas worth keeping and acting on. Your mind starts to become intertwined with this system, leaning on it to remember more than you ever could on your own (p. 29).”

“People can tell there is something different about you. They start to recognize that you can draw on an unusually large body of knowledge at a moment’s notice. They remark on your amazing memory, but what they don’t know is that you never even try to remember anything. They admire your incredible dedication to developing your thinking over time. In reality, you are just planting seeds of inspiration and harvesting them as they flower (p. 29).”

“Your brain is no longer the bottleneck on your potential, which means you have all the bandwidth you need to pursue any endeavor and make it successful. This sense of confidence in the quality of your thinking gives you the freedom to ask deeper questions and the courage to pursue bigger challenges. You can’t fail, because failure is just more information, to be captured and used as fuel for your journey (p. 29).”

“Second Brain Superpower #1: Make Our Ideas Concrete Before we do anything with our ideas, we have to “off-load” them from our minds and put them into concrete form. Only when we declutter our brain of complex ideas can we think clearly and start to work with those ideas effectively (p. 34).”

“Second Brain Superpower #2: Reveal New Associations Between Ideas In its most practical form, creativity is about connecting ideas together, especially ideas that don’t seem to be connected (p. 35).”

“In our Second Brain we can do the same: mix up the order of our ideas until something unexpected emerges. The more diverse and unusual the material you put into it in the first place, the more original the connections that will emerge (p. 36).”

“Having a Second Brain where lots of ideas can be permanently saved for the long term turns the passage of time into your friend, instead of your enemy (p. 37).”

“Our careers and businesses depend more than ever on our ability to advance a particular point of view and persuade others to adopt it as well (p. 37).”

“The first way that people tend to use their Second Brain is as a memory aid (p. 41).”

“The second way that people use their Second Brain is to connect ideas together (p. 41).”

“Eventually, the third and final way that people use their Second Brain is for creating new things (p. 42).”

“To guide you in the process of creating your own Second Brain, I’ve developed a simple, intuitive four-part method called “CODE”—Capture; Organize; Distill; Express (p. 42).”

“By training ourselves to notice when something resonates with us, we can improve not only our ability to take better notes, but also our understanding of ourselves and what makes us tick (p. 45).”

“The best way to organize your notes is to organize for action, according to the active projects you are working on right now. Consider new information in terms of its utility, asking, “How is this going to help me move forward one of my current projects?” Surprisingly, when you focus on taking action, the vast amount of information out there gets radically streamlined and simplified. There are relatively few things that are actionable and relevant at any given time, which means you have a clear filter for ignoring everything else. Organizing for action gives you a sense of tremendous clarity, because you know that everything you’re keeping actually has a purpose (p. 46).”

“Every time you take a note, ask yourself, “How can I make this as useful as possible for my future self (p. 47)?””

“Your notes will be useless if you can’t decipher them in the future, or if they’re so long that you don’t even try. Think of yourself not just as a taker of notes, but as a giver of notes—you are giving your future self the gift of knowledge that is easy to find and understand (p. 47).”

“This is why I recommend you shift as much of your time and effort as possible from consuming to creating (p. 48).”

“Information is always in flux, and it is always a work in progress. Since nothing is ever truly final, there is no need to wait to get started. You can publish a simple website now, and slowly add additional pages over time. You can send out a draft of a piece of writing now and make revisions later when you have more time. The sooner you begin, the sooner you start on the path of improvement. I’ve introduced a lot of new concepts and terms, and I know at… (p. 49).”

“Information isn’t a luxury—it is the very basis of our survival (p. 53).”

“This story sheds light on how even the world’s most successful and prolific creatives need support systems to pursue their craft (p. 56).”

“Think about your favorite athlete, musician, or actor. Behind the scenes of their public persona, there is a process they follow for regularly turning new ideas into creative output. The same goes for inventors, engineers, and effective leaders. Innovation and impact don’t happen by accident or chance. Creativity depends on a creative process (p. 56).”

“In other words, Feynman’s approach was to maintain a list of a dozen open questions. When a new scientific finding came out, he would test it against each of his questions to see if it shed any new light on the problem (p. 62).”

“Ask yourself, “What are the questions I’ve always been interested in?” This could include grand, sweeping questions like “How can we make society fairer and more equitable (p. 63)?””

“The goal isn’t to definitively answer the question once and for all, but to use the question as a North Star for my learning (p. 65).”

“Use your list of favorite problems to make decisions about what to capture:

“Capture Criteria #1: Does It Inspire Me? Inspiration is one of the most rare and precious experiences in life. It is the essential (p. 68).”

“Surprise is an excellent barometer for information that doesn’t fit neatly into our existing understanding, which means it has the potential to change how we think (p. 70).”

“First, you are much more likely to remember information you’ve written down in your own words. Known as the “Generation Effect,”10 researchers have found that when people actively generate a series of words, such as by speaking or writing, more parts of their brain are activated when compared to simply reading the same words. Writing things down is a way of “rehearsing” those ideas, like practicing a dance routine or shooting hoops, which makes them far more likely to stick (p. 76).”

“Thinking doesn’t just produce writing; writing also enriches thinking (p. 77).”

“Conveniently, 10 percent also happens to be the limit that most ebooks allow you to export as highlights (p. 80).”

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work (p. 81).”

“Twyla Tharp’s box reveals the true value of a simple container: it is easy to use, easy to understand, easy to create, and easy to maintain. It can be moved from place to place without losing its contents. A container requires no effort to identify, to share with others, and to put in storage when it’s no longer needed. We don’t need complex, sophisticated systems to be able to produce complex, sophisticated works (p. 84).”

“No one questions the importance of having physical spaces that make us feel calm and centered, but when it comes to your digital workspace, it’s likely you’ve spent little time, if any, arranging that space to enhance your productivity or creativity. As knowledge workers we spend many hours every day within digital environments—our computers, smartphones, and the web (p. 85).”

“Unless you take control of those virtual spaces and shape them to support the kinds of thinking you want to do, every minute spent there will feel taxing and distracting (p. 85).”

“One of the biggest temptations with organizing is to get too perfectionistic, treating the process of organizing as an end in itself (p. 89).”

“We need to always be wary of accumulating so much information that we spend all our time managing it, instead of putting it to use in the outside world (p. 89).”

“A project-centric way of working comes naturally in the creative and performing arts. Artists have paintings, dancers have dances, musicians have songs, and poets have poems. These are clearly identifiable, discrete chunks of work. This project-centric approach is increasingly finding its way into all knowledge work, a trend named the “Hollywood model” after the way films are made. As an article in the New York Times explains, “A project is identified; a team is assembled; it works together for precisely as long as is needed to complete the task; then the team disbands . . . The Hollywood model is now used to build bridges, design apps or start restaurants.” It is becoming more and more common for all of us to work across teams, departments, and even different companies to execute collaborative projects, and then once it’s over, each go our own way (p. 91).”

“Knowing which projects you’re currently committed to is crucial to being able to prioritize your week, plan your progress, and say no to things that aren’t important (p. 92).”

“Each of these folders contains the notes relevant to each of those ongoing areas of my life (p. 98).”

“Organizing by actionability counteracts our tendency to constantly procrastinate (p. 103).”

“… fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, and frozen fruit would all be stored in the same place, just because they all happen to be made of fruit. Yet this is exactly the way most people organize their files and notes—keeping all their book notes together just because they happen to come from books, or all their saved quotes together just because they happen to be quotes (p. 104).”

“When it comes to our personal knowledge, there is no such assigned spot. We are organizing for actionability, and “what’s actionable” is always changing. Sometimes we can receive one text message or email and the entire landscape of our day changes. Because our priorities can change at a moment’s notice, we have to minimize the time we spend filing, labeling, tagging, and maintaining our digital notes. We can’t run the risk of all that effort going to waste (p. 104).”

“In the future, that note could find its way all the way back to projects when you decide to start a side gig as a business coach, making that knowledge actionable once again (p. 105).”

“I knew I needed a new approach. I started asking questions and listening, and eventually realized that these people didn’t need or want an organized computer. They had spent all this money and time moving to a Mac because there was something they wanted to create or achieve (p. 106).”

“Not once did someone come back and say, “You know, I’d really like to go back and organize all those files from my old computer.” What they did tell me were the stories of the impact their creative projects had: on their families, on their business, on their grades, on their career (p. 107).”

“The first is that people need clear workspaces to be able to create. We cannot do our best thinking and our best work when all the “stuff” from the past is crowding and cluttering our space. That’s why that archiving step is so crucial: you’re not losing anything, and it can all be found via search, but you need to move it all out of sight and out of mind (p. 108).”

“I’ve learned that completed creative projects are the blood flow of your Second Brain. They keep the whole system nourished, fresh, and primed for action. It doesn’t matter how organized, aesthetically pleasing, or impressive your notetaking system is (p. 108).”

“I didn’t know how to set my intentions, craft a strategy, and look for sources of leverage that would allow me to accomplish things with minimal effort (p. 109).”

“I want to give the same advice to you: don’t make organizing your Second Brain into yet another heavy obligation. Ask yourself: “What is the smallest, easiest step I can take that moves me in the right direction?” (p. 109).”

“Start with a clean slate by putting your existing notes in the archives for safekeeping (p. 111).”

“If you ever need them, they’ll show up in searches and remain just as you left them (p. 111).”

“Coppola’s strategy for making the complex, multifaceted film rested on a technique he learned studying theatre at Hofstra College, known as a “prompt book.” He started by reading The Godfather novel and capturing the parts that resonated with him in a notebook—his own version of Twyla Tharp’s box. But his prompt book went beyond storage: it was the starting point for a process of revisiting and refining his sources to turn them into something new (p. 114).”

“The Godfather Notebook is a perfect example of the behind-the-scenes process used by successful creative professionals (p. 115).”

“… important asset in the production of his now classic film: “the script was really an unnecessary document; I didn’t need a script because I could have made the movie just from this notebook (p. 115).”

“We can also use our notes to drill down to the essence of the stories, research, examples, and metaphors that make up our own source material. This is the third step of CODE, to Distill. This is the moment we begin turning the ideas we’ve captured and organized into our own message. It all begins and ends with notes (p. 116).”

“Now what? This is where even the most dedicated notetakers usually stop. They aren’t sure what to do next. They’ve gathered some interesting knowledge, but it hasn’t led anywhere. Our notes are things to use, not just things to collect (p. 116).”

“When you first capture them, your notes are like unfinished pieces of raw material. They require a bit more refinement to turn them into truly valuable knowledge assets, like a chemist distilling only the purest compound (p. 116).”

“In this sense, notetaking is like time travel—you are sending packets of knowledge through time to your future self (p. 117).”

“But after a few hours or days or weeks, it starts to fade from our memory. Soon our recollection of that exciting new idea is nothing but a pale shadow of something we once knew, that once intrigued us. Your job as a notetaker is to preserve the notes you’re taking on the things you discover in such a way that they can survive the journey into the future (p. 117).”

“When you’re giving a presentation to the leadership of your organization, you don’t drone on for hours. You leave out unnecessary details and get right to the point. Distillation is at the very heart of all effective communication (p. 119).”

“The process of distillation begins with the fourth image. He outlines the main muscles of the animal using sharp white lines. Soft curves become more angular, and the animal as a whole starts to take on a more geometric look. In the fifth and sixth images, the drawing starts to become radically simplified as Picasso drops most of the detail in the bull’s head and further simplifies its horns, tail, and… (p. 136).”

“Picasso’s act of distillation involves stripping away the unnecessary so that only the essential remains. Crucially, Picasso couldn’t have started with the single line drawing. He needed to go through each layer of the bull’s form step-by-step to absorb the proportions and shapes into his muscle memory (p. 136).”

“The result points to a mysterious aspect of the creative process: it can end up with a result that looks so simple, it seems like anyone could have made it. That simplicity masks the effort that was needed to get there (p. 136).”

“… succinct without missing key details is what leads to exciting conversations that leave both people feeling enlivened. Distillation is at the heart of the communication that is so central to our friendships, our working relationships, and our leadership abilities (p. 140).”

“Each time you decide to add a highlight, you are developing your judgment: distinguishing the bits that truly matter from those that don’t. This is a skill you can become better at over time. The more you exercise your judgment, the more efficient and enjoyable your notetaking will become because you know that every minute of attention you invest is creating lasting value (p. 142).”

“Octavia Estelle Butler (p. 145).”

“Octavia took on a series of temporary or part-time jobs after graduating from high school: clerical, factory, warehouse, laundry, and food preparation gigs—anything that wasn’t too mentally taxing, and that allowed her to maintain her routine of waking before dawn each morning to write (p. 146).”

“She meticulously tracked her daily writing goals and page counts, lists of her failings and desired personal qualities, her wishes and dreams for the future, and contracts she would sign with herself each day for how many words she committed to write (p. 147).”

“… it had become a daily preoccupation for people around the world. Butler has been called a prophet for her ability to forecast the future, but she always said that her work came from simply imagining, “If this goes on . . . it extrapolates from current technology, current ecological conditions, current social conditions, current practices of any sort. It offers good possibilities—as well as warnings.” Butler knew that science fiction was more than entertainment. It was a transformative way of viewing the future (p. 148).”

“As one of the first Black women to gain recognition in the sci-fi genre, Butler explored ideas and themes that had been previously ignored: (p. 148).”

“Butler pioneered Afrofuturism, a genre that cast African Americans as protagonists who embrace radical change in order to survive. Her stories allowed her readers to visualize futures in which marginalized people are heroes, not victims. Through her writing, she expanded our vision of the future to include the untold stories of the disenfranchised, the outcast, and the unconventional (p. 148).”

“How could a painfully shy little girl become a world-renowned, award-winning writer? How could an impoverished and overworked young woman emerge as a powerful prophet of the future? In her own words: “My mother was a maid, my father shined shoes, and I wanted to write science fiction, who was I kidding?” (p. 148).”

“She used every bit of insight and detail she could muster from both her daily life and the books she immersed herself in: “Use what you have; even if it seems meager, it may be magic in your hands.” Butler found a way to express her voice and her ideas even when her circumstances made it seem impossible (p. 149).”

“… their own experiences and observations, lessons gleaned from successes and failures alike, and the ideas of others. If there is a secret to creativity, it is that it emerges from everyday efforts to gather and organize our influences (p. 149).”

“As knowledge workers, attention is our most scarce and precious resource (p. 149).”

“The ability to intentionally and strategically allocate our attention is a competitive advantage in a distracted world. We have to jealously guard it like a valuable treasure (p. 150).”

“Attention can be cultivated but also destroyed—by distractions, interruptions, and environments that don’t protect it. 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 (p. 150).”

“If we consider how precious little time we have to produce something extraordinary in our careers, it becomes imperative that we recycle that knowledge back into a system where it can become useful again (p. 150).”

“The final stage of the creative process, Express, is about refusing to wait until you have everything perfectly ready before you share what you know. It is about expressing your ideas earlier, more frequently, and in smaller chunks to test what works and gather feedback from others (p. 151).”

“… pieces—you then need a system for managing those pieces. Otherwise, you’re just creating a lot of extra work for yourself trying to keep track of them. That system is your Second Brain, and the small pieces of work-in-process it contains I call “Intermediate Packets” (p. 152).”

“Our time and attention are scarce, and it’s time we treated the things we invest in—reports, deliverables, plans, pieces of writing, graphics, slides—as knowledge assets that can be reused instead of reproducing them from scratch (p. 153).”

“… consistently. They’ll wonder how you find the time to do so much careful thinking, when in fact you’re not working harder or longer—all you’re doing is drawing on a growing library of Intermediate Packets stored in your Second Brain (p. 155).”

“By “thinking small,” you can focus on creating just one IP each time you sit down to work, without worrying about how viable it is or whether it will be used in the exact way you envisioned (p. 155).”

“Most professionals I work with already have and use Intermediate Packets—that’s the point! (p. 157).”

“Over time, your ability to quickly tap these creative assets and combine them into something new will make all the difference in your career trajectory, business growth, and even quality of life (p. 157).”

“Benigno is a father and business consultant in the Philippines, and one of his goals for building a Second Brain was to better understand the emerging cryptocurrency trend (p. 164).”

“… creative acts are ones in which we connect the dots for others in ways they wouldn’t be able to do themselves (p. 166).”

“These are the cornerstones of your work on which everything else is built, but you can’t usually know which notes are cornerstones up front. You discover them by sharing your ideas with others, and seeing which ones resonate with them (p. 168).”

“I remember the first time someone referred to what I do as “your work.” It dawned on me that I had a body of work that stood on its own, that had an identity distinct from mine (p. 170).”

“Even if you’re not writing a book now, or creating a presentation now, or developing a new framework now, that doesn’t mean you never will. Every little digital artifact you create—the emails, the meeting notes, the project plans, the templates, the examples—is part of the ongoing evolution of your body of work (p. 170).”

“It’s not necessarily about becoming a professional artist, online influencer, or business mogul: it’s about taking ownership of your work, your ideas, and your potential to contribute in whatever arena you find yourself in (p. 171).”

“… what matters is that you are finding your voice and insisting (p. 171).”

“You might realize you have lots of notes on eating healthy and decide to experiment with your own take on a classic recipe. You might see the notes from courses you’ve taken to improve your project management skills and decide to put them together into a presentation for your coworkers. You could draw on the insights and life experiences you’ve written about in your notes to write a blog post or record a YouTube video to help people who are facing a similar challenge. All of these are acts of self-expression enabling you to begin unlocking your full creative potential (p. 171).”

“My father planned for creativity. He strategized his creativity. When it was time to make progress on a painting, he gave it his full focus, but that wasn’t the only time he exercised his imagination. Much of the rest of the time he was collecting, sifting through, reflecting on, and recombining raw material from his daily life so that when it came time to create, he had more than enough raw material to work with. This attention to organizing his creative influences fueled a prolific body of work made up of thousands of paintings created over decades, while still allowing him plenty of time to attend our soccer games, cook delicious meals, and travel widely as a family (p. 176).”

“The creative process is ancient and unchanging. It was the same thousands of years ago as it is today. There are lessons we can learn on that deeper level that transcend any particular medium and any particular set of tools (p. 177).”

“The purpose of divergence is to generate new ideas, so the process is necessarily spontaneous, chaotic, and messy. You can’t fully plan or organize what you’re doing in divergence mode, and you shouldn’t try. This is the time to wander (p. 179).”

“… strategy, which I call the “Hemingway Bridge.” He would always end a writing session only when he knew what came next in the story. Instead of exhausting every last idea and bit of energy, he would stop when the next plot point became clear (p. 186).”

“Your Second Brain is a crucial part of this strategy, because you need a place to save the parts that get postponed or removed (p. 190).”

“Knowing that I can always release a fix, update, or follow up on anything I’ve made in the past gives me the courage to share my ideas before they’re perfectly ready and before I have them all figured out (p. 190).”

“If you want to write a book, you could dial down the scope and write a series of online articles outlining your main ideas. If you don’t have time for that, you could dial it down even further and start with a social media post explaining the essence of your message (p. 190).”

“This is where Dialing Down the Scope was essential: we identified the most outlandish of our plans and decided to save those for a later stage (p. 194).”

“Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks . . . It’s only by making the fundamentals of life easier that you can create the mental space needed for free thinking and creativity. —James Clear, author of Atomic Habits… (p. 197).”

““Being organized” isn’t a personality trait you’re born with, nor is it merely a matter of finding the right apps or tools. Being organized is a habit—a repeated set of actions you take as you encounter, work with, and put information to use (p. 198).”.

“There’s no time that’s magically going to become available for you to stop everything and completely reorganize your digital world (p. 199).”

“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 (and mind) into chaos (p. 199).”

“Weekly and Monthly Reviews: Periodically review your work and life and decide if you want to change anything (p. 200).”

“The Project Checklist Habit: The Key to Starting Your Knowledge Flywheel (p. 201).”

“Like investing a small amount in the stock market every month, your investments of attention can likewise compound as your knowledge grows and your ideas connect and build on each other (p. 202).”

“Each of the three kinds of habits I’ve introduced you to—Project Kickoff and Completion Checklists, Weekly and Monthly Reviews, and Noticing Habits—are all meant to be performed quickly in the in-between spaces of your day. They are designed to build on activities you are probably already… (p. 220).”

“I want to remind you that the maintenance of your Second Brain is very forgiving. Unlike a car engine, nothing will explode, break down, or burst into flames if you let things slide for days, weeks, or even months. The entire point of building a Second Brain and pouring your thoughts into it is to make those thoughts less vulnerable to the passage of time (p. 220).”

“Now our challenge isn’t to acquire more information; as we saw in the exploration of divergence and convergence, it is to find ways to close off the stream so we can get something done. Any change in how we interact with information first requires a change in how we think (p. 224).”

“Whatever you are looking for, all these paths eventually lead to the same place, if you are willing to follow: a journey of personal growth. There is no divide between our inner selves and our digital lives: the beliefs and attitudes that shape our thinking in one context inevitably show up in other contexts as well (p. 224).”

“As society gets ever more complex, this emphasis on personal intelligence is only increasing (p. 225).”

“I’m saying that the greater the burden you place on your biological brain to give you everything you want and need, the more it will struggle under the weight of it all. You’ll feel more stressed, anxious, like there are way too many balls in the air. The more time your brain spends striving to achieve and overcome and solve problems, the less time you have left over for imagining, creating, and simply enjoying the life you’re living. The brain can solve problems, but that isn’t its sole purpose. Your mind was meant for much more (p. 225).”

“How does such a dramatic change happen? Amelia didn’t necessarily learn a new fact that she didn’t know before. She took on a new perspective. She chose to look at the world through a different lens—the lens of appreciation and abundance (p. 227).”

“As you build a Second Brain, your biological brain will inevitably change. It will start to adapt to the presence of this new technological appendage, treating it as an extension of itself. Your mind will become calmer, knowing that every idea is being tracked. It will become more focused, knowing it can put thoughts on hold and access them later (p. 227).”

“Instead of trying to optimize your mind so that it can manage every tiny detail of your life, it’s time to fire your biological brain from that job and give it a new one: as the CEO of your life, orchestrating and managing the process of turning information into results. We’re asking your biological brain to hand over the job of remembering to an external system, and by doing so, freeing it to absorb and integrate new knowledge in more creative ways (p. 227).”

“That is why building a Second Brain is a journey of personal growth. As your information environment changes, the way your mind operates starts to be transformed. You leave behind one identity and step into another—an identity as the orchestrator and conductor of your life, not its passenger. Any shift in identity can feel confronting and scary. You don’t know exactly who you will be and what it will be like on the other side, but if you persevere through the transition, there is always a new horizon of hope, possibility, and freedom waiting for you on the other side (p. 228).”

“You are under no obligation to help others. Sometimes it’s all you can do to take care of yourself. Still, I’ve noticed time and again a phenomenon that happens as people collect more and more knowledge in their Second Brain. That inner desire to serve slowly comes to the surface (p. 231).”

“Knowledge is the only resource that gets better and more valuable the more it multiplies. If I share a new way of thinking about your health, or finances, or business, or spirituality, that knowledge isn’t less valuable to me. It’s more valuable! Now we can speak the same language, coordinate our efforts, and share our progress in applying it. Knowledge becomes more powerful as it spreads (p. 231).”

“There are problems in the world that you are uniquely equipped to solve. Problems in society like poverty, injustice, and crime. Problems in the economy like inequality, educational deficits, and workers’ rights. Problems in organizations like retention, culture, and growth. Problems in the lives of people around you that your product or service or expertise could solve, helping them communicate, learn, or work more effectively (p. 232).”

“This problem—known as “self-ignorance”—has been a major roadblock in the development of artificial intelligence and other computer systems. Because we cannot describe how we know what we know, it can’t be programmed into software. The curse of computer scientists is our blessing, because this tacit knowledge represents the final frontier on which humans outperform machines (p. 233).”

“We are constantly told that we should be true to ourselves and pursue our deepest desires, but what if you don’t know what your goals and desires are? What if you have no idea what your “life purpose” is or should be? Self-direction is impossible without self-knowledge. How can you know what you want if you don’t know who you are? (p. 234).”

“I discovered something through that experience: that self-expression is a fundamental human need. Self-expression is as vital to our survival as food or shelter (p. 236).”

“Final Thoughts: You Can Do This (p. 237).”

“As you embark on the lifelong path of personal knowledge management, remember that you’ve achieved success before. There have been practices that you’d never heard of before, that are now integral parts of your life (p. 241).”

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IVG (Involgize)