A few weeks ago a coworker implanted an idea in my brain about this concept of Second Brain. The notion is that the brain is being used in ways it wasn’t designed for and we have a ton of tools at the ready to do more than ever. The notion that we are bound by the limits of our brains is somewhat false. Knowledge and ability goes beyond the our bodies now. With the internet and the use of other information, it is possible to accomplish a bunch even without being able to remember everything.
The link above is for a specific methodology of coming to a second brain. The truth is there is more than one way to do it, and the person who is teaching that class’s big claim to fame is that class. Is organizing how to teach others to organize really success? I’m skeptical. The class that he is offering is in the multiple thousand dollar range and fills up, but I’m not willing to spend that much to learn to figure out my life.
Instead I’ve decided to start reading and figuring out things for myself. I’ve started with a book called The Extended Mind. I’m still working my way through it, but already I’m enraptured with the ideas in it. The notion that our brain does not end at the organ in our heads. The fact that our brain is an organ and a muscle like we’ve all been taught. These are all compelling notions. Taking this further than the book has so far, the mind extends to all of the knowledge that is available to us. This includes all the people we know. Our knowledge then is a shared knowledge. It makes me wonder if by the definition of the book, are humans really just one brain working together? I’m not yet finished with the book (really just starting), so these are all unfinished thoughts. I don’t have a full answer to what I think about the book and this notion yet.
What I do have a thought on is the new program that I found with a little bit of searching. It’s called Obsidian. Basically it’s what I’ve been looking for but without knowing I was looking for. It is a visual representation of the notes on your computer formed in markdown. It can sync between multiple devices (though you do have to remember to save, which is annoying). You can easily link between notes and jump to other notes. You can see the notes in a graph view and see the ones that are connected. It was created as a way to foster connection between thoughts and allow for more of this second brain stuff to exist. It stores all the data in Markdown files on disk so it is accessible at any time.
I’m definitely not using it as efficiently as I could be and there definitely is a lot of work for me to do get the organization the way I need it to be, but I’m loving it so far. Unlike Bear, it allows for complete stylesheet customization. This allows you to shoot yourself in the foot or create some cool additional features if you want. There are a whole list of external plugins as well, because it is just javascript under the hood. This is my tool. Now I just need to figure out how to get all of my old notes from Day One over and start making things better.
Also of note, because it lets me override styles, I am using my favorite MonoLisa, which allows me to do very cool arrows and various other ligatures that I really like.
Unknown how the use of this program will help me in the long run, but maybe this will allow me to create more than just my own thoughts. Maybe someday I will be able to pass on my second brain to my family and anyone else who wants it. Pretty excited about figuring all of this out.