Why to build a second brain? Lets understand the problem, our brain has a capacity to focus, process and give output. Just like how we have a PC (For Ex :100 GB Hard Disk, 2GB RAM, 6MB Cache, 1 processor at 2.6GHz), using this we can do a limited amount of work, for example 5 working tabs, one game and so on,….. but can we do image processing or video processing with this device, probably no because of high compute requirement. With single processor you can process single bit of information at a time . Now consider you have 10TB of SSD, 256GB RAM, 1GB Cache, 32 processors at 5Ghz. Can you process much faster? Yes, we will rarely see any lag or insufficiency for any applications. but wait here there is a catch with human brain, human brain has only 1 single processor which can process only one information of time but the frequency of this processing depends on how we have trained our brain to process, some people are able to process in a fraction of seconds whereas most require a lot of time to process. Now the problem is the information around is doubling every year, how do we remain sane through out this information overload. It feels next to impossible to store in our current brain and use it at your own will. Our brain is required to solve problems, think and not store information. Keep the brain space for all the processing. Your conscious mind is the one which is going to solve the problems and has limited compute. So why overload the conscious brain with information rather use it to make better choices in life.
So how do we save our brain from this information overload? Develop a second brain. This second brain primarily should be a digital brain because all other will be be difficult to navigate or will create another information overload.
Can you give more details of this second brain and what it can do? A second brain is a location where we store all the information that resonates to us and also gives us actionable inputs to take decisions.
What is the methodology of storing this information? CODE : Capture -> Organize -> Distill -> Express Capture information what resonates with you (For Ex : Reading an article on health) Organize information in a way you can get the information whenever you want (For Ex : Storing this information in kind of an area Health) Distill information is to finding the essence of the information (For Ex : A summary on the health article ) Distill is like find the summary -> historical context -> image & tone, feel of scene -> core intention -> avoid any pitfalls Express information is to find, show or do the actionable points (For Ex : If the issue happens I know what to do) Just a hint : Capture is only 10% of the total information, Distill is 1% of total information. So if I read 100 page of book -> 10% is what i should capture (10 Pages) -> and only 1 page should be the summary. I will experiment and put my findings here. Captured notes -> bolded passages -> highlighted passages -> executive summary
How to store information? PARA : Projects -> Areas -> Resources -> Archive and Inbox for all unsorted things. I am not a big fan of Resources but other 3 are perfect way.