Introduction
Previously, we’ve discussed the concept of the “second brain” or digital personal knowledge management (PKM) system. At its core, it is a note-taking app. However, numerous options are available, and new ones continue to emerge. If you ask ten people, you’re likely to receive ten different opinions on the best PKM app. If it’s just a note-taking app, how can it be so complicated, and why has no one solved and come up with one unequivocally best note-taking app?
The answer relies on the word “personal” in personal knowledge management systems. Each of us thinks differently, and how we use our second brain varies. Today, I’d like to discuss my take on user type categorization, a key reason why the ideal approach differs among individuals.
Let’s get started.
5 Elemental User Types
Use cases or user types of personal knowledge management (PKM) can be categorized in various ways. Logseq lists writers, academics, students, project managers, and developers as sample use cases. Heptabase lists learning, research, and projects. Tana lists students, solo entrepreneurs, PKM users, personal users, content creators, UX and design professionals, engineers, managers, product teams, and startups.
I divide the second brain into five elemental user types based on the intended output. This helps identify what additional auxiliary modules beyond standard note-taking capabilities may be helpful.
| ✏️Learner | 🔬Researcher | 🎨Creator | 📅Organizer | 🌱Planner |
While I list what I consider helpful auxiliary modules under each user type, these are not mutually exclusive nor comprehensive. In fact, examining the feature building blocks of a personal knowledge management system could warrant its own article.
✏️Learner
| Output | Knowledge database entries |
| Example | Students, knowledge workers such as an educator, business consultant, doctors, lawyers etc. |
| Auxiliary module example | Whiteboard, special capture tools |
Learners are individuals who primarily use knowledge management systems to learn. Their primary expression or output is to create knowledge notes, which helps them build up their knowledge database or repository.
Sample Scenario
Most students primary goal is to perform well on exams. Even those who understood the concepts well when studying for the exam, most tend to forget what they have learned soon after the exam. This is a natural process, as our memories struggle to retain complex information, especially when we don’t regularly use it.
One of the most time-consuming or energy-intensive steps in learning a new, especially complex, topic is to understand it. This means interpreting the information in a way that makes sense to us. So if we have to repeat it, it seems a true waste of our time and brain power.
🧠Second brain
With a properly built second brain, our knowledge notes should be in a form that we’ve interpreted and therefore understandable without any other material, even if we’ve forgotten the original concept. In other words, properly taken knowledge notes will eliminate the need to spend time and energy reinterpreting the same material.
Auxiliary modules
Some helpful auxiliary tools to consider are whiteboards and specialized capture tools. Whiteboards can assist in laying out complex material in disassembled, atomic pieces. This allows us to group and reassemble the information in a way that improves our understanding.
Depending on the learning material source, learners may need different tools to enter the original source into a personal knowledge management system (PKMS) as closely as possible to the original form. This ensures the information can be easily accessed and referenced in the future.
In my personal case, my learning sources are in the form of PDFs and web pages. When I was a student long time ago, handwritten notes and lecture material handouts were the two primary forms. So, depending on the input sources you have, you need tools to capture them. Some PKM systems allow PDF storage and annotation within the PKM app itself. Some apps have built-in scanners and even search capabilities, and so on.
🔬Researcher
| Output | Manuscript, book |
| Example | Academic researchers, non-fictional writer |
| Auxiliary module example | Reference manager, transclusion, graph view |
Researcher’s output are peer reviewed manuscript or book publications.
Academic research involves a distinct step in knowledge management: reference management. When submitting a paper for potential publication in a journal, authors must include references to original sources. The format of these references may vary depending on the specific journal’s requirements. It’s common to get rejected by one journal and try another. As part of the resubmission process, there may be a need of reformatting reference style to comply with the journal’s requirement.
Sample Scenario
When starting a manuscript, I typically had the data, results, and a hypothesis. However, I still needed to write an introduction and discussion. While becoming familiar with the topic allows us to freely write the introduction and much of the discussion after data analysis, this alone is insufficient. We require references to support our claims. Therefore, it was common to spend hours and days finding appropriate reference material to formulate the these sections.
🧠Second brain
With a well-structured second brain, the knowledge database entries should include direct links to reference materials. They should drastically reduce the need to search for proper references during manuscript writing.
Auxiliary module
Manuscript is a long-form writing, so transclusion would be helpful. The graph view can also be useful for determining the next manuscript topic, as it could show that we already have enough content for a bottom-up writing approach.
One of the most specialized tool for researchers is a reference manager. Reference manager can automatically fill bibliographic information, properly formatting reference for specific journals and ensuring the order of citations is maintained when new references are added. These can be tedious and time-consuming work without a reference manager.
🎨Creator
| Output | Long-form, presentation |
| Example | Fictional book authors, Content creators such as Youtuber, Blog poster, presenter such as educators, public speech |
| Auxiliary module example | Graph view, transclusion, special output file format support |
Creators produce some form of output that draws from multiple notes in their second brain. This category includes content creators, fiction authors, and presenters.
The final output may take various forms, such as a script document, PowerPoint presentation, or a long-form combination of text and media files in a proprietary format. These outputs share a common foundation of multiple notes, either presented intact as original pieces or combined with some added product-specific content.
Sample Scenario
As a hobby YouTuber and blogger, I write YouTube scripts and blog posts. For both, I create long-form content. For blog posts, I need to publish them on my WordPress site. For YouTube scripts, I require a continuous document to read from while recording.
My interests and focus tend to jump around. After several months or even over a year, I often revisit a previously covered area of interest, but with a different device or game. Consequently, I end up reiterating content that is almost identical to my previous work. If I had recognized this pattern sooner, I would have simply kept the original scripts and reused them, but I used to delete or lose them as soon as I published my content.
While I take pride in being consistent, this is a waste of time. Although these topics do not require as much brain power as “relearning complicated concepts,” as they often stem from my primary knowledge base, clearly articulating my thoughts still requires some effort. Since I am not learning anything new by doing this, repeating the same work has truly no benefit on my part.
🧠Second brain
With a second brain, notes should be modular and therefore reusable. Instead of recreating from scratch each time, it would be like building with LEGO – I can simply put various existing pieces together and add only new materials to create new long-form content.
Auxiliary module
Potentially helpful modules to look for as a creator are graph view, transclusion, special output file format support.
Graph view allows visualization of linked notes. While I have not yet experienced this myself as my knowledge database content is still small, and the PKM app I currently use does not support this, I can see properly filtered graph view can potentially speak itself as “ready” to be published material based on many notes linked into one area.
The output format may vary depending on the use case. If it’s a script, being able to view all relevant notes in succession within a PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) app would be sufficient, as I can simply read them off.
For a presentation, I would need to copy and paste each slide., and would be quite a time savor if an app can export as a powerpoint. While I don’t know if any PKM can output Powerpoint presentation, I know some apps offer the ability to present directly from the PKM.
Perhaps, you might want to export as a single PDF document as a handout.
📅Organizer
| Output | Knowledge based tasks/project with due dates |
| Example | Project Manager, Meeting and event organizer |
| Auxiliary module example | Task/project manager, collaboration |
Let’s define a task as a single, actionable item that can be completed in one sitting, such as going to a dentist appointment, grocery shopping for dinner, calling a client or attending a meeting. With this definition, we can define a project as a collection of multiple tasks.
This distinction can be subjective. If you have a speed reading skill and your reading session lasts for hours, you may be able to read a book in one sitting, which would be considered a task. However, if you decide to read a book over several days or weeks, with each sitting lasting only 10 minutes, then it consists of multiple “reading tasks,” and completing the full book would be considered a project.
I define an organizer as a group of people who use their second brain to organize projects or tasks. This group includes project managers, meeting organizers, and event organizers. The actual output can be project outlines, protocols, manuals, meeting presentations, or other types of deliverables. While the output form may vary, they share one common trait: project deadlines.
Sample Scenario
Going to the grocery store and creating a shopping list is a simple task that relies on temporary memory. This is a simple use case for a digital tool. However, most of us do not view this as a knowledge management activity, as the grocery list is only for temporary use and does not enhance our knowledge. If this is the sole task, a “reminder” type app would be perfect for it.
In contrast, let’s say this grocery shopping is for a home party where you aim to serve a specialty you’ve learned or are trying to learn. In this case, you have a process of acquiring the cooking recipe knowledge and associated tips and facts. The grocery list would be an output from this cooking knowledge database.
Normally, you may have a favorite website or cookbook as a recipe source. You can take a picture or write down the ingredients list. If you are adding your own flavor to it, you might add some more items to the grocery list. When you go to actual grocery shopping, couple items on the list were not available. So you’ve decided to use some alternative. The party was a success and everyone loved your cooking. A year later, you’ve decided to serve the speciality meal again. You could follow the exact same steps.
🧠Second brain
If you were using a second brain, you would have saved the recipe, grocery list, and any tips you learned from actually cooking the meal. As an astute note-taker, you may have even recorded that certain individuals particularly enjoyed the meal and the fact that you used alternative ingredients. With this knowledge readily available, this time all you need to do is read the notes.
Auxiliary module
Managing a project with a team requires effective collaboration functionality. Each team member should be able to view a single document or area, leave comments, version control and make edits. It’s ideal to have the ability to set due dates and prioritize tasks in a single location. Otherwise, using multiple task managers may lead to confusion about where to find or record the next task.
🌱Planner
| Output | Project concept/plan |
| Example | Project Manager, Entrepreneur, Innovator, Life planner |
| Auxiliary module example | Mindmap, White board |
Planners are those who cannot simply wait for ideas to emerge from a bottom-up approach. Instead, they intentionally try to create something based on the vague or abstract idea or project goal.
For instance, a project manager may be tasked with developing a new “PKM” app or planning our next vacation. The general concept or plan exists, but no concrete details. Therefore, we have to first learn and build a knowledge database specifically related to the idea. Once we have sufficient knowledge database built, we will then start forming the workable project plan, consisting multiple tasks.
Sample Scenario
Let’s say you’ve decided your next family vacation will be to Japan. If you’ve never been there before, you’ll need to research the activities, accommodations, transportation, and associated costs. You could start by searching for “the best places to visit in Japan” and go from there.
🧠Second brain
If you were using a second brain, you might start researching Japanese history, cuisine, and attractions, including their associated costs and availability times. Take notes as you learn. Then, review all those notes to determine the best way to spend your time during the stay. These information may become valuable if you ever decide to visit Japan again in the future, or if one of your friends asks where to go.
Auxiliary module
When developing a plan from an abstract idea or concept, it’s usually beneficial to maintain an open mind. Linear writing often fails to accommodate this. Using tools like whiteboards and mind maps for brainstorming, and compiling various content in one place, can help you visualize and organize your thoughts in a meaningful way, significantly aiding the thinking process.
Conclusion
These are five elemental user types that, I believe, most personal knowledge management (PKM) users tend to fall under. It’s important to note that many individuals can fit into multiple categories, as we often take on various roles in our lives. Even within a single role, our workflows may involve multiple user types.
For example, as a knowledge worker, I am a learner and encounter something new every day at work. As an educator, I create lecture presentations. As a hobby blogger and YouTuber, I create content. As an academic researcher in the field of science, that role alone makes me use learner and researcher workflows.
While I don’t intend for you to specifically categorize yourself into one or more of the five categories, this should provide an idea of how a second brain may assist in various use cases, and how the expected output from the second brain may alter the requirements for an ideal PKM system.
If you’re unsure where to begin, I’d suggest reflecting on your workflow and the types of auxiliary modules that could enhance your productivity. This may help you narrow down your potential PKM setup.