In the past couple of months, I’ve been enjoying learning about various concepts related to personal knowledge management. Despite using digital tools for knowledge management over the past couple of decades, I didn’t even know there were all these terms and concepts. As a new learner of these concepts, there are lots of great ideas and concepts, but some parts did not make sense to me.
In this new series, I aim to share my interpretation of concepts related to digital personal knowledge management (PKM) systems. If you’re new to the idea or feeling confused about certain aspects, I hope you would find this guide can aid in your journey of identifying the right digital PKM setup for your needs.
In this first, introductory part, I will share my take on the concept of “second brain.”
What’s second brain
The term “second brain” was coined by productivity expert Tiago Forte. It refers to the use of digital tools, such as note-taking apps, to organize information that complements the capabilities of our biological brain.
The idea is simple. Many of us enjoy our own creativity and learning about new topics related to our interests.
In this digital age, we have an abundant supply of information. However, it is the overabundance of information that leads many of us to consume it without retaining it. This is because committing information to long-term memory requires both focus and repetition.
Most of us find brute-force memorization unpleasant, but we enjoy acquiring new knowledge. Expressing what we’ve learned, such as by discussing it with others or creating media content, can make the process even more exciting.
The main purpose of a “second brain” in personal knowledge management is to handle the tedious tasks of brute-force memorization, allowing you to focus on the more engaging and rewarding aspects of the knowledge life-cycle.
The ideal second brain will be your personalized AI assistant. It fully understands the context of your questions and provides the exact information you need, in the right level of detail. You can then process this information and express it to others. Those around you will be impressed by the breadth and depth of your knowledge, which you can take full credit for.
Second Brain Knowledge Lifecycle
Throughout this series, unless otherwise specified, I will use “second brain” and “personal knowledge management (PKM) system” interchangeably.
I view the second brain knowledge life cycle as taking input from potential knowledge sources and converting it into a format our second brain can store, often in a note format. This is the capture step.
The knowledge is processed within a personal knowledge management (PKM) app, making it quickly retrievable, understandable, and reusable. This collection of knowledge data forms a knowledge database.
At its core, building second brain means we are creating our knowledge database digitally.
We can then retrieve this data whenever needed and express it in different forms, such as communicating with others, creating external products like blog posts, manuscripts for publication, and writing books.
Tiago Forte’s mnemonic is CODE: Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express is elegant. In-Note organization is essentially “distill” step and system organization is “organize”.
Capture
When adding potential knowledge to our second brain, it must be in a format that the app can store and process into a usable knowledge format.
This is the input source for the knowledge database data conversion step, commonly referred to as “capturing.” In most cases, the knowledge database format is in the form of “notes” because that’s how we, as humans, store data externally in a usable form for later use.
In-Note organization
These notes should not merely copy and paste external data. While storing information digitally may provide a sense of accomplishment, simply copying does not facilitate true learning. Even if we gain knowledge by reading the source material at the moment, leaving the information as is in our second brain means we will need to re-read it later, negating the original effort of understanding and interpreting the material.
To truly leverage these notes as reusable knowledge, we must process them. This involves organizing the note content, which I refer to as In-Note organization. This is the “distill” step in the CODE method developed by Tiago Forte.
Rewriting content in your own words can help demonstrate your understanding and make it easier to recall later. While this may require more upfront time, interpreting the original data often demands more effort than simply documenting it. Redoing the entire process would be inefficient.
In this step, you may seek various features beyond simple plain text note editing to enhance “in-note organization.” For example, table formatting or split columns may be more effective than full text when comparing and contrasting. A toggle function may aid in switching between detail and overview. If a specific image better exemplifies the knowledge content, include it.
Creating this note is directly tied to your learning, including adding your own interpretation. When you retrieve this note, even if you read it verbatim, it will feel like your own work, as it is based on your understanding.
System organization
Organizing information in our knowledge database by considering how notes relate to each other or other second brain content can enhance our understanding of a subject. As we connect various knowledge pieces, we can develop unique interpretations and expressions of our knowledge.
For example, I enjoy games and technologies, so my analogy may work well for those familiar with these topics. However, a different person may apply entirely different field expertise, which could be more helpful to those who share that background.
Since this is an inter-note organization, it will help us refresh relevant information periodically. Based on new knowledge data entry, we may update other existing knowledge data entries. This serves as a valuable learning tool.
The in-note and system organization evolve over time as our understanding of the subject deepens. I view each note as dynamic rather than static, and the in-note and system organization have no set order but rather a continuous refinement process.
From the technology perspective, concepts like Zettelkasten, PARA Method, network-based, object-based, and hierarchical note-taking organization are relevant, but that’s a separate topic for the future.
Expression
When the time comes, we retrieve the relevant knowledge data entries from the database. The number of retrieved entries may vary, ranging from a single entry to a combination of multiple entries.
The expression or output of our second brain data can take various forms, such as a conversational topic, an academic journal article, a book, or a conference presentation.
The expression or output format is the primary factor in determining which PKM app suits one’s workflow. This is what makes a second brain valuable for most people.
Why do we want to create second brain?
There are several benefits to using a second brain, all of which contribute to productivity enhancement. Followings are some of the main benefits I consider when building/using second brain.
- Enhance learning
- Brain Power saver
- Building Personal AI
- Reduce duplicated work
- Bottom-up writing
Enhanced learning
As an educator, I often hear and say that one of the best ways to confirm our understanding of a topic is to teach it to others. The ability to explain a concept to others requires a full, personal understanding of the subject matter.
Analogous to the primary brain, we must understand and interpret the material to create a knowledge note – true knowledge data entry in our second brain. As we refine our notes using the system, we are essentially teaching our second brain, or our future selves.
Therefore, the process of creating these notes naturally ensures we learn the topic rather than just read it and potentially misinterpret our understanding.
Brain Power Saver
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.
Have you ever spent hours trying to understand a complex topic, only to master it momentarily? Yet, months or years later, all you’re left with is a vague recollection of once knowing it well.
For these materials, we often spent hours trying to come up with an explanation of the concept that made sense to us, whether it was a right person’s way or a combination of others in our own way.
The process of trying to interpret a topic allows our brain to comprehend it. This learning step requires focused attention and processing of the material. This is one of the most rewarding uses of our brain. However, if we have to repeat it or lose it entirely, it becomes a waste.
With a second brain, our purpose is to store knowledge in a form that reflects this interpretation. This will eliminate the repetition of this cognitively demanding step.
Personal AI
Building a second brain, in my opinion is building our own personalized AI.
The surge of AI technology and its continued evolution will undoubtedly change how we consume and process data. However, one of the greatest challenges for AI is providing the right information in the appropriate contextual application.
When we ask a question, there is always some context behind it and that changes what’s the right answer in many situations.
Let’s say you are an expert on PKM app. One of your friend asks, “What’s the best PKM app?” If you pose this question to ChatGPT, it will provide a list of relevant apps and conclude that the best choice “depends on the user’s specific needs.”
The list may not include the app you would recommend to your friend. The incomplete listing could result from a lack of context, inaccurate information in the AI system, or the AI’s limited expertise and insight compared to yours.
As a college student majoring in computer science, your friend may enjoy customizing their own setup. However, a premium monthly subscription may not be feasible for them. These contextual details should be incorporated into the input question.
When sharing your opinion about a good app, you know they can understand technology jargon, so your emphasis might be on the app being “open source,” allowing them to customize it.
If the friend was not tech-savvy, your recommended app may be different, and how you explain it to them would also need to be adjusted. The output is also contextual.
With a second brain, the inside of the black box is known to you. This allows you to quickly apply context to search and retrieve the information stored in your second brain, which contains your personal insights and expertise.
Reduce duplicated work
With a modular design, a second brain can store data in a readily reusable format, reducing or potentially eliminating duplicated work. If you create a knowledge entry for a topic and use it in one write-up, you can later reuse that content for a PowerPoint presentation.
The right system allows you to make edits that are reflected in your other works that used the same content, rather than relying on copy-and-paste, which can easily create desync.
Bottom up writing
Many of us are more familiar with top-down writing, where we start from the beginning of a document and progressively add content.
When writing a long-form piece, this process can be inefficient, as most of us cannot write the entire thing in one sitting. We often need to spend a few minutes catching up on what we have written so far. If we come up with another idea, we need to go back and find the right place to fit it in, potentially making edits throughout.
In contrast, the bottom-up writing concept involves writing each piece as its own entity. Then, we assemble or combine these pieces when creating the long-form work.
With the second brain approach, which splits knowledge into small pieces, this style of writing is inherently supported.
Summary
In summary, the second brain is a personalized digital knowledge database that serves as a personalized AI. The primary purpose of building the second brain is to offload the brute-force memorization step and maintain an instantly accessible knowledge base relevant to our individual needs. A properly built second brain can enhance our productivity by improving our learning and reducing duplication of work.