Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
Tiago Forte argues that with the advent of digital technologies, today’s humans have more information at their disposal than ever. And that they have never been so well-informed and connected.
The downside is that we are drowning in the digital sea. We can’t possibly harness all this information productively. And often, we get distracted by it.
Our biological brains are masters of creative thinking. They detect patterns and create links between seemingly unrelated topics. However, they aren’t so good at storing large amounts of information.
Forte advances the idea that just as we can improve the physical capacities of our bodies with tools, we can also create tools to increase the storage capacity of our brains.
Essentially, we can build a second brain.
Summary
Tiago Forte has years of experience building and optimizing his second brain in his personal and professional spheres.
He shares two schemas that help him feed and organize his second brain.
The first schema’s acronym is CODE.
CODE stands for Capture, Organise, Distill, and Express
Each word represents what you are supposed to do with information.
Capture information that is useful, inspiring, or surprising.
You can do this by bookmarking, underlining, note-taking, screenshotting, photographing, saving, etc.
Forte does not recommend a particular website or app, but he does want whatever system you use to be digital. Digital tools allow you to take advantage of their accessibility (your smartphone,) syncing features, searchability, and the various ways you can save information to them.
Organize the information you’ve captured.
Organization in the CODE schema is Forte’s darling and his second schema for information management balloons from here. Forte writes that information in the second brain must be curated to be more accessible when needed. There must be categories or tags attached to increase findability. More below.
Distill the information into more digestible, valuable chunks.
The goal is to locate the ideas and pertinent information quickly and easily. Save the quote, summarize the chapter, and synthesize the content. Save your future self the work of digesting a whole information source just for the one nugget of value.
Finally, there is Expression.
What good is it all if you don’t express yourself? You don’t need to be a writer, blogger, or YouTube influencer. Everyone expresses themselves. Drawing from an increased storage capacity of information can only help.
Maybe all you want is to remember a joke, find a recipe, have a statistic ready, or remember the name of a particular movie or book. Having the right bit of information at the right time can lead to better interpersonal interactions.
As said above, organization is where Forte has the most to share.
He argues that information should be grouped based on where it is going rather than where it comes from.
Following this line of thinking puts us on an action bias and allows us to break down traditional silos of information.
Forte’s organizational schema for his second brain goes by the acronym PARA.
It stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive.
Using the PARA schema gets us to think about the time horizon for each piece of information.
Projects have a fixed end date, and you are actively working on them.
Areas are wide-ranging zones of responsibility like Finances, Health, Family, Relationships, and Work.
Resources include information that doesn’t have an immediate need.
Last, there is the Archive. It is for finished projects and information that can sleep until needed again.
Putting old projects and resources in the Archive saves potential future effort since everything coming here should already be well-curated, researched, and improved.
Review
Building A Second Brain was a fast read. It was very accessible. Like so many self-help books, it has a clear organizational structure. Incidentally, this makes it more accessible as an audiobook too.
I think it deserves a place along with other actually useful books of the self-help genre. But my enthusiasm for a book is usually high right after I finish. Time will tell.
On a personal note, I have started capturing information more consciously since reading Forte’s book. I’ve been using Google Keep.
More than anything, noting what information sources I keep adding to, editing, and thinking about is showing me where my interests lie. It allows me to better remember the books I read. And it is helping me cut out digital distractions.
Who should read Building a Second Brain?
Those who like the self-help genre. Fans of Cal Newport, Laura Vanderkam, and James Clear. Tech entrepreneurs. Busy people, students, and especially creators. Librarians would also be interested in Forte’s framework of personal knowledge management.
Did you read Building A Second Brain? What did you think? Does it belong in the constellation of good self-help books?