Building a Second Brain Paperback – June 14, 2022

If you're juggling multiple projects and struggle to keep track of your ideas, I highly recommend reading this book.I found the book's C.O.D.E. method incredibly helpful for organizing my notes and hobbies. Like many people, I used to scatter my thoughts across pocket notebooks and apps without a real system. While reading this book, and taking the time to consolidate my notes into Obsidian, I've become much more organized. It has helped me out with a lot of programming hobbies.

The short:Tiago Forte gives use a framework to tackle organization of our digital lives and to make technology finally work for us instead of becoming a burden.The good:Forte has three main concepts that help to organize your digital life and improve productivity (i.e. making the data you've capture) accessible and usable, instead of getting lost. Those three concepts are CODE, PARA, and Highlighting 2.0 (or Progressive Summarization).CODE: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express is a nice easy to remember acronym for the "second brain" and how we are to think of it.PARA: (Projects, Areas, Resource, Archive) is a subset of Organize and is how the "brain" is structured. Which changes the "normal" way we think of folder hierarchy in a very powerful way. Most of the things we do in our daily lives are Projects, but we save the data for a project in different "areas" and "resources" (i.e. unrelated folders) and aren't easy to find using browsing and thus create bloat that is never used and continues to grow, PARA is here to solve that.Lastly, Highlighting 2.0: is a powerful way to capture and distill the just of something you've read or written. So, that when you come back to it in 20 years you don't need to read it all over to understand why it was important in the first place (in less of course you wish to do so).The bad:About 50% of this book, probably more (particularly the first 100 pages or so), are portrayal, fluff, salesmanship, cheer-leading, and war stories mean to inspire the reader. Not only is this a huge waste of everyone's time, the author's system should inspire based upon it's own merits and because there was so much "extra", the book wasn't as practical and/or applicable as it could/should have been.This lack of applicability is evident in the fact that they author had to write a second book titled PARA to clarify and expound on the matter when he should have done so in this current book; and unfortunately, based upon what the author has said in this book, I doubt that his second book will truly clarify the matter. In fact, a review of "The PARA Method" by Dennis M says essentially that, "While it does expand on the method, you should be able to get everything you need from BASB".Additionally, Forte lays out a system that is more expansive than the scope of this book alone, leaving the reader to fend for themselves.Epilogue:This is a book that probably should have 5-stars, but tittered dangerously close to being 3-stars. The author has some good insights, he just doesn't execute the transfer of knowledge well in this book and thus the reader must fend for themselves to really implement what the author is trying to convey and will most likely take many reads/look-backs to fully grasp the fully utility of the message. My biggest gripe with this book, is that there's so much extra fluff and trying to sell you on the method and not enough instruction and application. Forte outlines the four methods to find data in his system, the first two being searching (which is easy enough), browsing (which Forte himself cite a study showing this is the preferred method by humans to sieve data) however due to the simplicity and flatness of his PARA system (as is) true browsing is seemingly impossible and it's not clear as how one should rectify this. Forte seems to suggest that we shouldn't worry about it, because not everything is going to be useful, but then why bother organizing at all if you can't find an item you need.

The media could not be loaded. I've read 100s of books, but this is my very first Amazon review for a good reason. The ideas in this book have been life changing--even life saving. As an entrepreneur, husband, and new dad, I can’t recommend this book "Building a Second Brain" highly enough. Thank you to my Second Brain—Nosnorb Kroy—for supporting me in expressing what you are reading and the video I made!I was really excited to read this long-anticipated book, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it was during my son's first seven weeks of life--between hundreds of soothing sessions and household chores--that I actually read/listened to this book. Afterwards, I was so inspired that I created a new website called “Two Brains One Heart”.After 15 years of trying dozens of approaches to work/creativity/productivity, “Building a Second Brain” is DIFFERENT and WORKS. How so? BASB is about building a powerful external system AND simultaneously developing lifelong internal habits. Furthermore, that system and those habits are designed based in new perspectives that are aligned with living and working in the Information Age and leverage the unprecedented technologies at everyone’s fingertips at this time.You will see that you are totally in the driver’s seat of changing your system (Second Brain), then as you change your system, it will start changing you (First Brain). There is a symbiotic relationship between your two brains, and herein lives a key driver to the great transformational power of building a Second Brain.----CONCLUSION-----If you are drowning in the tumultuous ocean of today's Information Age, or if you dream of actualizing more in your life, I believe this book is the right direction. But like Tiago did, as I have, only you can travel your own journey. It can start with this book, reading one page, capturing one idea, and implementing one action at a time.Why keep doggy-paddling for dear life until ultimate exhaustion? Grab this book, open it up, digest it, and TAKE ACTION. You will learn how to build your watercraft to survive and eventually thrive.BASB was born out of Tiago's personal suffering from a terrible medical diagnosis, but once he conceived his Second Brain, he nurtured and built it over time. A decade later he is heroically on his way to helping millions of others.Tiago has transparently shared about how he poured his blood, sweat, and tears into birthing this book. In the end, he persevered to realize this gigantic undertaking of writing a mainstream published book, out of his deep desire to distill the best of what he knows so that as many people around the world could realize their fullest potential with a Second Brain as well. Like a child that takes a village to raise, Tiago graciously credits the community of support that has made his journey and this book possible. With this all said, I deeply THANK Tiago and everyone who had a hand in his life and in this book.If this is resonating, please don't let the moment pass. Do what feels right. Just go. One small step, or one giant leap at a time.Bronson York Chang / Nosnorb Kroy~ ~ ~ ~ ~“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain