Library

author: & Tiago Forte

Part 1

Chapter 2

p. 19: The Legacy of Commonplace Books

• For centuries, artists and intellectials from & Leonardo DeVinci to & Virginia Woolf have recorded the ideas they found most interesting in a book they carried around with them, known as a 202207081938 - Commonplace book
• { The Case for Books explains the role of these books
• Take a more thoughtful, patient approach to consuming content
  • consume less, health the fractured attention, and preserve our mental health

p. 21: The Digital Commonplace Book

• A Second Brain

p. 23: Rethink Notetaking: Notes as Knowledge Building Blocks

• In school: write something down because it will be on the test
  • Implies that learning was treated as essentially disposable, with no intention of that knowledge being useful for the long term.
• In the Professional world: Knowledge Building Blocks
  • It's not at all clear what you should be taking notes on
  • no one tells you when or how your notes will be used
  • the "test" can come at any time and in any form
  • You're allowed to reference your notes at any time, provided you took them in the first place
  • you are expected to take action on your notes, not just regurgitate them

p. 25: A tale of two brains

• Leave room for your biological brain to be present and work as intended
• let your second brain pick up the things you want/need to let go of and know that it will be remembered.
  { The Extended Mind 20220708 - Memex

Chapter 3: How a second brain works

p 34: The Superpowers of a Second Brain

1. Making our ideas concrete

• & James Watson, & Francis Crick discover the double helix structure of DNA
  • By making physical models, an approach they borrowed from & Linus Pauling, like a puzzle, they experimented with different ways of putting the model ogether
  • Digital notes aren't just physical, they're visual: turn vague concepts into tangible entities that can be observed, rearranged, edited, and combined together.

  "The skills we have developed for dealing with the external world go beyond those we have for dealing with the internal world."
  - & Deborah Chambers, & Daniel Reisberg

2. revealing new associations between ideas

• & Nancy C. Andreasen: "Creative people are better at recognizing relationships, making associations, and connections."
• In our Second brain, we can mix up the order of our ideas until something unexpected emerges. The more diverse and unusual the material you put into it, the more original the connections that will emerge.

3. incubating our ideas over time

• 202207082005 - Recency Bias
  • Slow Burn: allow bits of thought matter to slowly simmer like a delicious pot of stew brewing on the stove.
    • A sustainable approach to creativity that relies on the gradual accumulation of ideas, instead of all-out binges of manic hustle

4. sharpening our unique perspectives

• In response to 20220708 - Writer's Block: When you feel stuck in your creative pursuits, it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. You haven't lost your touch or run our of creative juice. It means you don't yet have enough raw material to work with.
  • If it feels like the well of inspiration has run dry, it's because you need a deeper well full of examples, illustrations, stories, statistics, diagrams, analogies, meaphors, photos, mindmaps, conversations, notes, quotes - anything that will help you argue for your perspective or fight for a cause you believe in.
• #comment: How does this relate to the repercussions of 202207152037 - burnout on content creators? { Show Your Work

p. 38: Choosing a note taking app

• Multimedia: The app needs to store a wide variety of different kinds of content
• informal: notes are messy; make it ready and { Atomic Habits^frictionless
• Open-ended: notes are ideal for free-form exploration before you have a goal in mind
• Action-oriented: Your notes database should be designed to help you quickly capture stray thoughts so you can remain focused on the task at hand.

p40: Remember, Connect, Create

1. The first way that people tend to use their second brain is as a memory aid.
2. The second brain evolves from being a memory tool to becoming a thinking tool
3. The third way people use their second brain is for creating new things
   1. having an idea and a well of supporting material generates courage to put your own ideas out there and have a positive impact on others.

p 43: CODE

p43

• & May-Britt Moser, &Edvard Moser: The human brain remembers information use a "grid code" - "The grid code could therefore be some sort of metric or coordinate system" that can "uniquely and efficiently represent a lot of information."

Capture

p44-45

• Problem: We can't consume every bit of information - we will become exhausted.
  • We need to adopt the perspective of a curator, stepping back from the raging river and starting to make intentional decisions about what information we want to fill our minds
    • #comment: By detatching ({ Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^d49f5b) from what keeps up down-and-in, we can begin to take ownership of the information we take in or pay attention to.
  • Solution: keep only what resonates in a trusted place that you control, and to leave the rest aside
    • When something resonates, it moves you on an intuitive level
    • Don't make an analytical decision - let feeling pleasure, curiosity, wonder, or excitement signal for when it's time to capture a passage, image, quote, or fact.

Organize

p46

• The best way to organize your notes is to organize for action, according to the active projects you are working on right now.
  • Consider utility: "How is this going to help me move forward one of my current projects" { Building a Second Brain p. 87

Distill

• 202207082133 - essence

p47

• & Albert Einstein: summarized his revolutionary new theory of physics with the quation E=MC2. If he can distill his thinking into such an equation, you can surely summarize the main points of any article, book, video, or presentation so that the main point is easy to identify.
  #comment: How can I distill books down their essence? #question
• Think of yourself not just as a take of notes, but as a Givers of notes - you are giving your future self the gift of knowledge that is easy to find and understand.

Express

p48

• Information becomes knowledge only when we put it to use.
  • You gain confidence in what you know only when you know that it works. Until you do, it's just a theory

Part 2: The 4 steps of CODE

Chapter 4: Capture

p55 - Building a Private Collection of Knowledge

• & Taylor Swift goes on to explain whi it's so important to her to capture fleeting thoughts right as they appear: "I kind of capitalize on the excitement of me getting that idea and see it all the way through or else I'll leave it behind and assume it wasn't good enough."
• & Jerry Seinfeld wrote in his book { Is This Anything?:
  • Whenever I came up with a funny bit whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation or working it out on my preferred canvase, the bit yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old-school accordian folders...a lot of people I've talked to seemed surprised that I've kept all these notes. I don't understand why they think that. I don't understand why I've kept anything else. What else could possibly be of more value?

p57 - Creating a Knowledge Bank: How to generate compounding interest from your thoughts { Building a Second Brain#^a453ba

Types of archives

• Song writers: "Hook books"
• Software engineers: "code libraries"
• Layers: "case files"
• Marketers/advertisers: "swipe files"
• In the digital world we live in, knowledge most often shows up as "content" - snippits of text, screenshots, bookmarked articles, podcasts, etc.
  • These aren't just "random artifacts" - they are 202207090931 - Knowledge Assets

P60

We need an external medium in which to see our ideas from another vantage point, and writing things down is the most effective and convenient one ever invented.

p60 - What not to keep

4 kinds of content that aren't well suited to notes apps

1. Sensitive information you'd like to keep secure
2. Is this a special format or file type better handled by a dedicated app?
3. Is this a very large file?
4. Will it need to be collaboratively edited?

p61 - Twelve Favorite Problems: A nobel prize winner's approach to capturing

• & Richard Feynman: You Have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once ina while there will be a hit, and people will say "How did he do it? He must be a genius!"
• As yourself, "What are the questions I've always been interested in?"
  • could include grand sweeping questions, practical ones, questions about relationships, or even productivity.
    p64 - examples of questions
• The key to this exercise is to make them open-ended questions taht don't necessarily have a single answer. To find questions taht invoke a state of wonder and curiosity about the world we live in.
• The goal isn't to definitively answer the question once and for all, but to use the question as a North Star for learning.

p66 - Capture Criteria: How to avoid keeping too much (or too little)

• People either dive straight into the first piece of content they see, read it voraciously, by quickly forget all the details, or they open dozens of tabs in their web browser { The Shallows - What the Internet is doing to our brains and feel a pang of guilt at all those interesting resources they haven't been able to get to.
• 202207090957 - curator's perspective
  • #comment Distraction is a choice driven by external incentives
• Recommended: capture no more than 10% if the original source at the most.

Criteria 1: Does it inspire me?

• keep a collection of inspiring quotes, photos, ideas, and stories. Any time you need a break, a new perspective, or a dash of motivation, you can see what sparks your imagination.

Criteria 2: Is it useful?

• Carpenters are known for keeping odds and ends in a corner of their workshop - a variety of nails and washers, scraps of lumber cut off from larger planks, and random bits of metal and wood. It costs nothing to keep these offcuts around, and surprisingly, often they end up being the crucial missing piece of a future project

Criteria 3: Is it personal?

• personal thoughts, reflections, and memos

Criteria 4: Is it surprising?

• & Claude Shannon - 202207091009 - information
• If the information conflicts with your existing point of view in a way that makes your brain perk up and pay attention, then it is an idea you should capture.

p70 - Capture what resonates

• 202207091017 - resonance
• & Dacher Keltner, & Paul Ekman - {The Science of Inside-Out: "Emotions organize - rather than disrupt - rational thinking"
  • When something resonates with us, it is out emotion-based, intuitive mind telling us it is interesting before out logical mind can explain why.
• { Designing for Behavior Change#^708bc5

p76 - The surprising benefits of externalizing our thoughts

• 202207091035 - reactivity loop

Chapter 5: Organize - Save for Actionability

p81

& Twyla Tharp - {The Creative Habit: "I believe in starting each project with a stated goal. Sometimes the goal is nothing more than a personal mantra such as 'keep it simple' or 'something perfect' or 'economy' to remind me of what I was thinking at the beginning if and when I lose my way."

• Twyla used a box for each project she worked on and dropped anything that related to the creation of the project in that box
  • "(items) sit there as I write this, covered by months of research, like an anchor keeping me connected to my original impulse"
  • The box gives you the opportunity to reflect on your performance.
    • How did you do? Did you get to your goal? Did you improve on it? Did it change along the way? Could you have done it all more efficiently? 202207091102 - Project Completion Checklist

p84 - 202207091139 - The Cathedral Effect: Designing a Space for Your Ideas

• No one questions the importance of having physical spaces that make us feel calm and centered, but when it comes to your digital workspace, it's likely you've spent little time, if any, arranging that space to enhance your productivity or creativity.
• As knowledge workers, we sped many hours every day within digital environments - our computers, smartphones, and the web. Unless you take control of those virtual spaces and shape them to support the kinds of thinking you want to do, every minute spent there will feel taxing and distracting.

p86 - Organizing for action

• P.A.R.A: organizing information based o how actionable it is, not by what kind of information it is.
• By taking the small extra step of putting a note into a folder for a specific project, such as a psychology paper you're writing or a presentation you're preparing, you'll encounter that idea right at the moment it's most relevant.
• We need to always be wary of accumulating so much information that we spend all our time managing it, instead of putting it to use in the outside world. { Building a Second Brain#^7f337e
• By structuring your notes and files around the completion of active projects, your knowledge can go to work for you.

202108012257 - P.A.R.A Method: P. 90

1. Projects: Short term efforts in you work or life that you're working on now

• 202206222239 - Hollywood model
• 202207162056 - How Do I select Projects?

2. Areas: Long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time

Mission driven - standard measured

Personal

• Activities or places you are responsible for: Home/apartment; cooking; travel; car
• People you are responsible for or account to: Friends; Kids; Spouses; Pets
• Standards of performance you are responsible for: Health; Personal Growth; Friendships; finances
  Job or business
  • Departments or functions you are responsible for
  • People or teams you are responsible for
  • Professional development

3. Resources: Topics or interests that may be useful in the future

• What topics are you interested in
• What subjects are you researching?
• What useful information do you want to be able to reference?
• Which hobbies or passions do you have?

4. Archives: Inactive items from the other three categories

• Projects that are completed or canceled.
• Areas of responsibility that you are no longer committed to maintaining
• Resources that are no longer relevant.

p96 - What PARA looks like: Behind the scenes

p101 - Where do i put this? - how to decide where to save individual notes

• Separating the capturing and organizing of ideas helps you stat present, notice what Resonates (202207091017 - resonance) and leave the devision of what to do with them to a separate time (such as a 202107121505 - Weekly Review)
  • Batching: { Deep Work#^27ccdc

The 4 main categories of P.A.R.A

are ordered by actionability to make the decision of where to put notes as easy as possible

• Projects are most actionable because you're working on them right now and with a concrete deadline in mind 202108012140 - Parkinson's Law
• Areas have a longer time horizon and are less immediately actionable
• Resources may become actionable depending on the situation
• Archives remain inactive unless they are needed

questions to ask

1. In which project will this be most useful?
2. If none: in which area will this be most useful
3. if none: which resource does this belong to?
4. If none: Place in archives

• you are always trying to place a note or file not only where it will be useful, but where it will be useful the soonest.
• Organizing by actionability counteracts our tendency to constantly procrastinate and postpone our aspiration to some far-off future.
• The goal of organizing our knowledge is to move our goals forward, not get a PDH in Note taking
  • knowledge is best applied in execution.

p103 - Organizing information like a kitchen - What am I making?

• 202207152000 - mise en place
• Imagine how absurd it would be to organize a kitchen by the kind of food:
  • Fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, frozen fruit
    • all of these would be stored in the same place only because they happen to be made of fruit.
• Instead of organizing ideas according to where they come from, organize them according to where they are going or which outcomes they can help you realize.
• The true test of whether a piece of knowledge is valuable is not whether it is perfectly organized and neatly labeled, but whether it can have an impact on someone or something that matters to you.
• The purpose of a single note or group of notes can and does change over time as your needs and goals change. Every life move through seasons, and you digital notes should move along with them
  • #comment When notes can't move, they collect dust. When they collect dust, they go unseen, and therefore, unused.

p105 - Completed Projects are the Oxygen of your second brain

• & Tiago Forte worked in 202207152017 - Apple Inc. stores helping people load their new macs
  • had 1 hour 1-on-1 sessions to help people move/organize files
  • Took too long, ended up having people just collect all their old files into an Archive to be used when needed in the future.
• people didn't need or want an organized computer. They had spent all this money and time moving to a Mac because there was something they wanted to create or achieve.
• "I've learned that completed creative projects are the blood flow" of your second brain. They keep the whole system nourished, fresh, and pried for action.
  • #comment Moving projects forward { Building a Second Brain#^5c3d81 - what can machines do help your realize your projects?
• Advice: Move quickly, touch lightly 202108012256 - Decentralized Command
• Each time you finish a project, move its folder wholesale to the archives, and each time you start a new project, look through your archives to see if any past projects might have assets you can reuse. { Building a Second Brain#^f8a5db

Chapter 6: Distill - Find the 202207082133 - essence

Chapter 8: The art of creative execution

p182 - The Archipelago of Ideas: Give yourself Stepping Stones

• Valuable for starting any new piece of work
• Gives you a way to plan your progress even when performing tasks that are inherently unpredictable.
• Named after a quote by & Steven JohnsonEach chapter (i write) starts life as a kind of archipelago of inspiring quotes which. makes it seem far less daunting. All i have to do is build bridges between the islands

p186 202207091116 - The Hemingway Bridge: Use yesterday's momentum today

p198 - 202207152000 - mise en place