"Building A Second Brain" Mastery Megathread: · High-Ticket Synthesizer Skool

Oct '22 (edited) in Other

"Building A Second Brain" Mastery Megathread:

I have attempted to synthesize THE BEST -- ALL-IN-ONE ALL-INCLUSIVE OVERVIEW (so far) of this ENTIRE topic intended to cover as much functional aspects as possible, and I'd also like it to be a place for discussing / optimizing this topic further / developing repeatable models inside synthesizer community. (----- Note I did not view every possible thing I could, just the stuff that was easiest to find within roughly a 2 day period as a total newbie at this... but I trust some or many of you will find the thoughts valuable ----)

Hopefully this can become a location where we can discuss which options are best for which personality types and various personalized use cases -- with extra resources & additional personalized expertise in the comments.

While not perfect, I did my best in a couple days starting from the links

@Andrew Kirby

shared with us in the #Build an information capture system section of the course as well as some deep diving I did with a number of experts including some local synthesizer videos.

Personal experience thus far: I avoided this for some time, because I wanted to "just get some stuff done" with knowledge I already had. However, I'm now finding the immense value in organizing & preparing the scaling of long-term projects. Seeing the INCREDIBLE power these tools give us... I have to dive deep.

I will first summarize some of the key points in Andrew's content and then expand.

First, synthesizers are tasked with "Building an Information Capture System" with the purpose of:

Storing important content we learn
Keeping it organized
Making it easy to distill & reference
Making it easy to transform into value for audience / end-consumers

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But then we are also given content about "Building a Second Brain" (see links in the module referenced above). The Second Brain can theoretically do many things, including:

Everything the information capture system can
Organize priorities
Manage projects
Track productivity
Manage routines

... and I could be leaving a lot out.

___________

Prior to this I have used:

A huge collection of sticky notes & loose paper with drawings/ pen-drawn diagrams (helpful if you have a LOT of physical real estate to tape these things up to walls) --- seeing things physically is good for those benefit from triggers and remminders to keep things constantly present
Microsoft Word Docs for notes 🤣🤣🤣
Clipping J Pegs & Screenshots, saving things into images (can scroll through them quickly in photo viewing programs). I have some on computer and some backed up on google photos. I have also taken photos (Not efficient for organizing, obviously)
Organizing files in computer's file system
A Calendar Excel file &/or Google Calendar for Schedule / Planning (Sam Ovens used to make videos on this)
An Excel File for Productivity & Routine Tracking (Sam Ovens used to make videos on this. I modified my own versions a LOT)
A "Categorized To-Do-List Dashboard" excel file which basically lists all the areas I am looking at in life. It has categories like "Social" "Personal Development" "Mindset" "Errands"
Loose-Leaf Paper taped to the wall near the door when I leave (e.g. a shopping list, I then carry with me when running errands)

___________

Having experienced certain neurological challenges in recent years, the more "physical" everything is, the easier it is for me to interface with w/ & the less effort it takes when I want to get creative. But the digital is good for when I want those extra functions / it absolutely MUST be in a searchable

archive.

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For synthesizing knowledge, we have the acronym C.O.D.E.

(pulled from here - found somewhere within the classroom links down the #Build an information capture system rabbit hole)

CODE =

Collect
Organize
Distill
Express

This is the core of the Synthesizer journey. (Definitions = self-explanatory.)

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But as synthesizers, digital entrepreneurs, &/or being literally any human being who has responsibilities / projects, we may want to have an organized management system from a more executive level

Thus Tiago Forte developed the PARA acronym, a management / second brain system that is designed to be tool-independent. It stands for:

PROJECTS

Series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline

AREAS

Spheres of activity with a standard to be maintained over time

RESOURCES

Topics or themes of ongoing interest

ARCHIVES

Inactive items from the other three categories

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To break it down, what I gathered from the video, "How a GTD Master Trainer Uses PARA" (pres. by Mohammed Ali Vakil of Calm Achiever on Tiago Forte's channel)

(Also linked somewhere in Andrew Kirby's #Build an information capture system rabbit hole)

Note: GTD = "Getting Things Done" --- I am interpreting this on the fly, so possibly with some error
Steps =

Capture (awareness of task / information / idea)
Clarify (what the insight is)
Organize (in your database system -- i.e. leaving the "Inbox" as seen below)
Reflect (you look at the system, as you will see below and execute on it)
Engage (GET IT DONE!!)

My insight is it can help to do this instead of just jumping STRAIGHT to engagement

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Example for organizing / integrating a GTD process with PARA as a framework in your second-brain system:

You can categorize (in a linear, hierarchical way) information in the following way to manage pretty much everything you have in your life. (He used Evernote, but Notion looks better to me now for the same tasks). But again PARA is tool-independent, so you can adopt it for whatever your system is -- even if your "second brain" is inside your computer's file system 🤢 ( which I find too clunky).

INBOX:

Contains anything you have clipped / saved for archiving later / want to organize somewhere
You may have more than one kind of inbox based on category or priority (you can sort them out as you go, or batch the organization process)

ACTION SUPPORT:

Just a section for actions you may need to take not related to a project (I used to keep this in my "categorized to-do-list-dashboard excel file)

PROJECT SUPPORT:

Contains any item which will support something on a to do list
He "categorizes" them with the headings, e.g. "Blog Post" or "C.A." for "Calm Achiever" (his website)

SOMEDAY / MAYBE:

This is for ideas or inspirations or thoughts you may get but may not be ready to act on yet / may be less high priority

AREAS OF FOCUS:

Life areas that have no specific due date, but it is good to archive information for
e.g. Fitness, Social, Health, Cooking Recipes, Travel Plans

ARCHIVE:

Anything which gets "Done" in a project goes here.

- - - - - - - - - -

He also uses tags and smart nodes (or notes?), which may help with organization / association and search --- but it seems this is not primarily best done in Notion, which is what Andrew Kirby has now gotten me interested in (upon teasing us with his own unique master second-brain system) because who doesn't want to develop cool, hyper-functioning superpowers like Andrew Kirby?

He says he modified his own templates in Notion based off of of Thomas Frank's templates

(The price tag may be significant to some of you, but his templates relevant to content creators are available to build from for those who are interested --- if you think this may be your best choice. But please read on / check out the other options first. )

___________________

And quickly, an example of HOW CUSTOMIZABLE Notion Can Be:

I should probably drop the synthesis of JUST HOW INCREDIBLY customizable Notion is, based on the content of this video (also linked somewhere within the #Build an information capture system Rabbithole).

In her video entitled Notion Setup & Workflow with GTD, PARA, Sprints, Checklist Manifesto, and more,

Maria Aldrey shows how she basically "gamified" her:

To do lists
Planning
Productivity tracking
Self-care
Notes

All into an RPG-themed video game style system.

The main takeaway from this is that you can literally do almost anything in it.

___________________

What seems like a better option:

Among everything I've looked at so far, Thomas Frank's ULTIMATE Second Brain Setup might be the most comprehensive / generally relatable to most people (which is what I am assuming Andrew Kirby built off of -- which I think came with a ~ $230.00 price tag, linked above).

This makes a lot of sense because it integrates

GTD
PARA

Now neither of those seem TOO difficult to build on your own, but a lot of the finely-tuned features could take some time to optimize.

___________________

But we do have one MORE thing to consider -- the largest limitation of something like Notion is that everything is "hierarchical" rather than "associative".

Here is a good Youtube Video on anyone who wants to take a deeper dive into this one way of thinking (hierarchical vs associative thinking) as it pertains to Building a Second Brain.

Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview by Nicole van der Hoeven

Now I hope what I added above makes it clear how frameworks like those listed above -- specifically the GTD & PARA frameworks -- seem like requirements for actually MOVING some serious energy in your life.

You have your intellectual content organized
Getting stuff done is much easier because of it
They even account for things not going just-as-planned as the PARA & GTD structures are somewhat flexible to account for a lot of variability.

Now I can definnitely see how the hierarchical structures like those outlined above especially like how was outlined in the "How a GTD Master Trainer Uses PARA" video (already linked: repost & re-linked for your convenience)

For those who need a refresher about hierarchical systems, you already are familiar:

Microsoft Windows users are probably familiar with hierarchical systems of the Windows Files Locations, things like:

C:\Users\ADMIN\Pictures

C:\Users\ADMIN\Music

where "Admin" contains both "Pictures" and "Music" folders, and there can be files within, organized by music / photo album, artist, etc. and then sorted by attributes such as file size, genre, file type, etc.

C: is the top of the heirarchy.

"Users" is next.

And we can wreck our entire OS if we go to C:\Windows\System32 and delete everything there (fun!).

But guess what isn't hierarchical:

Ideas.

Creativity.

Organic, real, natural life.

Parts of life have hierarchical structure, but let's say you are categorizing information about a "person" who is a "personal" connection but it is also related to "business" and related to "project A" but could also relate to "project B"

Many things can actually have more than one nonlinear association -- and that's how my brain works.

It's how I think--

Which can make communication and projects difficult.

And for work like this (associative note-taking / archiving programs), we have:

Rome Reearch
Obsidian

Obsidian seems to be a little more popular, and I've gotten more interest into it so far.

I got to see how cool some of the features of notetaking in Obsidian could be in some videos by

@John Mavrick Reyes

, upon giving the program a quick google search in our Skool. One of the videos I watched of his is below:

✨ How to use Obsidian MD, the *BEST* 2022 Studying and Note Taking App for Students and University✨ (Disclaimer, I might disagree about this for *every* student with my initial impression-- perhaps that can be fixed with the perfect setup program/onboarding process... but I talk more about that below)

You can find many more videos by him on this topic with a YT search query I have linked here and he has a beginner course on Gumroad here. (I have not reviewed it yet or compared it to the other wealth of videos he has added on the topic, but I am interested.)

John and responded to some of my initial insights on his content about choosing Notion vs. Obsidian in this Skool thread (where Andrew has been cruelly teasing us since Late August about how super-special-awesome his Notion setup is, and not yet delivering, which I hope has to do with a master plan of his to build up hype and anticipation in time). (Side note: That's the thread that got me to dive down this rabbit hole... but back to my analysis of John Mavrick Reyes's work & Obsidian):

Below will be some synthesis of John's responses inside Skool, his YT channel, and his responses to me via this comment in Andrew's thread as a response to my query.

Can we give the man's some likes or a follow??? 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

If you have read this far, and appreciate that I got a lot of knowledge from this him, we can give him some credit in Skool.

Or you can just send him a kind tip 💳💸 in exchange for his course here should you choose to check it out.

(if you think that would be valuable enough to download, as I do -- after all, it's nice to have a second brain 🧠🤖, isn't it? 🤓)

Insight summary:

While John was using notion for Tasks & Obsidian for his notes previously, he recently managed to integrate all of that information into Obsidian & integration plugins available for it
It would be very useful to toggle multi-pane view available with plugins inside of Obsidian, being able to see multiple notes at once (this can be useful for distilling or making connections drawn from multiple notes. This is actually a MUST on some level, whether you are using multiple monitors, multiple windows, multiple tabs etc. to synthesize.
There is a mind map plugin available in Obsidian (at least via plugins or add-ons) which you can set up that can help to track associations between your different notes -- and it just looks really cool (Seriously just skim through this video, even for five seconds -- to see how cool it looks -- this is what I always imagined information / the internet should actually look like)
You don't NEED to be a full-on programmer to use Obsidian with starter packs / downloads / plugins, but at minimum having a "programmer's mindset" (John's words) can help

"Obsidian natively doesn't support multi-column pages, so Notion is best for a fully customizable dashboard" ( - direct quote from John)
"Notion is more user-friendly for productivity use-cases but I find Obsidian's note taking flow to be worth learning due to its hotkeys, plugins, etc" ( - direct quote from John)

The following is all direct quotes of

@John Mavrick Reyes

: THANKS!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"For optimized system:

For most people a Notion / Obsidian approach is probably best
If you want to combine the two, Obsidian has a Todoist integration plugin so I have the intricate and quick task planning Todoist provides alongside the ability to make project notes and bundle together all information on a project

I'm not 100% sure on what the onboarding time is for the average person, but as outlined in my video it took me 7 days to get a hang of the note-taking aspect, and maybe a month or two to have it seamlessly integrated into my life as I still had to personalize my workflow."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Now to me -- OP / Griffin -- At the end of the day, it still seems a bit complicated to figure out which system works the best for us.

Andrew Kirby recommended Notion in his video,

6 apps that should keep you from forgetting what you learn

(In the #Build an information capture system course module.)

Part of that is because everything can be optimized such that all of the other capture tools link to Notion.

___________

There is also some suggestion from Tiago Forte that which system you use should depend on who you are / how you learn. His archetypes and what they should use are as follows:

(Taken from this video)

"ARCHITECT":

Wants structure, practicality, aesthetically beneficial interface, organizational/ systems mindset
Recommends Notion

"GARDENER":

Wandering, dreaming, imagining, making huge creative leaps, may not "know" where the system is heading. Open to new ideas / exploration / innovation. Good to see how different ideas are associated together
Recommends Rome Research / Obsidian

"LIBRARIAN"

Categorizing, Sharing information, Cares about *SPECIFIC* projects & learning obsessions
This sounds most similar to the "synthesizer" concept at its core... but I think many synths will fit into the other 2 prior categories
Recommends Evernote (Primarily for the clipping functionality accessible in every way imaginable -- but I believe by now, Notion has caught up to this)

"STUDENT"

Busy, does not have extra time, geared towards simplicity, just getting stuff done
While
@John Mavrick Reyes
seems to have proven that a literal actual university student can actually benefit from something more complex like Obsidian, I think that is more applicable to those students who are (A) more high functioning / less procrastinatory than average (B) are willing to put in / have extra time on their hands -- specifically for set-up. Obsidian seems like something more beneficial in the long-term.
So he recommends apps like Apple Notes | Google Keep | Notability --- to simply jot down quick notes for their busy, and active lifestyle.

This makes sense because the "projects" in school are usually guided by the courses, and you show up at those classes every day. It is much less self-directed, so I can see why he would say university students need to keep it simple.

The only alternative I can think of for students is if they have a set-up, ready-to-go easy-to-use template that already matches them from the get-go (and practically speaking, I think some tweaking would be necessary for most)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For myself at the moment /// Where I am at personally on all of this

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I see myself having a combination of the Architect / Gardener / Librarian attributes. Tough call.

if I want to launch my projects FASTEST from where I am TODAY I should probably take the role of the STUDENT --- unless I want to organize more in which case I should embody the role of the ARCHITECT (this seems more efficient in the medium-because it looks the easiest)

Obsidian seems like the best long-term play for organizing & setting up total mastery over every topic that has ever interested me, seeing how they link together, and where they can go

The main reason that I lean towards Notion RIGHT NOW is that I am the kind of person who is naturally free-flowing & associative, but can actually benefit most from utilize easy-to-implement & low-friction organizational structures and it seems like Thomas Frank's ULTIMATE Second Brain Setup may most closely match the grounding organizational structure that I need which is the quickest to get running, plug-and-play style (and of course I would make my own adjustments to that, because many things I track -- e.g. specific lists of supplements, sleep hours, optimal timing of exercise is unique to me)

I have the feeling that Obsidian will work best in the long-run and will have more customization options for the way my brain works and can even do everything that I need notion to do -- but it does sound like that will take integration from multiple different plug-ins to make that happen and maybe a little engineering / tweaking / problem-solving to get things to work a little better (a "programmer's mindset")

MY BIGGEST CONCERN / QUESTION about Obsidian is whether or not it can easily clip / integrate everything in the way Andrew Kirby described in his video, 6 apps that should keep you from forgetting what you learn. If it can, that might seal the deal in making me eventually shift to that association-supportive note-taking ecosystem structure

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Questions for Andrew Kirby & Rest of the Skool Community

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Does this summary seem helpful?
Is this pretty accurate?
Did I get anything wrong?
Is there anything major I missed?
Any recommendations for getting started?
Does it sound worth it to purchase Thomas Frank's ULTIMATE Second Brain Setup for ~$230 USD + tax ?
Is there a faster guide to setting up something that works more efficiently & fast for everyone?

Again, I really encourage synthesizers to focus on the following:

Organize all of your ideas
Organize all of your tasks
Organize all of your POTENTIAL tasks
Organize ALL information you have in your life -- for synthesizing and otherwise
Be able to track what you do - (even make sure you drink water, get enough exersize, and sleep well all in the same system) - if you need any support with that. Even if you don't use it 100% of the time, I've found it helps
Have that full GTD + PARA system
And, in my PERSONAL opinion, having some kind of option where we can organize content by association would be ideal -- because life is not linnear.

_____

With all that said, I'd love for all of you guys to go absolutely crazy in this thread with any and all ideas (although I would definitely, for selfish reasons, be highly appreciative if anyone has solutions to my personal desire to get setup with a POWERFUL system that meets all ideal requirements ASAP --- for now I think I can create a pretty simple PARA / GTD system in Notion & be OK).

Overall go nuts because honestly I've been going down this rabbithole and playing with it for about 48 hours & found Notion pretty useful in helping me to write this post more quickly... but nothing is so great as working with a hivemind of talented / brilliant / motivated human beings with synergistic expertise like I've been finding here. GO HIVEMIND GO! 🧠🌐📣🤸🏼‍♀️🙌🤸🏻

Whatever insights and questions and ideas or projects or videos you want to share about Building A Second Brain (for organizing tasks/ areas / projects / archives AS WELL AS information capture systems) drop 'em & LET'S TAKE THIS TRIBE TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF "SECOND BRAIN"-ING!!

After giving this a LOT of consideration, I really feel like this is one of the core elements which will serve as a foundation for Synthesizer journey and make the creators who master this one thing truly over-powered compared to the rest.

Mastering this one type of system seems to potentiate this tribe going from