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Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential Hardcover – June 14, 2022

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,190 ratings

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“One of my favorite books of the year. It completely reshaped how I think about information and how and why I take notes.” —Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive

A revolutionary approach to enhancing productivity, creating flow, and vastly increasing your ability to capture, remember, and benefit from the unprecedented amount of information all around us.

For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough.

Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals.

Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by
Building a Second Brain.
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From the Publisher

building a Second Brain

building a Second Brain

building a Second Brain

building a Second Brain

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tiago Forte is one of the world’s foremost experts on productivity and has taught thousands of people around the world how timeless principles and the latest technology can revolutionize their productivity, creativity, and personal effectiveness. He has worked with organizations such as Genentech, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and appeared in a variety of publications, such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review. He is the author of Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method. Find out more at Fortelabs.co.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Where It All Started Chapter 1 Where It All Started
Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

—David Allen, author of
Getting Things Done

One spring day during my junior year of college, for no apparent reason, I began to feel a small pain in the back of my throat.

I thought it was the first sign of a flu coming on, but my doctor couldn’t find a trace of illness. It slowly got worse over the next few months, and I began to visit other, more specialized doctors. They all arrived at the same conclusion: there’s nothing wrong with you.

Yet my pain continued getting worse and worse, with no remedy in sight. Eventually it became so severe that I had trouble speaking or swallowing or laughing. I did every diagnostic test and scan imaginable, desperately looking for answers for why I was feeling this way.

As months and then years passed, I began to lose hope that I would ever find relief. I started taking a powerful anti-seizure medication that temporarily relieved the pain, but there were terrible side effects, including a numbing sensation throughout my body and severe short-term memory loss. Entire trips I took, books I read, and precious experiences with loved ones during this period were wiped from my memory as if they never happened. I was a twenty-four-year-old with the mind of an eighty-year-old.

As my ability to express myself continued to deteriorate, my discouragement turned to despair. Without the ability to speak freely, so much of what life had to offer—friendships, dating, traveling, and finding a career I was passionate about—seemed like it was slipping away from me. It felt like a dark curtain was being drawn over the stage of my life before I even had a chance to start my performance.
A Personal Turning Point—Discovering the Power of Writing Things Down
One day, sitting in yet another doctor’s office waiting for yet another visit, I had an epiphany. I realized in a flash that I was at a crossroads. I could either take responsibility for my own health and my own treatment from that day forward, or I would spend the rest of my life shuttling back and forth between doctors without ever finding resolution.

I took out my journal and began to write what I was feeling and thinking. I wrote out the history of my condition, through my own lens and in my own words, for the first time. I listed which treatments had helped and which hadn’t. I wrote down what I wanted and didn’t want, what I was willing to sacrifice and what I wasn’t, and what it would mean to me to escape the world of pain I felt trapped within.

As the story of my health began to take shape on the page, I knew what I needed to do. I stood up abruptly, walked over to the receptionist, and asked for my complete patient record. She looked at me quizzically, but after I answered a few questions, she turned to her files and began making photocopies.

My patient record amounted to hundreds of pages, and I knew I would never be able to keep track of them on paper. I started scanning every page on my family’s home computer, turning them into digital records that could be searched, rearranged, annotated, and shared. I became the project manager of my own condition, taking detailed notes on everything my doctors told me, trying out every suggestion they made, and generating questions to review during my next appointment.

With all this information in one place, patterns began to emerge. With my doctors’ help, I discovered a class of afflictions called “functional voice disorders,” which included problems with any of the more than fifty pairs of muscles required to properly swallow a piece of food. I realized that the medications I was taking were masking my symptoms, and in the process making it harder to hear what they were telling me. What I had was not an illness or infection that could be eradicated with a pill—it was a functional condition that required changes in how I took care of my body.

I began to research how breathing, nutrition, vocal habits, and even past experiences in childhood can be manifested in the nervous system. I started to understand the mind-body connection and how my thoughts and feelings directly impacted the way my body felt. Taking notes on everything I learned, I devised an experiment: I would try a few simple lifestyle changes, such as improving my diet and regular meditation, combined with a series of voice exercises I learned from a voice therapist. To my shock and amazement, it began to work almost immediately. My pain didn’t disappear, but it became far more manageable.I

As I look back, my notes were as important in finding relief as any medicine or procedure. They gave me the chance to step back from the details of my condition and see my situation from a different perspective. For both the outer world of medicine and the inner world of sensations, my notes were a practical medium for turning any new information I encountered into solutions I could use.

From then on, I became obsessed with the potential of technology to channel the information all around me. I began to realize that the simple act of taking notes on a computer was the tip of an iceberg. Because once made digital, notes were no longer limited to short, handwritten scribbles—they could take any form, including images, links, and files of any shape and size. In the digital realm, information could be molded and shaped and directed to any purpose, like a magical, primordial force of nature.

I started using digital notetaking in other parts of my life. In my college classes, I turned stacks of disheveled spiral-bound notebooks into an elegant, searchable collection of lessons. I learned to master the process of writing down only the most important points from my classes, reviewing them on demand, and using them to compose an essay or pass a test. I had always been a mediocre student with average grades. My early schoolteachers would regularly send me home with report cards noting my short attention span and wandering mind. You can imagine my delight when I graduated from college with a nearly straight-A grade point average and university honors.

I had the misfortune of graduating into one of the worst job markets in a generation, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Faced with few employment opportunities in the United States, I decided to join the Peace Corps, an overseas volunteer program that sends Americans to serve in developing countries. I was accepted and assigned to a small school in the eastern Ukrainian countryside, where I would spend two years teaching English to students aged eight to eighteen.

Working as a teacher with few resources and little support, my notetaking system once again became my lifeline. I saved examples of lessons and exercises anywhere I found them: from textbooks, websites, and USB drives passed around by other teachers. I mixed and matched English phrases, expressions, and slang into word games to keep my energetic third graders engaged. I taught the older students the basics of personal productivity—how to keep a schedule, how to take notes in class, and how to set goals and plan their education. I will never forget their appreciation as they grew up and used those skills to apply to universities and succeed in their first jobs. Years later, I still regularly receive messages of gratitude as the productivity skills I taught my former students continue to bear fruit in their lives.

I returned to the US after two years of service and was thrilled to land a job as an analyst at a small consulting firm in San Francisco. As excited as I was to start my career, I was also faced with a major challenge: the pace of work was frantic and overwhelming. Moving straight from rural Ukraine to the epicenter of Silicon Valley, I was utterly unprepared for the constant barrage of inputs that is a normal part of modern workplaces. Every day I received hundreds of emails, every hour dozens of messages, and the pings and dings from every device merged into a ceaseless melody of interruption. I remember looking around at my colleagues and wondering, “How can anyone get anything done here? What’s their secret?”

I knew only one trick, and it started with writing things down.

I started taking notes on everything I was learning using a notetaking app on my computer. I took notes during meetings, on phone calls, and while doing research online. I wrote down facts gleaned from research papers that could be used in the slides we presented to clients. I wrote down tidbits of insight I came across on social media, to share on our own social channels. I wrote down feedback from my more experienced colleagues so I could make sure I digested it and took it to heart. Every time we started a new project, I created a dedicated place on my computer for the information related to it, where I could sort through it all and decide on a plan of action.

As the information tide receded, I started to gain a sense of confidence in my ability to find exactly what I needed when I needed it. I became the go-to person in the office for finding that one file, or unearthing that one fact, or remembering exactly what the client had said three weeks earlier. You know the feeling of satisfaction when you are the only one in the room who remembers an important detail? That feeling became the prize in my personal pursuit to capitalize on the value of what I knew.
Another Shift—Discovering the Power of Sharing
My collection of notes and files had always been for my own personal use, but as I worked on consulting projects for some of the most important organizations in the world, I started to realize that it could be a business asset as well.

I learned from one of the reports we published that the value of physical capital in the US—land, machinery, and buildings for example—is about $10 trillion, but that value is dwarfed by the total value of
human capital, which is estimated to be five to ten times larger. Human capital includes “the knowledge and the knowhow embodied in humans—their education, their experience, their wisdom, their skills, their relationships, their common sense, their intuition.”1

If that was true, was it possible that my personal collection of notes was a knowledge asset that could grow and compound over time? I began to see my as-yet-unnamed Second Brain not just as a notetaking tool but as a loyal confidant and thought partner. When I was forgetful, it always remembered. When I lost my way, it reminded me where we were going. When I felt stuck and at a loss for ideas, it suggested possibilities and pathways.

At one point some of my colleagues asked me to teach them my organizing methods. I found that virtually all of them already used various productivity tools, such as paper notepads or the apps on their smartphones, but that very few did so in a systematic, intentional way. They tended to move information around from place to place haphazardly, reacting to the demands of the moment, never quite trusting that they’d be able to find it again. Every new productivity app promised a breakthrough, but usually ended up becoming yet another thing to manage.

Casual lunchtime chats with my colleagues turned into a book club, which became a workshop, which eventually evolved into a paid class open to the public. As I taught what I knew to more and more people and saw the immediate difference it made in their work and lives, it began to dawn on me that I had discovered something very special. My experience managing my chronic condition had taught me a way of getting organized that was ideal for solving problems and producing results now, not in some far-off future. Applying that approach to other areas of my life, I had found a way to organize information holistically—for a variety of purposes, for any project or goal—instead of only for one-off tasks. And more than that, I discovered that once I had that information at hand, I could easily and generously share it in all kinds of ways to serve the people around me.
The Origins of the Second Brain System
I began to call the system I had developed my Second Brain and started a blog to share my ideas about how it worked. These ideas resonated with a much wider audience than I ever expected, and my work was eventually featured in publications such as the
Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Fast Company, and Inc., among others. An article I wrote about how to use digital notetaking to enhance creativity went viral in the productivity community, and I was invited to speak and teach workshops at influential companies like Genentech, Toyota, and the Inter-American Development Bank. In early 2017, I decided to create an online course called “Building a Second Brain” to teach my system on a wider scale.II In the years since, that program has produced thousands of graduates from more than one hundred countries and every walk of life, creating an engaged and inquisitive community where the lessons in this book have been honed and refined.

In the next couple of chapters, I’ll show you how the practice of creating a Second Brain is part of a long legacy of thinkers and creators who came before us—writers, scientists, philosophers, leaders, and everyday people who strived to remember and achieve more. Then I’ll introduce you to a few basic principles and tools you’ll need to set yourself up to succeed. Part Two, “The Method,” introduces each of the four steps you’ll follow to build a Second Brain so you can immediately begin to capture and share ideas with more intention. And Part Three, “The Shift,” offers a set of powerful ways to use your Second Brain to enhance your productivity, accomplish your goals, and thrive in your work and life.

I’ve shared my story with you because I want you to know that this book isn’t about perfectly optimizing some kind of idealized life. Everyone experiences pain, makes mistakes, and struggles at some point in their lives. I’ve had my fair share of challenges, but at each stage of my journey, treating my thoughts as treasures worth keeping has been the pivotal element in everything I’ve overcome and achieved.

You may find this book in the “self-improvement” category, but in a deeper sense it is the opposite of self-improvement. It is about optimizing a
system outside yourself, a system not subject to your limitations and constraints, leaving you happily unoptimized and free to roam, to wonder, to wander toward whatever makes you feel alive here and now in each moment.
  1. I. I was aided in this effort by my involvement with the Quantified Self community, a network of local meetup groups in which people share their stories about how they track their health, productivity, mood, or behavior to learn more about themselves.
  2. II. Interested readers can find out more at buildingasecondbrain.com/course.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon Element / Simon Acumen (June 14, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982167386
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982167387
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,190 ratings

About the author

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Tiago Forte
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Tiago Forte is one of the world’s foremost experts on productivity and has taught thousands of people around the world how timeless principles and the latest technology can revolutionize their productivity, creativity, and personal effectiveness. He has worked with organizations such as Genentech, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and appeared in a variety of publications, such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review. Find out more at Fortelabs.co.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
6,190 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book useful and entertaining. They appreciate the good fundamentals for organizing their digital lives. The book provides interesting ideas and insight into creativity and idea generation that enhance their ideas. The code is clear and well-constructed. However, some customers feel the book lacks fluff.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

132 customers mention "Value for money"130 positive2 negative

Customers find the book offers a useful and innovative approach to personal knowledge management. They say it provides practical guidance and a habit to follow. The book is jam-packed with information and allows you to push your human mind to the limits of creativity. It offers a new way to view information and how to capture it.

"...Building a Second Brain is a treasure trove of wisdom and practical guidance that will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on your personal and..." Read more

"...manageable space creates an incredibly light feeling and allows you to push your human mind to the limits of creativity instead of being overwhelmed..." Read more

"...First, this book taught me how to be a better organizer by being more goal-oriented and more intentional with my note-taking apps I already use,..." Read more

"...Tiago shares his system and process with plenty of examples to help you get started on building your own so that you never feel like you're chasing..." Read more

73 customers mention "Readability"64 positive9 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and relatable. They appreciate the anecdotes, humor, and sense of gravity. The book covers many of the same topics as Tiago's videos and materials, making it less overwhelming.

"...It's a must-read for professionals, students, and anyone seeking to harness the power of their digital world...." Read more

"...Must read! 5/7 perfect score." Read more

"Good Product" Read more

"Easy read. Snapshot pages and add to your digital in box in real time. The home of the PARA method and the CODE process. Start here." Read more

51 customers mention "Organization"51 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides good fundamentals for organizing their daily information. They say it gives them a framework to tackle organization of their digital lives and make technology work. The comprehensive framework, known as the PARA method, provides a clear roadmap. The ability to create a folder structure and areas is hindered by the book's ability to practice progressive summary on their own writing.

"...His comprehensive framework, known as the "PARA" method, provides a clear roadmap for organizing your digital life...." Read more

"...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..." Read more

"...First, this book taught me how to be a better organizer by being more goal-oriented and more intentional with my note-taking apps I already use,..." Read more

"...The ability to create a folder structure and areas the way my brain works, was hindered by the complexity of Notion...." Read more

33 customers mention "Creativity"33 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights on creativity and idea generation. They find it interesting and helpful for improving their ideas. The book offers an innovative and useful approach to the subject.

"...I particularly appreciate Forte's insights on creativity and idea generation, which have helped me become more innovative and adaptable...." Read more

"...This is because PARA helps you break your goals into actionable steps, one project after another, to help you reach your goals, big or small...." Read more

"First, there are lot of good ideas in this book that I know to work because I’ve been using some of them already...." Read more

"...organized, more resourceful, and more importantly as an author, more creative!..." Read more

12 customers mention "Code quality"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the code system in the book to be a robust and well-constructed one. They say it's practical and actionable, with a thorough explanation of the CODE and PARA methodologies. The book provides clear descriptions of these methods.

"...The essence of this book is CODE and PARA. CODE is a robust system to get you to take actions on capturing, organizing, distilling and expressing...." Read more

"...The home of the PARA method and the CODE process. Start here." Read more

"...can have an immediate positive impact on your productivity and quality of life...." Read more

"...It takes time but it’s worth it. Great system." Read more

6 customers mention "Clarity"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's system practical and easy to understand. They describe the language as clear and accessible.

"...The language is accessible and clear, while still having some intelectual/aspirational stories and information, making it not only a useful how to,..." Read more

"...Not only is this a clear system, but it is a permission slip to not try to keep everything pinned in your mind. Totally worth it." Read more

"It’s a beautifully, flexible system that allows you to move your life forward with a project based approach!..." Read more

"...The concepts are simple, elegant, wise and intuitive...." Read more

20 customers mention "Actionable content"11 positive9 negative

Customers have different views on the book's actionable content. Some find it helpful for getting organized and being more creative. Others feel the content is too detailed and redundant, lacking a concrete system.

"...And I truly mean that - the actionable content in the book is so good it's easily going to become my most-recommended book just based on the last..." Read more

"...by saying that 80% of this book is complete fluff with little to no useful information...." Read more

"...Key actions to change my writing process: -Distill my writing. Write for busy, impatient readers. -Make my writing actionable...." Read more

"...a full book filled with elaborative, but in my opinion, unnecessary musings and anecdotes...." Read more

8 customers mention "Fluffect"0 positive8 negative

Customers find the book repetitive and boring. They say it's too focused on creative application and seems overwhelming at times.

"...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...." Read more

"Let me begin by saying that 80% of this book is complete fluff with little to no useful information...." Read more

"...Too much fluff, too much focus on the creative application, just not enough meat for a book." Read more

"there were times that this book seemd too overwhelming, however, the author gave practical advice on how to get started." Read more

Build a Second Brain -> Open One Heart
5 out of 5 stars
Build a Second Brain -> Open One Heart
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
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2024
    Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte has truly transformed the way I approach productivity and organization. This book is nothing short of a revelation for anyone looking to supercharge their creative thinking and streamline their workflow.

    From the very first chapter, I was captivated by Forte's insightful perspective on digital note-taking and knowledge management. His comprehensive framework, known as the "PARA" method, provides a clear roadmap for organizing your digital life. It's not just about managing information; it's about unleashing your creative potential.

    What sets this book apart is its actionable advice. Forte not only explains the concepts but also offers practical, step-by-step instructions on how to implement them in your daily routine. His emphasis on using modern digital tools effectively is a game-changer in a world overflowing with information.

    Furthermore, Building a Second Brain is more than just a productivity manual. It delves into the philosophy of knowledge management, helping you cultivate a lifelong habit of learning and growth. I particularly appreciate Forte's insights on creativity and idea generation, which have helped me become more innovative and adaptable.

    I can confidently say that this book has transformed my life. It's a must-read for professionals, students, and anyone seeking to harness the power of their digital world. Building a Second Brain is a treasure trove of wisdom and practical guidance that will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on your personal and professional life. Highly recommended!
    18 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2024
    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.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2024
    Even if you only take a few small mental organization tips and tricks from this read, it is highly worth it! Offloading your intellectual baggage into a searchable, manageable space creates an incredibly light feeling and allows you to push your human mind to the limits of creativity instead of being overwhelmed by the daily mishmash and gobbledegook that the grind wants to force feed you. Must read! 5/7 perfect score.
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  • GP
    5.0 out of 5 stars This book is for everyone.
    Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2024
    I had never heard of Tiago Monte or the concept of building a second brain until a fortunate moment of serendipity. While reading an article on Lifehacker's website, I clicked a link that unexpectedly led me to Tiago and his work on BASB.

    It turned out to be exactly what I needed. Now that I am retired and have plenty of time to read, I had a lingering concern that I wasn't fully extracting value from the material. I realized that I needed a second brain, not only to enhance my reading experience but also to create and retain important connections between the books. The PARA and CODE systems, along with the right note-taking app, enable me to fully utilize and benefit from the great books I invest so much time in reading.

    A few years ago, I watched a talk show featuring the scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil. He discussed how humanity has reached a significant stage in its evolution, akin to the transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. This evolution resulted in a change in the shape of the human cranium, shifting from a relatively acute angle to the straighter forehead we have today. This change created additional space that was filled with gray matter, where human intelligence is primarily processed.

    However, the size of the human cranium has reached its limit, primarily due to the dimensions of the female pelvis. Childbirth is already challenging, and it would become impossible if the cranium were to grow any larger.

    This is where this critical evolutionary stage is occurring. The human biological brain has now evolved to include an electronic component in the form of smartphones and desktop computers. This advancement enables humans to access most of humanity's knowledge.

    But what is the value of all this knowledge if rapid and efficient access is not possible?

    This is where Tiago Forte's book Building a Second Brain becomes essential, as it provides a system for organizing and managing this vast amount of knowledge in a systematic manner. This approach enables efficient and rapid access to the information one needs at any given moment.
  • EduardoCarrilloNET
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ordena conocimiento
    Reviewed in Mexico on October 14, 2023
    Por mucho este es el libro que necesitas para ordenar la manera en cómo consumes y produces conocimiento personal para cualquier área y etapa de tu vida.

    El método de segundo cerebro de Tiago es suficientemente claro para darte una específica línea de procesamiento y, al mismo tiempo, te abre el espacio para que los ajustes y personalices en función de tu manera muy específica de consumir contenido.

    Algo que me gustó mucho de la lectura y el método en general es que su propósito no es el mantener el mismo sistema sino que es un instrumento para llegar al desenvolvimiento personal.
  • Mohammed
    3.0 out of 5 stars افكاره جيدة ولكن هو ناقل وليس مبتكر
    Reviewed in Saudi Arabia on December 1, 2024
    جيد الكتاب ولكن ناقل الأفكار و هو كتاب مشهور في إدارة المعلومات.
  • James H
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2024
    This is a great book for anyone wanting to find brain storage capacity to externalise thoughts and ideas, stemming the flow of digital overload
  • Robert Lüttke
    5.0 out of 5 stars Effiziente Methode für Datenorganisation – absolut empfehlenswert!
    Reviewed in Germany on October 6, 2024
    "Building a Second Brain" hat mein Leben verändert! Die Methode von Tiago Forte hilft mir, die stetig wachsende Datenflut in meinem Alltag effizient zu organisieren. Alles, was ich an Informationen, Ideen oder Projekten sammle, wird nach einem klaren System verarbeitet und abgespeichert, sodass ich jederzeit darauf zugreifen kann, wenn ich es brauche. Dadurch werde ich deutlich produktiver und habe den Kopf frei für wichtigere Dinge.

    Das Buch erklärt die Methode Schritt für Schritt und gibt dabei praxisnahe Tipps, wie man Notizen sinnvoll organisiert, Prioritäten setzt und digitale Tools effektiv nutzt. Tiago Forte vermittelt das Konzept so, dass es leicht verständlich und anpassbar ist – egal, ob für den Job oder den privaten Alltag. Besonders gefällt mir, dass die Methode auf langfristigen Erfolg und nicht nur auf kurzfristige Effizienz abzielt.

    Wer endlich Ordnung in seine digitalen Notizen und Gedanken bringen will, sollte dieses Buch unbedingt lesen!