four steps for building a second brain: Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express. (Location 27)
Note: CODE
When you encounter a piece of information you want to remember, you should capture it– that might look like taking a screenshot, bookmarking an article, or even recording a quick voice note. (Location 31)
Note: C capture
Often, we capture things because we think we should even when we don’t feel any connection to them. We end up with way too much information that doesn’t mean very much to us. Try and capture only information that sparks something inside you. (Location 34)
They’re more than a fact or an observation. They’re solutions, time savers, sparks of inspiration, perspective shifters. (Location 36)
you’re not centralizing the knowledge you capture. (Location 37)
Note: Problem no 2
Think of everything you capture with these tools as nerve endings. They should all lead back to one central nervous system: your second brain. (Location 39)
Set all your modes of capture to export, and automatically update, everything you save to that one central digital space. (Location 40)
Feynman wrote a list of about a dozen core questions that he wanted to answer in his research. Whenever he came across a new piece of information, he would test it against these core questions. (Location 42)
Maintaining a list of core questions will help you focus your captures, even while you build an eclectic library of knowledge assets. (Location 44)
Tiago Forte, creator of the CODE system, captures on average just two assets a day. So, think back on your last 24 hours. What are your two key knowledge takeaways? Capture them! (Location 46)
the space you’re in affects your thinking. You’re more likely to think lofty thoughts about your life’s purpose when you’re in a cathedral with gothic arches, vaulted ceilings, and marble floors than you are in a dentist’s waiting room. (Location 48)
Your first instinct might be to organize by subject category. Ignore that instinct. (Location 55)
To make your second brain outcome-oriented, organize your knowledge assets in order of actionability. (Location 57)
PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. These are the four domains of your second brain. (Location 58)
Projects are short-term objectives, usually with a deadline, that you are actively working toward completing. (Location 59)
Areas are ongoing commitments. Your personal finances, for example, are an area, not a project. They don’t have a delivery date. They’re dynamic and need consistent oversight. (Location 61)
Resources is a holding pen for topics you’re interested in exploring but haven’t translated into projects or areas just yet. Your weirdest, wildest hobbies and daydreams can find a home here, (Location 62)
Archives are for finished projects, areas that are no longer relevant, and interests that aren’t speaking to you right now. (Location 64)
Each knowledge asset you capture should be assigned to one of these four areas. (Location 67)
it’s best not to organize as soon as you capture it. Wait until you have a batch of assets to sort through, then organize them. This gives you the distance to look at each asset analytically and as part of a broader context of information. (Location 68)
Let enough time pass between filing a note and encountering it again and– no matter how much it resonated with you in the moment– six months later it makes about as much sense as alien cucumbers. (Location 75)
the better you get at capturing and organizing, the less discoverable all your information becomes. (Location 78)
next step in the CODE system– Distill– is all about subtracting. Working in layers, you identify, extract, and distill key information. (Location 80)
Here’s what four layers of distillation might look like in action. First, you save an article that sparks your interest. Second, you read through it and highlight key passages. Third, you bold key ideas and phrases within those passages. Fourth, you write an executive summary of those key ideas– no more than a few sentences. (Location 81)
Next time you engage with your captured knowledge, you won’t have to go back through everything to remember why it’s relevant. And you can choose the level you engage at– skim the summary, refresh the key ideas you’ve highlighted, or go through the content again. (Location 87)
documentary film-maker Ken Burns. His documentaries on subjects such as jazz or the American Civil War are master-classes in distillation. Burns relies heavily on found and archival footage– by his reckoning, for every 50 hours of footage he captures, only one hour makes the final cut. (Location 90)
Note: Example
last step in the CODE system: Express. This step is pretty self-explanatory. You’ve built a working second brain. You’ve gathered information, organized it, and distilled it into key takeaways. Now, it’s time to put that knowledge to use: create new deliverables at work, action fulfilling personal projects, get side hustles off the ground, and innovate new solutions to nagging problems. (Location 95)
Get your projects off the ground using intermediate packets. What are intermediate packets? They’re small, actionable chunks of a larger process. (Location 99)
Tackling an intermediate packet is, of course, more achievable and interruption-proof than trying to tackle a whole project at once. But there’s another advantage. Intermediate packets allow you to solicit feedback early and often– that way, if you need to change course, you can do so with a minimum of lost labor. (Location 103)
philosopher Giambattista Vico: verum ipsum factum. That’s Latin for: we only know what we make. We can’t truly understand something, in other words, until we’ve gotten our hands dirty. When you use the knowledge and insights you’ve gathered to create something new– that’s when you can truly consider yourself an expert. (Location 113)
