JA WestenbergI Deleted My Second Brain
Why I Erased 10,000 Notes, 7 Years of Ideas, and Every Thought I Tried to Save
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/i-deleted-my-second-brain
Wulfy
Steven Rosenberg@Daojoan Very nice essay. I can relate. Digital clutter is real.
Eduardo 
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🔓@Daojoan I'm sorry, but the "second brain" concept is not about keeping everything—in fact, I’d argue it stands for the opposite.
I have Tiago Forte’s book right here (he’s the one who popularized the concept in the productivity space), and I quickly checked it. He’s very clear about avoiding the trap of hoarding information, and even offers specific tips to prevent it.
I also recall him mentioning somewhere that he only adds about two notes per day on average.
Lance Bachmeier@edsantos I had the same thought when I read that. It's definitely not about collecting as many words as possible.
I see something similar with GTD, where someone will say "I was heavily into GTD but quit because todo lists don't work for me" and then I'll point out that the GTD book itself cautions against using todo lists.
@lance I don't think so.
(Or do you mean GTD literally cautions against to do lists? In what way?)
(Or do you mean GTD literally cautions against to do lists? In what way?)
@edsantos Page 40 of the first edition:
No More Daily To-Do Lists...I know this is heresy to traditional time-management training, which has almost universally taught that the "daily to-do list" is key. But such lists don't work, for two reasons.
J.D. MacLeod 🇨🇦
yuriaugustus 👾@Daojoan obsidian is one of the best softwares that I discovered recently. I use it to study, taking notes of technical stuff, like code snippets that I can use in my daily work. But I see some people talking about it like it's the best thing they ever met in their life.
I saw some people in reddit, more worried about how to make this or that, than actually using it.
Secret Slutty S African@Daojoan One must regularly clean out the limescale (brainscale)?
I do the same regularly. Actually I sometimes need to consciously remember to keep a few gems...
I'm very passionate about killing my darlings. I massacre them. Genocide. I will be in the Hague.
Brett Coulstock@Daojoan I am reminded that the late Terry Pratchett directed that his hard-drive be destroyed via steamroller after he died. Very final indeed.
palaniraja@Daojoan where we're going we don't even need one brain.
🤭
peter kleiweg 🇪🇺@Daojoan I want to store this article, not ready to let go.
Bodhipaksa@Daojoan Thank you for this. It's one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've read in a long time.
"A quote would spark an insight, I’d clip it, tag it, link it - and move on. But the insight was never lived. It was stored" reminded me of something the Buddha said about how memorizing spiritual teachings (life advice, essentially) was a waste of time if you didn't apply them. It's an old problem.
I'm glad you found your way to living more spontaneously and intuitively!