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How to build a second brain as a software developer

aseemthakar.com

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Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#101

Post by zolland »

chris_st wrote: post #46
judofyr wrote: post #11

I've tried to incorporate some of the ideas of the "second brain" and it didn't really give me that much. My lessons: 1. It's always super helpful to write things down. Taking notes from what I read/learn is a great way to verify that I understand it. It sharpens my thinking. 2. However, maintaining the "second brain" is a lot work. It's not only about "linking" together notes. You also need to maintain some consiste…

> I ended up spending a lot of time thinking about the structure instead of actually thinking about the content. This is why wikis, which I originally thought were just the best things ever, seem to become useless over time. The Mac application Quiver [1] introduced me to the idea of categories, which can contain one layer of sub-category, and either categories or sub-categories can contain articles, which contain te…

I actually stopped using Obsidian a few months ago. I feel like these knowledge collection/note taking applications over complicate everything. I wasn't happy with the search feature in Obsidian specifically and the fact that it forces you to add their own application specific characters/flavor to your markdown. [0]

I thought about it and my minimum requirements for a knowledge graph tool are:

1. Edit files in vanilla Markdown (no application specific cruft)

2. Be able to search content easily (ideally via grep)

3. Add 1:1 or 1:many links between files (direct links vs. tags, ideally using requirement 2 to implement this)

And the simplest solution for me was:

1. A single level directory of md files (no folders!)

2. Vim + Telescope [1]

3. A small set of guidelines [2] to define searchable patterns for linking files/nodes

I also wrote a little md renderer (seen in link 2) that adds the features I wanted for exploring my notes/second brain in a browser that picks up on the patterns in the guidelines. Gotta get a grep search on that thing and it'll be golden, but I apologize I'm rambling at this point.

Never been happier. I just use Working Copy to jot notes on mobile when I'm not at my computer.

[0] https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Internal+link

[1] https://github.com/nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim

[2] https://notes.zacholland.net/file/index.md

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#102

Post by nomel »

jiggunjer wrote: post #94
chris_st wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I ended up spending a lot of time thinking about the structure instead of actually thinking about the content. This is why wikis, which I originally thought were just the best things ever, seem to become useless over time. The Mac application Quiver [1] introduced me to the idea of categories, which can contain one layer of sub-category, and either categories or sub-categories can contain articles, which contain te…

Wdym useless over time? You don't need to think about structuring a wiki.

I've found that if you don't have structure, then you're reliant on plain search terms. As you have more and more leafs, without a tree, your searches will match more and more leafs, to the point where you'll have difficultly finding conceptually related but not textually related concepts. If you're using tags or links, I would claim those are structure. I've often found I have to go back and add tags/links to pages so I can find them in the search results.

I think structureless is not possible, since some form of structure will grow, with lumps. I think there's some happy in between, with some light structure in place.

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#103

Post by lanamo »

zolland wrote: post #101
chris_st wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I ended up spending a lot of time thinking about the structure instead of actually thinking about the content. This is why wikis, which I originally thought were just the best things ever, seem to become useless over time. The Mac application Quiver [1] introduced me to the idea of categories, which can contain one layer of sub-category, and either categories or sub-categories can contain articles, which contain te…

I actually stopped using Obsidian a few months ago. I feel like these knowledge collection/note taking applications over complicate everything. I wasn't happy with the search feature in Obsidian specifically and the fact that it forces you to add their own application specific characters/flavor to your markdown. [0] I thought about it and my minimum requirements for a knowledge graph tool are: 1. Edit files in vanill…

Have a look at the German software 'The Archive' https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive , this might be what you are looking for. It is not overloaded with fancy features and is text/markdown based. Enables you to focus on your actual notes and ideas and how to connect and inter-act with them, instead of getting lost in fancy diagrams.

Their user forum is in English and is THE best ressource regarding all things Zettelkasten. https://forum.zettelkasten.de Niklas Luhmann, the inventor of the Zettelkasten system, was German, after all :)

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#104

Post by rtsil »

whimsicalism wrote: post #64
andrewljohnson wrote: post #57

Nah, he should have stopped with the first diagram. Google plus the internet is your second brain and is the optimal approach for almost everyone. This heavy approach seems like make work that will waste time, and the data will rot, leading to calcified and inaccurate knowledge.

Google plus the internet only works if you're learning about things that are: 1. Public (if it's non-public systems, information, etc. that you are learning then Google can't help you). 2. and either shallow or of one of a small subset of areas that has in-depth discussion online. There are plenty of situations in knowledge work where Google will not cut it.

When Google don't work, then I go to the documentation, the manual or the book. To use the article's analogy, these are the equivalent of going to the supermarket.

If the knowledge is already in the documentation or a book, why should I keep a copy of that knowledge elsewhere, in yet another format?

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#105

Post by zolland »

lanamo wrote: post #103
zolland wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually stopped using Obsidian a few months ago. I feel like these knowledge collection/note taking applications over complicate everything. I wasn't happy with the search feature in Obsidian specifically and the fact that it forces you to add their own application specific characters/flavor to your markdown. [0] I thought about it and my minimum requirements for a knowledge graph tool are: 1. Edit files in vanill…

Have a look at the German software 'The Archive' https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive , this might be what you are looking for. It is not overloaded with fancy features and is text/markdown based. Enables you to focus on your actual notes and ideas and how to connect and inter-act with them, instead of getting lost in fancy diagrams. Their user forum is in English and is THE best ressource regarding all things Zettelk…

I tried out The Archive, definitely a good option! My guidelines are very similar to theirs but to be honest I think I value the speed and power of my Vim setup too much to use any other text editor... so maybe the setup I described above is only relevant to people who want to also edit notes in their preferred editor lol

Although, I do think I have a small gripe with the Zettelkestan method. I don't see the point in having a large collection of small notes with unique identifiers. If I have a random thought, I will write it in a physical notebook accepting it's mortality. If I want to immortalize it, I flesh out the thought and transfer it either to it's own file, or add the small bit of info to a relevant file.

Even if I did want to jot down every small thought or idea of mine in my notes directory, the manageability difference between a single long file (for say all my small thoughts) vs. a ton of small files seems marginal to me. I do personally prefer the former though.

When your main method for searching relies on powerful content scanning (grep) and connections (tags/direct links) it doesn't really matter where the content lives. If the search is powerful and the connections are strong, everything is easily discoverable.

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#106

Post by XorNot »

zolland wrote: post #101
chris_st wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I ended up spending a lot of time thinking about the structure instead of actually thinking about the content. This is why wikis, which I originally thought were just the best things ever, seem to become useless over time. The Mac application Quiver [1] introduced me to the idea of categories, which can contain one layer of sub-category, and either categories or sub-categories can contain articles, which contain te…

I actually stopped using Obsidian a few months ago. I feel like these knowledge collection/note taking applications over complicate everything. I wasn't happy with the search feature in Obsidian specifically and the fact that it forces you to add their own application specific characters/flavor to your markdown. [0] I thought about it and my minimum requirements for a knowledge graph tool are: 1. Edit files in vanill…

Vanilla markdown I've realized isn't what I want. What I want is Markdown's editing simplicity, but I do want WYSIWYG for inserting pictures (drag / drop, copy+paste), resizing them, and I do want inline-rendering of more complicated things like graphviz and plantuml.

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#108

Post by dimal »

Strange that Obsidian was only an honorable mention. For developers, there is no other choice. It has vim mode! My second brain is in Obsidian, and it’s glorious. It’s taken me a while to put enough time into learning things, but now I can see that the power it provides (through plugins and the developer API) is astounding.

But it’s interesting to see that he’s using it for completely different things than me. For example, I don’t see much point in saving code snippets.

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#109

Post by abeppu »

epolanski wrote: post #87
abeppu wrote: post #68

I keep seeing articles like this and I keep being a bit disappointed that they mostly adopt techniques that were developed for general knowledge workers ("personal knowledge management system") or ideas by/for writers or researchers, and don't seriously think about how to treat/manage code. A brain isn't just about knowledge; it's also a set of skills, capacities, patterns of behavior. Software is an area it's possib…

You’re kind of describing org mode.

I use org mode, and org-roam, but if you just look at org mode's guidance on working with code-snippets, it gives basically no attention to dependencies or libraries. Each code snippet is assumed to stand on its own. So if, e.g. you want make a note about a data science related idea but you first want to assume the presence of numpy, how does your snippet tie to a particular environment? How does your giant accumulated history of notes with many snippets tie back to environments? This isn't met by org mode on its own, but might be met by org mode in combination with some other stuff.

https://orgmode.org/manual/Working-with-Source-Code.html

Re: How to build a second brain as a software developer

#110

Post by razzimatazz »

I would like to hear people's thoughts on how to coach a junior on how to get a 'second brain' (new term for me) going. Plenty of your average new developers won't have the experience to build it on their own, or maybe they just wont know what the topics and projects are that they will be working with.
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