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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

#131

Post by jmnicolas »

Frankly I think it's completely irrelevant for us developers: our field is evolving so fast that whatever you store now in your second brain will probably be obsolete by next year.

Basically it's like advocating for old school paper encyclopedia in the age of Google.

I fail to see what is so inefficient with a web search as a second brain: the content is always up to date and you have a chance of stumbling upon something that is better than what would be stored in your second brain.

And let's not forget about that maintaining a second brain is a real time sink.

The only plus side of a local second brain is that it's functional without an internet connection, but can you really write software in good conditions without an internet access (I sure can't)?

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

#132

Post by jmnicolas »

PaulStatezny wrote: post #113
mabbo wrote: post #23

I recently read "Getting Things Done"[0] and began incorporating what I learned into my simple second brain. And the results are kind of ridiculously good for me. I built my whole system on a Google Sheet, but I'm experimenting with building myself an App instead- something I would never have been able to accomplish or even been willing to start if I didn't have this second brain helping me. The lessons I've learned…

5 or 6 years ago, I got big into Getting Things Done. I definitely gained real-life wisdom, but eventually I stopped because following David Allen's methodology was taking multiple hours a day. Do you find that it's taking a ton of time for you? Or maybe you're doing a loose interpretation of the system?

> David Allen's methodology was taking multiple hours a day.

But was it hours of "administrative" tasks maintaining the GTD thing or was it hours of doing something productive?

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

#133

Post by ukoki »

I feel like improving my note taking has helped me continue improving my development speed and quality when it was at risk of stagnating. Not by way of documentation (which I do use it for) but more for tracking multiple streams of work in multiple levels of detail.

I keep a highly nested todo list of things I'm currently working on where I can track incoming tasks ("reply to Bob about XYZ") as well as split current work into subtasks ("don't forget to add a test for edge case ABC"). I find the splitting really helpful because as you dive into a complex piece of code that you want to change or add a feature to you will "see things on the way down" that need updating but updating them is blocked on _other_ changes you need to make. A todo list helps track all of this stuff and ensure it does not get forgotten.

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

#134

Post by piokoch »

I read all those note taking threads with great passion (from the first to the last comment - typically comments are way more interesting then articles), looking for the holy grail of note taking.

I've tried a lot of solutions but the one that clicked for me is a mixture of org-mode for current/smaller notes and Zettlr (https://www.zettlr.com/) for stuff that my kids will inherit one day.

Zettlr's advantage is that is it just a layer on top of folder or folders with standard markdown files. Zettlr adds ability to tag and search notes plus it displays MD in a nice way. Nothing more, nothing less.

I keep the notes on Synology drive, so they are synced/backed-up and it just works.

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

#135

Post by ozim »

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 think one of the problems is that people want to "de duplicate" knowledge and have such solutions with "DRY - don't repeat yourself".

What is my idea - I have VS Code and just write down things with tags using # - then even if I have something in two places on the same topic I don't mind. When I see it in search I will recall which one I need.

Disk space for text files is nowadays basically infinite :)

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

#136

Post by punkspider »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #114

I use textfiles... Some are lists, like todo.txt Some are individual topics, brainstorms, etc. For organizing them, I put hashtags like #food inside. Even thousands upon thousands of textfiles (which I'm nowhere near) grep quickly, archive and backup quickly, and transfer to other systems quickly, without lock-in or putting my eggs into someone else's basket. I can even build my own UI on top of it... First, index th…

Same here. After hopping from software to software for a few years I realized I had been taking random notes in Sublime Text for years by reflex, I just had to get a little bit organized.

Since ~8 months ago I've been consistently keeping notes organized in markdown files using Sublime, and storing them in Dropbox.

To read/edit them on my phone I use Obsidian and I use Dropsync for Android (free) for better syncing.

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

#137

Post by ohduran »

What I miss from these conversations is an emphasis on memory. I know it has a bad rap, since it's not the same as understanding. But I have the feeling that most of our work relies on things that we've done so many times, they've been memorized and do not need to be looked up again.

Have a look at Anki https://apps.ankiweb.net/, the tool that I use to make memory a choice. See also Michael Nielsen blog on this: https://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

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

#139

Post by jacksonkmarley »

I liked the premise of this article, but I didn't see much use for anything after it started talking about how to achieve it.

...Except the 'personal stack overflow ' idea. Because so many of the answers to my questions are there, or in rando blog posts, having a personal SO full of actual SO answers (that I found useful) would actually be pretty good. Then a personal Google to search it and I'd be most of the way there.

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

#140

Post by pqs »

ozim wrote: post #135
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 think one of the problems is that people want to "de duplicate" knowledge and have such solutions with "DRY - don't repeat yourself". What is my idea - I have VS Code and just write down things with tags using # - then even if I have something in two places on the same topic I don't mind. When I see it in search I will recall which one I need. Disk space for text files is nowadays basically infinite :)

The problem is that "taking notes" means different things in different contexts.

For an academic sociologist, building a zettelkasten is a step in the process of writing academic publications; for me an academic in Earth Science, taking notes is documenting the software my team writes, documenting the scientific methods we use; keeping track of tasks and writing meeting notes; for a programmer, taking notes is storing examples of code, ideas, etc.

That's why there is no one way to taking notes. There will almost be as many note-taking tools as people using them!

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