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How to build a second brain as a software developer

aseemthakar.com

31–40 of 177 posts

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

#31

My second brain keeps moving. For example, I have a great setup with Notability on an iPad. Except after a few months, I start typing stuff into Workflowy. No reason, I just reach for a different tool. A few months later I'm in a random text file and then back to Notability. I don't know why I do this. One thing that sorta helps is implementing the Jonny Decimal System so that all the different pieces can be indexed.…

Any particular reason why you use an iPad for note taking over a Wacom or remarkable?

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

#33

All the tools you mentioned are nice. However, none are built for software developers. If you want to know why, ask yourself — does anything here make me feel special as a developer? My guess is the response is "No". I'm the founder of archbee.io, and although it's an early stage product, I built it for engineers — and you can see that by the features: architecture diagrams, GitHub integration, markdown shortcuts, ve…

This looks very cool

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

#34
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…

What I've found myself doing is taking a lot of notes, then when the moment arrives to organize them, I just delete them.

I end up having to rebuild my (admittedly tiny) "second brain" from scratch from time to time, but at least I end up with stuff that's relevant now-ish, without having to bear the cost of a lot of long-term knowledge inventory.

NOTE: This is not advice, and this approach would probably not work even for me if I was inclined to regret throwing things away.

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

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have meant this as a joke, but I honestly think this is a better way of doing things than a rigourously designed system of organisation and workflows and all that. There are a million ways to approach this kind of thing, and whilst browser tabs aren't nessecarily the best way, they're certainly up there

Oh, I'm absolutely not kidding. I've tried to do the OneNote thing, or get into org-mode, or manage collections of bookmarks. Too much overhead, not enough value to justify the work. So I have a browser window per "thing" that I'm dealing with, with a whole bunch of tabs, and when I'm done with the thing, the browser gets closed and the tabs go away.

You should try Amna (https://getamna.com)!

It wraps around this exact workflow, saves your tabs, and can manage your browser windows. You may have to login to Chrome to get your bookmarks, tabs and stuff.

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

#37
I don't currently use it so can't comment on what features it has or doesn't have, but I find it interesting that Obsidian [1] is only given an honourable mention in this article when according to the Wayback Machine, its elevator pitch has been "A second brain, for you, forever" since before this article was published.

[1] https://obsidian.md

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

#38

My second brain keeps moving. For example, I have a great setup with Notability on an iPad. Except after a few months, I start typing stuff into Workflowy. No reason, I just reach for a different tool. A few months later I'm in a random text file and then back to Notability. I don't know why I do this. One thing that sorta helps is implementing the Jonny Decimal System so that all the different pieces can be indexed.…

Any particular reason why you use an iPad for note taking over a Wacom or remarkable?

I bought an iPad for other reasons (I like the apple ecosystem in general). And I really liked the notability app. Being able to take hand written notes and have them be indexable is fantastic. I'm sure there are other ways to do it but that's the one I've settled on.

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

#39
While these are great concepts, I find it to be an overcomplication for my needs. When we build systems of any kind it's nice to imagine the ways in which they make our lives easier, and we always underestimate the required maintenance of our systems and the ways in which they come to constrain our thinking and action.

I have a pretty simple organizational structure for information: I keep text files on ongoing projects and ideas. I think on ones that are on the back burner and update my notes on them when I have something compelling come to mind, and the forefront ones or ones that are related to maintenance I keep accessible, usually on my desktop or always open in my text editor. It's a bit of a disorganized system but it is just the right level of complexity. I'm the kind of person who knows which pair of pants on the floor that I left my wallet under last night and so a good portion of organization exists in my head and I work better that way. I'm always on the lookout for new organizational tools, but a huge criteria for them is that they require little to no overhead or maintenance.

I do rely on online search a little too much, I often forget to store information I find and might need later and instead store my google-fu queries in my head, and because of that often times I cannot find it again later (because online search as a tool is degrading as we speak) and this article is a good reminder that I cannot rely on external tools like that that I have no say in them continuing to work the same way.

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

#40
post #29

My second brain keeps moving. For example, I have a great setup with Notability on an iPad. Except after a few months, I start typing stuff into Workflowy. No reason, I just reach for a different tool. A few months later I'm in a random text file and then back to Notability. I don't know why I do this. One thing that sorta helps is implementing the Jonny Decimal System so that all the different pieces can be indexed.…

I have this problem as well. The more I try to settle on a single system, the more my brain wants to run wild.

If there are other parts of your life that are negatively affected by this, you (and the person you're replying to) might want to look into ADHD.

But I can also relate to never wanting to stick to one system for second-brain work indefinitely.

I've made the mistake of trying to build my own second-brains more than I probably should.

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