Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to build a second brain as a software developer

aseemthakar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 177 posts

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

#71

Post by wrs »

I learned about computers and worked in the software industry before nearly all of the boxes on that diagram even existed. This was only 30 years ago! If you needed information you got it from coworkers, source code, vendor documentation, or the library. Of course we had “second brains” to cope, called notebooks and filing cabinets (and notes in text files).

It’s kind of sad that instead of using the Internet to vastly expand the reach and effectiveness of that existing system, we seem to have thrown it away so we need articles like this to try to rebuild it. Rather than developing our own thoughts we search for someone else’s thoughts. (And I’m not being holier-than-thou; my first stop is Google and Stack Overflow now too!)

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

#72

Post by SubiculumCode »

2nd brain = 2nd job.

Here is my flow. Google. If its really good/unique and I am afraid that I won't find it again, then I bookmark it, and if I think it will actually disappear from the internet, then I will scrape the content for a 2nd brain.

Now whether Google is best depends. Sometimes specialty engines would be better.

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

#73

Post by lioeters »

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…

> I'm experimenting with building myself an App instead

This approach has worked great for me. I have a local web app that's grown (and rewritten) over several years, which renders a folder of Markdown files into a view with navigation, interconnected links, dynamic components (like calendar or calculator), syntax highlight for code snippets..

I love being able to write notes in natural language as well as code, and extend it with any feature I want.

Edit: Also I have some shell commands that open, add, or search notes from the terminal.

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

#74

Post by Arcsech »

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…

I've been thinking along some similar lines myself recently, that I'd like to have notes that can link to code in some kind of semi-durable way (i.e. as resilient as possible to changes), be able to run code snippets in a variety of languages, etc., and the only things I've found that are able to do this are:

1) Emacs with Org Mode, which is very powerful but has a learning curve like a brick wall, even if you already know emacs. Also nearly impossible to use with anything except emacs (yes, there are mobile/web apps that understand standard org syntax... which doesn't help with any customizations you make, which is like half the point of org mode).

2) Glamorous Toolkit, which is based on Pharo Smalltalk and is easier to use than org mode, but less featureful, much newer (== smaller community, less support), and has many of same problems (i.e. can't easily use it on any non-desktop platform).

It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to build something myself for this.

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

#75

Post by dd444fgdfg »

I've always done something similar, but less structured and probably with less intent.

Most of the problems we software developers encounter, we've solved before. So it's usually a case of recognizing the pattern of problems this is, and matching it to one you've solved before, and quickly being able to reference that previous solution. That's 95% of getting it done.

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

#77

Post by onefuncman »

ssully wrote: post #70
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 started using OneNote this year. I create a weekly "Note" where I throw all my notes in during a week. This includes a weekly ToDo checklist, a note section per meeting, and then random thoughts, code/log snippits, or whatever else I need. It's not perfect, but it's the best solution I've found so far. I've tried every note taking method out there and I always fall off after a few months. I think this is working fo…

I go back and forth between doing this on a daily or weekly cadence, but it's also the only thing I've found to keep being useful over time. I always get a wild hair to try and write Markdown or something but really I just end up writing text and it's fine. The most meta I ever get is adding additional keywords for me to search later.

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

#78

Post by alphadenied »

I didn't see it so I'm recommending it.

https://joplinapp.org/

Use this with the encryption, sync to local filesystem, and with syncthing or similar and you can have an entire "second brain" tree of knowledge written in markdown. On your phone, on your laptop, pc at work, etc.... all for free because devs

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

#80

Post by darkteflon »

raesene9 wrote: post #25
pjmorris wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from mind maps (I used and liked FreeMind) to indented outlines in plain text files when I realized I wasn't really losing anything to map the nodes to headings and the edges to sub-headings. I can capture the same relationships, keep it synced to everywhere via cloud storage, and I don't need special software beyond a text editor to look at or edit it. Now I just need to learn how to go back through them.

One thing I do , which combines the two is create the lists in Obsidian, then use the mind map plugin to visualize them.

This is an interesting idea, but I couldn’t find Mind Map in the list of core plugins. Is this a community plug-in you’re talking about?
Post reply on HN