Index
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
A
- Abhinavagupta, 33
- abstract thinking, 160n
- actionability, 45–46, 101–3
- to avoid getting stuck, 86–90
- kitchen organization analogy, 103–5
- priming for, 90–95
- Afrofuturism, 148
- Ahrens, Sönke, 141n
- Allen, David, 9, 212
- Amazon Kindle, 75
- American Film Institute, 114
- Andreasen, Nancy C., 35
- Apple Notes, 39
- Archipelago of Ideas, 182–86, 192, 205, 240
- Archives (PARA category), 87, 89, 107–8
- defined, 90
- explained, 95
- illustration of folder, 99
- kitchen organization analogy, 103–4, 105
- moving projects to across all platforms, 207, 209–10
- ordering by actionability, 102, 103
- Areas (PARA category), 87, 89
- defined, 90
- examples of, 93
- explained, 92–94
- illustration of folder, 98
- kitchen organization analogy, 104, 105
- ordering by actionability, 102, 103
- reviewing, 216
- Arieti, Silvano, 175
- Atlantic, The, 15
- Atomic Habits (Clear), 197
- attention
- decreased quality of, 26-27
- investments in, 202
- poverty of, 18, 18n
- protecting, 149–51
- audio/voice transcription apps, 73, 74, 130–32
B
- basic notes apps, 73, 74
- batch processing of notes, 212. See also Monthly Reviews; Weekly Reviews
- “bicycle for the mind” metaphor, 3
- biji, 20n
- biological brain
- increased cognitive demands on, 4, 18
- a new job for, 227–29
- “Blank Space” (song), 55
- bookmarks, 59
- box, the, 81–84, 114, 178
- brain. See biological brain; Second Brain
- brown, adrienne maree, 223
- browsing, 160–61
- Buildingasecondbrain.com/bonuschapter, 162n, 243
- Buildingasecondbrain.com/course, 16n
- Buildingasecondbrain.com/quiz, 240
- Buildingasecondbrain.com/resources, 40, 66, 74n, 208n, 239, 240
- Building a Second Brain system. See also Second Brain
- as a journey of personal growth, 228–29
- legacy of thinkers and creators behind, 16
- lessons of, 3
- major influence on, 2–3
- origins of, 15–16
- overview, 2–5
- Bullet Journal Method, The (Carroll), 232
- bullet points, 125
- Burns, Ken, 136–37, 137n
- Bush, Vannevar, 4n, 30n
- Butler, Octavia Estelle, 19, 145–49, 178
C
- calendar, checking, 213
- campsite rule, 139–40
- Capture (CODE step), 42, 43, 53–79, 116–17, 238
- building a private knowledge collection with, 54–56
- choosing tools for, 73–76
- creating a knowledge bank with, 57–60
- criteria for, 66–70
- current thinking on a project, 203–4
- deciding on content, 239
- divergence and, 180
- explained, 44–45
- inspiring material, 68
- Organize step separated from, 101–2, 117
- personal information, 69
- resonance and, 44–45, 70–72
- surprising benefits of, 76–78
- surprising information, 69–70
- “Twelve Favorite Problems” exercise, 61–66, 239
- useful information, 68–69
- what if it were easy?, 78–79
- what not to keep, 60–61
- Carroll, Ryder, 232
- case files, 57
- Case for Books, The (Darnton), 19–20
- Cathedral Effect, 84–86
- Challenger space shuttle disaster, 62
- Chambers, Deborah, 35
- China, 20n
- choreography, 81–84
- citing sources, 154, 169
- Clear, James, 197
- code libraries, 57
- CODE Method, 33, 42–49, 180, 198, 237–38. See also Capture; Distill; Express; Organize
- cognitive ability enhancement, 3–4, 5
- commonplace books, 43, 57, 147, 178
- Archipelago of Ideas for, 183
- digital, 21–22
- legacy of, 19–21
- computer desktop, clearing, 213–14
- confirmation bias, 69
- connect (Express stage), 165–66
- connecting (PKM stage), 41, 42
- consumption-to-creation shift, 48, 232–34
- content, 57–58
- convergence, 181
- example of, 191–94
- features of, 178–80
- Coppola, Francis Ford, 113–16, 178, 179
- Covey, Stephen, 186n
- COVID-19 pandemic, 147
- create (Express stage), 166–67
- creating (PKM stage), 41, 42
- creative execution, 175–96
- Archipelago of Ideas in, 182–86, 192, 205, 240
- convergence and divergence in (see convergence; divergence)
- Dial Down the Scope technique in, 188–91, 194, 196, 240
- Hemingway Bridge in, 186–88, 193, 196, 210, 240
- Creative Habit, The (Tharp), 81
- creative process, 177
- creativity, 48–49
- attention in, 149
- Capture step and, 54–56, 57, 65, 72
- cause of blocks in, 38
- collaborative nature of, 167–68
- connecting ideas in, 35
- from consumption to, 48, 232–34
- incubation of ideas in, 36–37
- productivity and, 197
- as a remix, 169
- Creativity: The Magic Synthesis (Arieti), 175
- Crick, Francis, 34–35
- Curator’s Perspective, 67, 204, 228
D
- dance choreography, 81–84
- Darnton, Robert, 19–20
- deliverables, 153, 154, 240
- Designing for Behavior Change (Wendel), 71–72
- Design Thinking, 178n
- detachment gain, 77n
- Detachment Gain, The: The Advantage of Thinking Out Loud (Reisberg), 77n
- Dewey decimal system, 45, 86
- Dial Down the Scope technique, 188–91, 194, 196, 240
- digital garden, 4n
- digital hoarding, 54
- discoverability, 118–19
- Distill (CODE step), 42, 43, 113–43, 238
- convergence and, 180
- discoverability and, 118–19
- explained, 46–47
- Progressive Summarization in (see Progressive Summarization)
- pruning the good to surface the great, 134–37
- quantum notetaking and, 116–18
- for your future self, 117, 118–19, 122, 125, 139, 141–43
- distilled notes, 153
- divergence, 181
- example of, 191–94
- features of, 178–80
- DNA structure, discovery of, 34–35
- documents created by others, 153, 154
- Dropbox, 110
E
- ebook apps, 73, 75
- 80 percent done rule, 166n
- Einstein, Albert, 47
- email
- capturing excerpts from, 76
- clearing the inbox, 213
- essence, finding, 46–47
- Evernote, 39, 40n
- executive summary, 124–26
- Express (CODE step), 42, 43, 145–72, 238
- convergence and, 180
- explained, 47–49
- Intermediate Packets in (see Intermediate Packets)
- protecting attention, 149–51
- as a remix, 169–70
- synonyms for, 49, 49n
- three stages of, 164–67
- you only know what you make, 170–72
- extended mind, 30, 30n, 31
- Extended Mind, The (Paul), 17, 30n
- external knowledge, 58–59
F
- Fast Company, 15
- favorites, 59
- fear
- of mind limitations, 225–27
- of missing out (FOMO), 195
- feedback, 168
- Feynman, Richard, 61–63
- film making, 113–16, 169
- final deliverables, 153, 154
- Flaubert, Gustave, 81
- folders. See also PARA
- browsing, 160–61
- defined, 88n
- moving relevant notes to, 203, 205
- reviewing for relevant notes, 203, 204
- searching for related terms across, 203, 204–5
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), 195
- Forte, Wayne Lacson, 175–76
- four-letter frameworks, 87n
- Francis Coppola’s Notebook (documentary), 115
- Franklin, Rosalind, 34
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) pages, 161–62
- future self, 2
- Capture step and, 67
- Distill step and, 117, 118–19, 122, 125, 139, 141–43
- Organize step and, 88
G
- Genentech, 15
- Generation Effect, 76–77
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (Gleick), 62–63
- Getting Things Done (Allen), 9, 212, 212n
- Gleick, James, 62–63
- goals
- moving to “Completed” section, 207, 208–9
- PARA and, 89
- reviewing and updating, 215
- stress-free accomplishment of, 166–67
- Godfather, The (film), 113–16, 179
- Google Docs, 40n, 110
- Google Keep, 39
- grid code, 43n
H
- habits, 197–221
- mise-en-place process and, 198–200
- noticing, 200, 217–20
- project checklists, 200, 201–11
- reviews (see Monthly Reviews; Weekly Reviews)
- using an imperfect system, 220–21
- Harvard Business Review, 15
- Harvard University Library, 19
- heavy lift approach, 36
- Hemingway, Ernest, 186
- Hemingway Bridge, 186–88, 193, 196, 210, 240
- Hidalgo, César, 58n
- highlighting, 75, 118–19. See also Progressive Summarization
- automatically capturing ebook, 239–40
- excessive, 137–38
- making it difficult, 140–41
- without a purpose in mind, 138–40
- highlights (insightful passages), 58
- Hofstra College, 114
- Hollywood model, 91
- Hollywood Reporter, 114
- hook books, 57
- “How the Brain Stops Time” (Psychology Today), 121, 123, 124, 125
- How to Take Smart Notes (Ahrens), 141n
- human capital, 14
- Huntington Library, 148
I
- ideas
- connecting together, 35, 41
- designing a space for, 84–86
- incubating over time, 36–37
- making concrete, 34–35
- retrieving exactly when needed, 164–65
- revealing new associations between, 35–36
- IDEO, 178n
- images, 59, 163
- Inc., 15
- Industrial Light & Magic, 169
- Industrial Revolution, 19
- inflection point, 30
- information
- average person’s daily consumption of, 17
- deluge of, 17–18
- personal, 69
- sensitive, 60–61
- surprising, 69–70
- time spent searching for by average employee, 18
- transformation to knowledge, 48
- useful, 68–69
- information hoarding, 2, 229–30
- insights, 59
- inspiration, 68
- Inter-American Development Bank, 15
- Intermediate Packets (IPs), 151–64, 166–68, 170, 187, 194, 195, 196, 238
- assembling the building blocks of, 155–58
- defined, 152
- experimenting with just one, 240
- five types of, 153
- as intellectual property, 152n
- retrieving, 158–64
- reviewing and moving to other folders, 207, 209
- internal knowledge, 59
- International Data Corporation, 18
- intuition, 71–72
- IPs. See Intermediate Packets
- Iriki, Atsushi, 22n
- Is This Anything? (Seinfeld), 56
J
- Japan, 20n
- Jobs, Steve, 3n
- Joel, Billy, 82–83
- Johnson, Steven, 182
- Junger, Sebastian, 38
K
- kitbashing, 169
- kitchen organization analogy, 103–5
- knowledge. See also personal knowledge management
- building a private collection of, 54–56
- external, 58–59
- information transformed to, 48
- internal, 59
- notes as building blocks of, 22–25
- radically expanding the definition of, 57–58
- recycling, 201–2
- tacit, 233
- knowledge assets, 58
- knowledge bank, 57–60
- knowledge garden, 54, 59, 159
- Knowledge Management, 2n. See also personal knowledge management
- knowledge map, 126–27
- knowledge vault, 21
- knowledge workers
- attention and, 149, 150
- defined, 22–23
- designing an environment for, 85
- Dial Down the Scope technique and, 189
L
- Lao Tzu, 113
- Le Cunff, Anne-Laure, 4n
- LEGO analogy, 24, 65, 152
- Leonardo da Vinci, 19
- Locke, John, 19, 122n
- Lucas, George, 114
- luck, engineering, 217–20
- Luhmann, Niklas, 4n
M
- Magic Number (4), 87n
- Maravita, Angelo, 22n
- marginalia, 21, 21n
- meditation, 11, 235
- meeting notes, 59, 132–34
- Memex, 4n, 30n
- memory(ies), 18–19, 59. See also remember; remembering
- Microsoft, 18
- Microsoft OneNote, 39
- Microsoft Word, 40n
- mindfulness, 235
- mise-en-place process, 198–200
- Mod, Craig, 21
- Monthly Reviews, 200, 212, 215–17
- Moser, Edvard, 43n
- Moser, May-Britt, 43n
- musings, 59
- MythBusters (television program), 169
N
- New Method of Making Common-Place Books, A (Locke), 122n
- New York Times, 17, 91
- Nobel Prize winners, 61, 62, 63, 186
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 43n
- notes
- batch processing of, 212
- creating an outline of, 203, 205
- discoverability of, 118–19
- distilled, 153
- as knowledge building blocks, 22–25
- meeting, 59, 132–34
- moving to project folders, 203, 205
- paper, 38n
- reviewing folders for relevant, 203, 204
- telling a bigger story with, 165–66
- where to save individual, 101–3
- notetaking
- assessing proficiency of, 240
- author’s experience, 10–14
- quantum, 116–18
- rethinking, 22–25
- three most common novice mistakes, 137–41
- notetaking apps
- browsing features, 160–61
- choosing, 38–40, 239
- clearing notes in, 214
- content not suited for, 60–61
- exporting and importing features, 40n
- four powerful characteristics of, 39
- search function in, 159–60
- noticing habits, 200, 217–20
- Notion, 39
O
- obligation-to-service shift, 231–32
- official kickoff, 206–7
- online articles, 129–30
- open-ended questions, 64, 66, 239
- Organize (CODE step), 42, 43, 81–111, 238
- actionability and (see actionability)
- Capture step separated from, 101–2, 117
- Cathedral Effect and, 84–86
- divergence and, 180
- explained, 45–46
- move quickly, touch lightly approach, 108–11
- PARA in (see PARA)
- where to save individual notes, 101–3
- outlines, 184–85, 203, 205
- outtakes, 153
P
- PARA, 87–111, 160, 163, 165, 204, 214, 238. See also Archives; Areas; Projects; Resources
- creative execution and, 194
- getting set up with, 239
- how it works, 90–95
- illustrations of, 96–101
- kitchen organization analogy, 103–5
- versatility of, 87, 89
- Weekly Reviews and, 212
- Parable of the Sower, The (Butler), 147–48
- Paramount Pictures, 113
- Paul, Annie Murphy, 17, 30n
- Pauling, Linus, 34
- Peace Corps, 12–13
- Perell, David, 235n
- perfectionism, 40, 89
- personal information, 69
- personal knowledge management (PKM), 2–3, 2n, 4, 224
- joining the community, 240–41
- three stages of, 41–42
- perspectives, sharpening, 37–38
- physical products, 34–35, 58n
- Picasso, Pablo, 134–36
- Picasso’s Bull (drawing), 134–36, 137
- pillow books, 20n
- PKM. See personal knowledge management
- podcast player apps, 75
- podcasts, 130–32
- Polanyi, Michael “Polanyi’s Paradox,” 233
- postmortem questions, 210
- poverty of attention, 18, 18n
- premortem questions, 206, 206n
- Princeton University, 37
- productivity, 48, 48n
- creativity and, 197
- mise-en-place process and, 198–200
- Progressive Summarization, 120–34, 137–43, 153, 163, 184, 204, 205, 238
- defined, 120
- examples of, 128–34
- four layers of, 120–26, 120n
- knowledge map navigation with, 126–27
- practicing, 240
- three common novice mistakes, 137–41
- project checklists, 200, 201–11
- Project Completion Checklist, 207–11
- Project Kickoff Checklist, 202–7
- project lists, reviewing and updating, 216
- Projects (PARA category), 87, 89
- adding a current status note to inactive, 208, 210
- completed as oxygen of Second Brain, 105–8
- defined, 90
- 80 percent done rule, 166n
- examples of, 91
- explained, 90–92
- illustrations of folders, 96–97, 100–101
- kitchen organization analogy, 104, 105
- marking as complete, 207, 208
- officially closing and celebrating, 211
- ordering by actionability, 102, 103
- stress-free completion of, 166–67
- prompt books, 114–16, 178
- Psychology Today article, 121, 123, 124, 125
Q
- Quantified Self community, 11n
- quantum notetaking, 116–18
- questions
- open-ended, 64, 66, 239
- postmortem, 210
- premortem, 206, 206n
- “Twelve Favorite Problems” exercise, 61–66, 239
- quotes, 58
R
- reactivity loop, 77–78
- read later apps, 73, 74, 75, 239
- recency bias, 36–37
- reflections, 59
- Reisberg, Daniel, 35, 77n
- remember (Express stage), 164–65
- remembering (PKM stage), 41, 42
- remodeling project example, 97, 132–34, 191–94
- resonance, 44–45, 70–72
- Resources (PARA category), 87, 89
- defined, 90
- explained, 94–95
- illustration of folder, 98–99
- kitchen organization analogy, 104, 105
- ordering by actionability, 102, 103
- retrieval
- exactly when needed, 164–65
- methods, 158–64
S
- Savage, Adam, 169
- scarcity-to-abundance shift, 229–30
- search
- for ease of retrieval, 159–60
- of outlines, 185
- for related terms across all folders, 203, 204–5
- Second Brain. See also Building a Second Brain system
- biological brain changed by, 227
- comparison of life with and without, 25–29
- completed projects as oxygen of, 105–8
- defined, 4
- engineering luck with, 217–20
- information stream filtered by, 53–54
- shifts in mindset and, 229–34
- superpowers of, 34–38
- synonyms for, 4, 4n
- twelve steps to starting, 238–41
- Seinfeld, Jerry, 56
- selection, 185
- self-expression, 223–41
- the courage to share and, 236–37
- fundamental need for, 234–36
- mindset over toolset in, 224–25
- a new job for the biological brain, 227–29
- shifts in mindset and, 229–34
- self-ignorance, 233
- sensitive information, 60–61
- sequencing, 185
- serendipity, 162–64
- Shannon, Claude, 69
- sharing, 231–32
- courage for, 236–37
- discovering the power of, 14–15
- serendipity and, 163–64
- “She’s Got a Way” (song), 83
- Simon, Herbert, 18n
- slow burn approach, 37
- social media apps, 73, 74
- songwriting, 54–56, 57
- sources, citing, 154, 169
- space, designing for ideas. See Cathedral Effect
- spatial thinking, 160n
- stakeholders, communicating with, 206, 211
- standardization, 177
- Stanford Design School, 178n
- stigmergy, 139n
- stories, 59
- success criteria
- defining, 206
- evaluating, 211
- Swift, Taylor, 54, 178
- swipe files, 57
T
- Tacit Dimension, The (Polanyi), 233n
- tacit knowledge, 233
- tagging, 88, 88n
- creating a system that works, 243
- for ease of retrieval, 161–62
- reviewing tags for relevant notes, 203, 204
- takeaways, 59
- task manager, 207, 208
- tasks
- choosing for the week, 214–15
- reprioritizing, 217
- reviewing someday/maybe, 216–17
- Telpner, Meghan, 131–32
- Tharp, Twyla, 81–84, 114, 178
- thinking
- abstract, 160n
- benefits of externalizing thoughts, 76–78
- emotions’ effect on, 71
- spatial, 160n
- technology as a tool for, 3, 30–31, 41
- technology-induced changes in, 19
- Toyota, 15
- Tversky, Barbara, 160n
- “Twelve Favorite Problems” exercise, 61–66, 239
W
- Watson, James, 34–35
- Wayback Machine, 72n
- Wayne Lacson Forte: On My Way To Me (documentary), 176n
- web clipper apps, 73, 74
- Weekly Reviews, 102, 200, 212–15, 240
- Why Information Grows (Hidalgo), 58n
- Wikipedia, 118n, 128–29
- Wilkins, Maurice, 34
- Woolf, Virginia, 19
- work-in-process, 153, 154
- Write of Passage (online school), 235n
- writing in public, 235–36
- writing things down, 2. See also notetaking
- discovering the power of, 10–14
- multiple benefits of, 76–78
Y
- YouTube videos, capturing parts of, 76
Z
- Zettelkasten, 4n
- zuihitsu, 20n