Phil's Newsletter #7: Building a second brain
The super-secret German productivity hack that will change your life forever. And more Corona tips, of course. š·
What I'm thinking about
I used to have the goal of reading as many books as possible. I read articles and watched YouTube lectures at a rate that should have made me a black belt in every subject I studied. And while it was a good start, a lot of that consumption is not much better than just watching TV or movies as entertainment. It makes you feel like you're learning, but how much do you actually remember?
I recall having a discussion with a friend about the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (highly recommended). As we compared insights and takeaways, I realized that I couldn't really remember much of anything from the book. A few scattered anecdotes here or there, something about the importance of myths (what Yuval refers to as "imagined realities"), and then... nothing. A book that I had enjoyed so much, that had given me so many "aha!" moments was basically eradicated from my memory.Ā
This lead me to the frustrating realization that I wasn't remembering much of anything. More importantly, I didn't really understand the things I was trying to learn as deeply as I thought.
When you're reading something interesting or novel, you will often feel like learning and understanding has taken place. But this is really just a form of mental masturbation - it feels good in the moment but you're not doing anything productive.
What does all that reading amount to in the end if all I remember from a 500-page book is a word or two? What's the purpose of consuming unless to create something of my own? What I really want, after all, is not just to know as much as possible but to translate that knowledge into something that will enact meaningful change in the world, whether that's by changing myself or persuading other people to change. I suspect that this is what motivates you as well in many circumstances.
A second brain
Over the past couple of years, this pursuit of knowledge and improved productivity eventually lead me down the path of trying to create a so-called "second brain". A Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system. Instead of having to remember everything by myself, I can rely on the external brain to store knowledge and on the system to retrieve as needed. After all, our minds or not for storing data but for making novel connections between different pieces of information, creating new knowledge, or wisdom if you will.Ā
As a result, I have been a daily user of Evernote, a popular note-taking application, for quite some time now. Evernote has become my "second brain". I put almost everything in there that I find interesting, worth remembering or that I want to engage with further. I clip articles, pdfs or quotes from the Internet. I capture fleeting thoughts or ideas. I save all my Kindle reading highlights. I take reading and lecture notes. I take pictures of my written notes and upload them. I even write longer drafts for articles like this one.Ā
But Iāve noticed that as I've gathered more and more pieces of information, random notes, and ideas I rarely, if ever, engage with the majority of these notes. You could say Iāve been hoarding information without putting them to use in some productive manner. āMaybe it will be useful!ā, I keep thinking to myself.
Enter Zettelkasten
This has led me to the current stage of my quest for note-taking mastery. I recently discovered a method called Zettelkasten. This is german for "slip box". Zettelkasten is a method of building a web of knowledge that is externalized - a second brain. It's a note-taking system developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhman during the 20th century. He wrote down ideas and reading notes on small index cards and stored them in slip boxes using an intricate system of IDs that linked related notes to each other. It was effectively a paper-based hypertext system. Or a wiki. Apparently, he took over 90 000 notes that lead to 70 published books throughout his academic research career. The notes where so refined that they basically wrote the books for him. Hereās a clip of Niklas Luhman in his study. It doesnāt get much quirkier than this:
Although Zettelkasten has been adopted by many academics it is generally useful to anyone that wants to manage their ideas and knowledge in a more productive way.
The main idea behind Zettelkasten is that you want to store and interact with notes in the same way your mind works. Instead of trying to file notes by topics like "history", "science", or "economy" you give notes a unique ID and connect each new note to other related notes using links and relevant keywords based on the context of what they mean to you, rather than what generic topic they belong to.Ā
What ends up happening is that over time, you will stumble upon ideas that you've basically forgotten while looking up something seemingly unrelated. You make room for serendipity and you can discover new ideas as you jump from note to note.
The whole point of the system is to help you not just store information, but generate novel ideas and produce new, valuable things. It's a way to remember and to work with all the ideas and pieces of information you're learning about.
In summary, the main principles of Zettelkasten are:
Save interesting ideas, reading notes and other reference information.
Capture things that surprise you or contradicts your own ideas.
Write notes as if writing to your future self.
Create connections between notes, link every new note/idea to other relevant notes.
Further develop these ideas - possibly combining them into new things like a book, articles or theories.
Each note - a Zettel - must be atomic. Meaning that is must contain just one idea that can stand on its own. (Fitting on a small index card.)
Always include the source when creating a note of an idea that's not your own.
File by context, not by topic/subject - let themes and collections emerge organically as a result of how you interlink your notes.
And maybe most important of all: always use your own words! Don't copy and paste. Formulating ideas in your own words is key to understanding.
As Iām trying to implement this note-taking method myself Iāve come across a few useful resources for learning more and getting started:
Tips on Taking Notes [Video] - A good introduction to Zettelkasten and how to take notes in general.
How to take smart notes [book]. Also see this summary of the book along with a thorough introduction to Zettelkasten.
Do you have a note-taking system yourself? How do remember more of what you read? Iām curious to hear about your method - if you have one.
An article Iāve written
2020 is the year the Internet happened - Following up on the theme of last weekās newsletter I decided to write down my thoughts about the future of the economy and the digital ātransformationā of society in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
āAs more and more of us are social distancing or self-quarantining (voluntarily or involuntarily) weāre quickly developing new habits and are forced to move a considerable amount of our regular activities online. Most pertinently, it seems to me that the main consequence of all this isolation will be the fast and broad adoption of all kinds of digital-first solutions to problems or needs weāve been able to fulfill IRL so far.ā
Interesting things I've come across
How to do this video conferencing thing better - Lots of valuable tips and ideas for improving how you participate in online video calls, as well as how to present and teach through online video/webinars. For example, learn how to improve your eye contact with others in the call just by moving the video conferencing app (people's faces) towards the top of your screen (closer to your webcam!).
Coronavirus myths - "The virus will disappear when the weather gets warmer", "The virus is only dangerous for old people". As a reader of this newsletter, I'd guess you're well ahead of the curve when it comes to your level of awareness about what's going on. But you might find some of this useful nonetheless!Ā
A visual guide to flattening the curve - Very helpful interactive article that gives you an intuitive way to understand why flattening the curve is important, and how it works. By being able to simulate disease outbreaks and by playing with the inputs like transmission rate, the number of encounters per day, fatality rate and more you can quickly build an intuitive understanding of which "levers" drive the spread of the virus (and consequently, which variables are the most important to try to control).Ā
Podcast of the Week
Russ Roberts and Tyler Cowen on COVID-19 - Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University, is one of the most interesting thinkers of our time. In this episode of his podcast Conversations with Tyler he talks to Russ Roberts about: āCOVID-19, including how both are adjusting to social isolation, private versus public responses to the pandemic, the challenge of reforming scrambled organization capital, the implications for Trumpās reelection, appropriate fiscal and monetary responses, bailouts, innovation prizes, and more.ā
Finally, a friendly reminder to stay safe and healthy. Remember that thereās not much you can do to āboostā your immune system with supplements or exotic medicine. Itās better to stick to the basics:
Plenty of sleep
Regular exercise
Sun or daylight
Good hygiene
Good nutrition and adequate energy intake.
Probably doesnāt hurt to pop some extra Vitamin Ds
Stay safe out there,
/Phil