![[Pasted image 20240724090005.png]] One of the biggest promises of technology is to think better. **What is a second brain and why build one?** The simple example is writing thoughts and problem solving on paper. Laying thoughts outside the mind allows for thinking in greater detail, precision, and build on those thoughts over time. More advanced versions are software like Evernote, OneNote, Notion, etc. that allow for digitally synced notes to gather knowledge and thoughts that are quickly retrievable over years. I have been using OneNote for over a decade as a second brain and find tremendous value. I find the friction in sharing those thoughts means most of them end up left inaccessible. So I'm experimenting with different methods of building a second brain that make sharing with other people part of the software by design. I'm inspired by people who share their own learning and experimentation process. So powerfully that I believe sharing this with other people is actually a core part of being an experimentalist. Examples of more public facing second brains: * https://tim.blog Tim Ferriss is as far as I know the most famous person to use the term experimentalist in a personal context. What makes him exceptional to me and I would bet millions of his other fans isn't just that he shares interesting stories and tips. His books, blog, etc represent his thought process, methods, and results from his own direct experience putting what he learns to the test and sharing publicly. * https://gwern.net contains over a decade of consistent learning and experimentation across a wide variety of topics. Beyond the raw curiosity the thing I find most helpful is seeing the methods of experimentation. Going from question to well designed experiment to statistical analysis that gets well thought out answers on what is actually effect and what is random chance. * https://integralguide.com is a second brain built while solving their own challenges in life. Learning and building a toolkit for one person now is available to and helping tens of thousands of people with similar challenges. I find their use of Obsidian to organize and share thoughts and tools particularly interesting. The requirements I'm prioritizing: - Core functionality: - Efficient text editing for recording and organizing thoughts. Be able to quickly create links between them and organize by tags. - Ability to create diagrams and nonlinear thoughts that are better represented in freeform visuals like with mural.co - Be able to organize thoughts in a way that years worth of thoughts can be quickly navigated to find what I'm looking for. - Publishing capabilities: - Ability to easily publish selected content as a webpage - Support for custom domain for website. - Fast page load speed and navigation/accessibility is easy. Links and citations can be viewed w a hover over preview - Platform and integration: - Android mobile application - Web application - AI integration with Claude (preferred) or ChatGPT for: - Summarization - Finding connections between ideas - Research assistance (organizing citations) - Budget constraint: - Reasonable price, under $30 per month for sure - Additional considerations: - Data migration from OneNote (nice to have) Some of the options available I've considered: 1) Obsidian 2) Notion is a great option 3) DIY/Custom Software 4) Brainstory