I’m often surprised when people find the idea of a “Second Brain” – a system of knowledge management that lives outside one’s head – to be fanciful or unrealistic. When in fact, the practice of saving and storing important information in a trusted place is ubiquitous. Professionals of all kinds have developed ways of documenting
Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947 in Pasadena, CA. Known in her early years as “Estelle,” she was raised by a single, widowed mother who worked domestic jobs to make ends meet. Painfully shy and introverted from a young age, Estelle became an easy target for bullying at school. Her shyness combined with slight
In 1969, studio executives at Paramount Pictures were desperate to find a film director for a new movie they had purchased the rights to. It was to be a crime drama based on the New York Mafia. One after another, all the top directors of the era turned the project down. They all found it
In my PARA Method, I teach people how to organize all their digital notes and files using a simple, 4-part system. Your computer is your working environment for many of your waking hours. Until you take control of it and design it to support the kinds of thinking you want to do, every minute spent there
I recently taught this workshop on How to Take Digital Notes, hosted by Teachable, the online learning platform I use for my courses. This is an introductory workshop for people just getting into this crazy world of Second Brains, personal knowledge management, and digital notetaking. I presented some of the core concepts you’ll need to know
A “Second Brain” is a trusted system that lives outside your head and helps you organize your digital world, cultivate your best ideas, and dramatically expand your creative output. By creating your own Second Brain, you can make use of the time you’re already spending reading, listening, watching, and communicating to create a valuable asset
Introducing Season 2 of the Building a Second Brain podcast! Available on: Spotify, Libsyn, and Apple Podcasts. In this season I talk about 9 of the biggest myths and misconceptions that people have about Second Brains, and what it means to create one for themselves. Based on years of experience teaching, writing, and coaching people on this subject,
Over the last few weeks I’ve been obsessively binge-watching the sci-fi TV series The Expanse. The year is 2350. The solar system has been settled and is divided into warring factions. Earth is still the greatest economic power, its industries unrivaled. But Earth’s society has grown stagnant, losing its sense of ambition and vitality over the centuries.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in my high school U.S. History class. We watched in horror as the aftermath of the twin towers’ collapse unfolded on live TV. I was in my third year, and at 16 years old thought I was just beginning to understand the world and my
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I recently discovered a treasure trove of family home videos stretching back almost 40 years. The earliest video was from my parents wedding in 1981 in São Paulo. The footage was grainy and barely in color, and looked like it was taken by a professional crew. Consumer camcorders hadn’t even been invented yet. The more
Over the last year I filmed a short documentary on the life and artistic career of my father Wayne Forte. He has been one of the strongest influences on me, not only as a father, but as a prolific lifelong artist. I wanted a way to share his remarkable story with a wider public, to