Building a Second Brain

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 4, 2022 at 12:36 AM

Dellu, in light of what you wrote I wonder what your thoughts are on the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann and his Zettlekasten note-taking system. On one hand, his system removed from his brain the burden of using the kind of note-taking approach which is burdensome because of its inherent deficiencies, but on the other hand his system allowed him to write prolifically at a world class level.

Re your comments on GTD, I’d agree it’s not the system for everyone, though I think its emphasis on “mind like water” removes some of the non-productive mental stress many people face while trying to become more organized and productive. Or, as David Allen, the GTD originator says on his website, “Mind Like Water: A mental and emotional state in which your head is clear, able to create and respond freely, unencumbered with distractions and split focus.” That may not work for some people, but for others it’s part of destressing their brain so it can work more effectively.”

https://gettingthingsdone.com/2012/05/david-allen-defines-mind-like-water/

Daly

Dellu wrote:
Thank you for mentioning the book here. I will going to check it out.
> >I don’t want to be a bummer here. But, I really have very negative view
>of the idea of “de-stressing the brain”. I have seen this kind of note
>on a lot of todo apps, note taking apps, and specially the GTD
>framework: where the author of the GTD system spend a lot of time how
>removing burden from the brain is important.
> >I think this idea is absolutely misguided: and opposite to the actual
>reality on how the brain/biology works. The established science about
>human biology is that the more use an organ the better it gets. That is
>where the “if you don’t use it, you will lose it” saying came from.
>That is why body building works. The more you stress your muscle, the
>stronger it gets. The same is true of the human brain. The more you
>stress it, the better it gets.
> >- and these tools which are claiming to aid our brain are actually doing
>the opposite. Indeed, the more we depend on those tools, our brain is
>going to weaker and weaker at remembering and analyzing. You can check
>this by reading stories of memorizations champions; and chess masters,
>and even the regular shop keeper. My sister is a shop keeper. The way
>she does maths in hear head amazes me. This is because not she is a
>genius; it is because she has used her brain again and again, and it
>has become better.
> >- Obviously I am not going to stop using these tools, methods. But, the
>promise that we will be better thinkers by using cool note taking system
>is just opposite to reality of our biology. It is better to stress the
>brain. Studies on Alzheimer also clearly showed that people who use
>their brain for tasks (for memorization, organization, thinking,
>learning language etc) are less susceptible to those diseases. So,
>de-stressing your brain is a bad idea. It is better to stress it.
> >Did I miss sth on this?
>I honestly get very frustrated at the GTD book because of this opinion.
>I was outraged when he talked about removing the burden off the brain. I
>still get frustrated when a lot of people talk about destressing the
>brain.
> >am I in mistaken?
>