3 ms·

It's decent note-taking software with useful features and a storage medium that's currently in favour. If you have a use for such a thing, it's one of the best

It's decent note-taking software with useful features and a storage medium that's currently in favour. If you have a use for such a thing, it's one of the best options available right now. But that's all. You can forget all the "second brain"/zettelkasten stuff. It's just marketing gumpf used to build careers prattling about notetaking methods (dressed up as something fancier).

TheCapeGreek 4y ago
I have my own knowledgebase in my own format and TBH I'd say it's one of the most valuable things I own. I don't think the second brain "marketing grumpf" is false - once you get rolling, you have a personal treasure trove of knowledge without having to dedicate every piece of info to memory.
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  The value of whatever style of note-taking suits your work and personal style has been well understood for centuries. All the productivity piffle has added nothing to it, though it has earned a few bucks from book sales, youtube ads, and merch.
trinsic2 4y ago
I had doubts about the second brain stuff as well, but I am seeing that with the connections I make to my notes using links/backlinks tags while hanging out in the graph view allows me to see connections between notes and helps me with idea generation, so I can see why people call it a second brain. It helps you think about writing in a different way. That has been my experience though.
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  It's the messianic fake novelty and loathsome invented marketing terminology that I'm objecting to. You can unfussily make notes, using your own emergent organisation exactly like people have done for centuries at least. Tech can add searching and organisational niceties, and it makes sense to use them. Obsidian is good at this (I use it). Or, alternatively, you can do exactly the same thing and get terribly zealous about it as a grift, or a way to mask the fact that your notes are all about notetaking systems and just add nothing to the sum of human (or even your own) capability. I'm not arguing against the activity of taking notes, nor working with different representations and arrangements of them to discover what emerges, nor against note-taking software, just all the timewasting blather that goes with it. "Second brain" (probably TM'd somewhere) is by the way only a dull grey businessy echo of Andy Clark's (much more interesting) 'extended mind' theme.

TheCapeGreek 4y ago

I have my own knowledgebase in my own format and TBH I'd say it's one of the most valuable things I own. I don't think the second brain "marketing grumpf" is false - once you get rolling, you have a personal treasure trove of knowledge without having to dedicate every piece of info to memory.

aussiesnack 4y ago
The value of whatever style of note-taking suits your work and personal style has been well understood for centuries. All the productivity piffle has added nothing to it, though it has earned a few bucks from book sales, youtube ads, and merch.

trinsic2 4y ago

I had doubts about the second brain stuff as well, but I am seeing that with the connections I make to my notes using links/backlinks tags while hanging out in the graph view allows me to see connections between notes and helps me with idea generation, so I can see why people call it a second brain. It helps you think about writing in a different way. That has been my experience though.

aussiesnack 4y ago
It's the messianic fake novelty and loathsome invented marketing terminology that I'm objecting to. You can unfussily make notes, using your own emergent organisation exactly like people have done for centuries at least. Tech can add searching and organisational niceties, and it makes sense to use them. Obsidian is good at this (I use it). Or, alternatively, you can do exactly the same thing and get terribly zealous about it as a grift, or a way to mask the fact that your notes are all about notetaking systems and just add nothing to the sum of human (or even your own) capability. I'm not arguing against the activity of taking notes, nor working with different representations and arrangements of them to discover what emerges, nor against note-taking software, just all the timewasting blather that goes with it. "Second brain" (probably TM'd somewhere) is by the way only a dull grey businessy echo of Andy Clark's (much more interesting) 'extended mind' theme.