Just realized there are really only 4 ways of changing the structure of your second brain:

1. Move a group of notes
2. Move one note
3. Tag a group of notes
4. Link one note with another

They fall neatly into this grid: The use case for each one is also clear:

1. Move a group of notes: When the meaning or intended use of a whole category of notes has changed

2. Move one note: when you notice an existing note is more relevant to a new category, and no longer relevant to the old one

If you published a lot of writing online before Sept. 2021, try asking ChatGPT what your writing style/voice is. Pretty neat Damn, it also gave me areas for improvement. I'd say these are very accurate

How do you consistently turn the information you consume into creative output and concrete results?

By following CODE...

• Capture only the most important information
• Organize for actionability
• Distill down to the essence
• Express your ideas

What each step looks like: 1/ Capture only the most important information

This is your first line of defense against information overload

Whether you’re collecting information from meetings, books, articles, podcasts, or conversations…

Capture what resonates and let everything else (and the FOMO) go

"What apps do you use?" is a question I get constantly.

My team and I tried and tested countless software tools, apps, and services over the years.

Here are some of the ones we’ve found essential for running and growing our business: 1/ @ConvertKit

We joined ConvertKit in 2019, and it’s been the best email marketing platform we could have hoped for

With the help of ConvertKit, we’ve grown our email list from 3k to 100k

My new book is available for pre-order!

Here's what it's about... We were never taught how to effectively manage the deluge of information that modern life is throwing at us

No one ever showed us how to organize our digital world so we can find what we need when we need it

100,000 subscribers to the Forte Labs Newsletter! 🎉

I think this was the hardest accomplishment of my life. Basically a decade of continuous effort since the first issue in 2013

Thank you to everyone who’s been part of the journey🙏 Special credit goes to our head of marketing @julia_saxena

She joined us in Jan. 2022 and pulled us out of a long slump by relentlessly improving our email funnel, adding more than 50,000 subscribers in the last year 👇

Some context on what I mean by “a serious company building a reliable app for mainstream users”

👇

https://twitter.com/fortelabs/status/1616173350778441729

If you really believe that PKM apps (or second brains, or tools for thought, etc) are a huge opportunity with the potential to change how humanity thinks…

Then the clear objective is to build a consumer app that can be used every day by people around the world

TIL that Vannevar Bush’s “Memex” was predated by hundreds of years by Thomas Harrison’s “Note closet” designed in the 1640s Also clearly a precursor to the Zettelkasten

Amazon book ratings are the single most important metric of a published book’s success

They are:

• Reliable – with a “verified purchase” tag

• Transparent – revealing the distribution of scores

• Substantive – with detailed reviews sortable by rating

Cont. • Comprehensive – encompassing majority of sales and all formats

• Comparable – since virtually all books are on Amazon

• Public – unlike Bookscan or sales numbers

If you had to pick a single number to judge a book’s success, the average Amazon rating should be it

This month will be the last time I teach a cohort of Building a Second Brain

After teaching 6k graduates in 16 cohorts over 6 years, it's time to pass the torch to new instructors who will take over from here on out

Here's why I'm making this decision👇 2/ Btw, if you want to be part of my farewell tour, join us for Cohort 16 starting tomorrow, Jan. 10

buildingasecondbrain.com/membership

I'll take you through the process of setting up your own Second Brain system, and then using it to complete a year-end review and set your goals for 2023

10 lessons I've learned in 2022 the hard way

About communication, leadership, leverage, and letting things go 1. Don't communicate emotionally charged messages via text or email

Sending emotionally charged messages in written form usually leads to the recipient making the most dramatic and negative possible interpretation.

If there are emotions involved, make a phone call.

In 2022, we published hundreds of pieces of content

Here are the blog posts, YouTube videos and tweets you enjoyed the most

Plus our company highlights: I'm truly proud of what we've achieved this year at Forte Labs...

• I released my book Building a Second Brain after 2 years of work

• We grew our YouTube channel from 6k to over 125k subscribers

• We turned our 2x per year cohort-based course into an evergreen membership

Let's give @ReadwiseReader a spin and see if it lives up to the hype... Dark mode on mobile app by default is 🔑

Over the last 6 months, our blog has been visited by 339k people 584k times, racking up 934k page views, and spending 3 min and 34 seconds per visit on average 🤯

Each spike is a newsletter issue, showing the importance of distribution The dropoff around September is when we switched from fortelabs.co to .com

Ouch

To think differently, you need to read differently

Many of the turning points in my life were triggered by relatively unknown books that never appeared on a bestseller list

I'll let you in on the secret

Here are 3 of my favorite little-known books & what each taught me 1/3 The Will to Change by @bellhooksinst

Before my now wife @TheLaurenValdez and I started dating, I thought I had good communication skills, healthy self-awareness, and was in touch with my emotions.

Turns out, my standards were woefully low.

1/ Want to know the 10 most popular highlights from my book Building a Second Brain?

I've just shared them on @goodreads, plus my behind-the-scenes commentary on where those ideas came from, at the link below 👇 2/ My notes on the 10 most popular highlights in my book:

goodreads.com/notes/59660671…

(Along with others' responses to my comments and questions)

1/ My hot take on the Twitter saga:

What we are actually witnessing with Elon's takeover of Twitter is a major schism within the dominant ideology of the modern world:

The Californian Ideology

Let me explain 👇 2/ California is now at the peak of its global influence – economically, culturally, politically, and societally

Hollywood, Silicon Valley, music, finance, tourism, aerospace; it has the country's largest population, port, university system, & agricultural output

PARA is my secret weapon for storing information...

So that I always find what I need when I need it

A quick thread & free cheat sheet PARA stands for Projects — Areas — Resources — Archives

These 4 top-level categories encompass every type of information you might encounter in your work and life.

I bet there's something you want to create, achieve, and experience in your work, business, or life.

And I’m convinced that building a Second Brain will help you take big steps forward.

So much so that I’ll make you 3 promises... When you join me on this path, you’ll achieve these 3 things...

1. Beat Information Overload

You’ll reduce stress and anxiety by knowing what to keep and what to ignore.

Your best ideas will be preserved forever in a way you can easily find them again.

3 lessons I would tell my 22-year-old self…

** notetaking addition ** 1. Take Your Notes Everywhere

Ideas don’t arrive on schedule or on demand.

The more you force yourself to have any idea the less it will come.

The phone you are on right now almost certainly has a notes app already installed. Use it!

Organizing my business, personal life, and creative work in
@NotionHQ is one of the most powerful things I've ever done.

Here’s how I do it + get my free Notion template (thread) 1. My Business in Notion

Going from a solo creator to a 10-person team has been a wild ride.

I've never done this before, so I quickly became overwhelmed with the influx of responsibilities:

• managing a team
• recruiting talented people
• delegating tasks I used to do