☀️ progressive summarization, 12 favorite problems and more
building a second brain by tiago forte
read time 3 minutes
Welcome to Happyness Hypothesis, a weekly newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a healthy, wealthy, and happy life.
In this summary of Building a Second Brain, you’ll learn how to save, organize and retrieve information when you need it.
A Second Brain is a digital file where you save useful information.
This could be lists, notes, and ideas. It is synced across all your devices so you can access it whenever you want.
The CODE method
Do you ever have a tough time recalling information you need?
Well, there’s a solution for that.
There are four parts to it (called the CODE method).
First, capture the information in some app such as Notion.
Second, organize the information for actionability. Use the PARA method (more on this later).
Third summarize (distill) using progressive summarization (more later).
And fourth share (express) with others.
PARA
This organization framework optimizes for actionability.
Everything is organized based on where it's going to be used.
For any new information ask yourself: “where will this be useful?” Then add to one of the categories below.
The P stands for projects. These are short-term goals with a defined beginning and end and a clear outcome. They help you prioritize, plan and eliminate the unnecessary.
A is for areas or long-term responsibilities. These don't have an end date or objective. They can be activities, people, standards of performance, departments, or teams you’re responsible for.
R is resources or topics you’re interested in.
The last A is for archives. It's anything that's not active and doesn’t fit one of the above categories.
Once you have organized the information you can distill it using the progressive summarization method.
Progressive summarization
This is a way to summarize the key points.
Here’s how it works:
First capture the information in your notes (first layer).
Next bold the main points (second layer). These could be keywords that have hints of what the text is about.
Then highlight (third layer) long, interesting or valuable bits of information.
Lastly, add an executive summary. This is a bullet-point list in your own words.
Don't over-highlight. Don't highlight without a purpose. Use your intuition when highlighting.
12 favorite problems
So how do you know what to capture?
Well, you can use the 12 favorite problems framework.
This is a framework by the physicist Richard Feynman.
He said you should keep 12 of your favorite problems in your mind at all times.
Some examples are:
How can I have closer relationships with the people I love?
How can I spend more of my time doing high-value work?
How do I live less in the past and more in the present?
When you learn something new, ask yourself if you can answer one of those twelve open-ended questions with it.
Do this over an extended period of time.
Curate only the most useful information.
Be picky.
Don’t hoard.
That's all folks. Thanks for reading. I appreciate it. If you're bored of these, you can unsubscribe here.
Until next Tuesday ✌️!