A Second Brain (Notetaking and Journaling)

Computer-Based Writing

I never having the drive or commitment to keep a diary as a child, despite having been given a couple different notebooks (including one with the lock on it), although the concept seemed interesting, nevertheless. It is the with mild suprrise that I began blogging online in the late 1990s.

Why did having a potential open audience make it different? There was motivation now. I wasn't writing for me, per se, I was writing for others. As Jason Kottke and John Gruber rightly pointed out in a recent podcast, the biggest and most successful blogging platform is Facebook. People are willing to share content and opinions about whatever is important to them, to their friends.

More recently I've come to follow a number of YouTubers singing the virtues of maintaining a second brain. The idea is simple: they are active readers of all kinds of (mostly) non-fiction books and don't want to waste that time they take reading by forgetting all the nuggest of wisdom buried within each one. They instead want to transform this information into something personally useful and also leverage the power of a computer to help them esstentially have ready access to this store of knowledge at a moment's notice.

I mean, with Chat-GPT having access to the internet, wouldn't it be nice to say "Hey, can you remind me some of my key findings I found interesting when I read that Malcolm Gladwell book back in 2002?"

The AI removed, that's why they advocate for taking notes into programs like Notion or Apple Notes. It's not a diary, per se, but it's a process to help them stay focused on what they find interesting. The benefit is ease with their future work and writing; it's not for their friends, it's an investment in themselves.

So there are two kinds of writing I've established that people do on a computer: public-facing and private-facing. One is likely designed to get a reaction from friends; the other is storage for future utility.

The Moleskine

Back in the early 2000s, people online started speaking of the virtues of writing, but this was almost for the opposite rationale for blogging (which, at the time, was also wildly popular). Instead, you were supposed to buy this new kind of handy notebook marketed as the Moleskine, a remake of a once popular journal book. The notebooks weren't cheap but are nice; today they have their own stores. I remember browsing one in a French train station. Nothing more romantic then boarding an SNCF train bound for the wine regions of France with a fountain pen and a new Moleskine in your coat pocket, so you could journal each wine you'd sip. If it wasn't wine, it could be whatever adventure you can imagine. But you'd journal about it. Again, not for an audience, but for yourself.

Then Merlin Mann introduced the Hipster PDA which was this kind of travel system with index cards and a binder clip to keep you organized when we all live without modern cell phones (the iPhone debuted in 2007). The PDA seemed clunky compared to a nice notebook that came with it's own band to keep it closed, and a pocket, where you could stow $20 for an emergency.

I mention this because I started down this path of keeping notebooks. I have always liked pens and stationery and this new brand of nice notebook appealed to me. In 2005-2008 I wrote a lot in my first Moleskine. I figured maybe I should keep a different notebook for personal vs. work stuff; in my first one, it was all mixed up. I later would continue using notebooks for work only, a tradition that I found handy, at least to keep the notebook on my desk, to jot-down phone messages into, and to take into meetings. Then I gradually started taking notes on the computer.

Reviewing my old Moleskine from 2005 this weekend has been fascinating. I wrote down things that were important to me. Recipes, notes from meetings; plans for vacations, even my wedding. I obviously didn't use this tool religiously, the same notebook lasted me for several years. And I will admit, as much as I love the idea of a second brain that's organized, tagged, and ready to help me? There's something so personal about seeing your own handwriting and the ability not only to jot notes but also to draw; to turn the notebook sideways, etc.

I also think it's great to put everything into one place; don't keep a food diary in one book and wine tasting in another? All these things are mixed about in our lives; let the notebook reflect that.

Today I started writing about a book I've been reading into the book. Not sure this will be a regular thing; there is some merit in putting books, movies, and things I may want to reference later into a digital notebook. But there is also the magic at play at writing those things out and putting them deeper into your consciousness as you take the time to form the letters with ink on paper. I do believe taking notes on paper is more effective at getting us to remember.

So what is the point?

For me, the 2005 journal was an awesome memory tool, at allowing me to see what rose to the top of my interests and concsiousness so many years ago. I want to continue that, although it is now 2023. But in 2024, -25, or maybe -30, I'll find the minutae of daily life today interesting, one can hope, through the lens of time.

The delight of trying this was assured when I turned through each page. It's a shame I didn't have this fancy journal when I was younger.