
Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain” - gauchojs
https://maggieappleton.com/basb
======
laingc
Firstly, thanks to the author for taking such time and care with the
illustrations.

However, by way of contrast to many of the other comments on here, I found
this particular explanation quite unhelpful, both in terms of the presentation
communicating the idea as well as the parts of the idea that I was able to
glean.

It’s probably an individual thing, but I don’t want to combine things into
projects, and I certainly Don’t want to go down the route of having a folder
structure.

Having recently converted my somewhat-organised notes into a Zettelkasten
workflow, I have been amazed by the freeing nature of the medium. The core of
my method is simple markdown files that can be easily written without the aid
of any software. I have had fun building a significant amount of automation
around the notes - building a traversable and plottable graph, implementing
backlinking, templating and that sort of thing, but it is purely assistive and
not necessary.

Some sibling comments make the point that BASB seems to be more of a complete
theory, where as a Zettelkasten is a method alone. Here, I humbly beg to
differ. It is the simple and mechanical nature of the Zettelkasten that frees
the mind from the burden of too much information.

This is obviously an individual preference, but I think I’ve found the method
that suits me.

~~~
FakeRemore
I'm also interested in what software you're using for this. I've looked into
tools that support Zettelkasten and they all seem to have made inexplicable
changes to the system. The most significant to me is the change from using a
hierarchical, meaningful numbering scheme to using timestamps that lack all
form of context/hierarchy. Context in the sense that unless you're the Rain
Man, there's no way to fit timestamps into a conceptual framework to refer to
in your mind. You're always 100% reliant on your tools to find what you need.

~~~
laingc
The software I use is, at its most basic, a text editor. In my case, Sublime
text.

Everything else is a Python package with a CLI, dockerised for portability,
and written entirely by me to support my workflow.

I am absolutely sympathetic to the "I want a tool not a hobby" idea of using
prebuilt software, and indeed I have tried many of them (including every one I
have seen linked on HN), however I have found that building my own automation
has really helped me to think carefully about how I use my Zettelkasten and
what it implies for my own thought process.

This reply probably falls into the category of "unhelpfully helpful advice",
but that's what has worked for me personally.

~~~
jmiskovic
Can you mention how you organize files themselves? Things like subdirectories,
naming, solving name clashes, and how do you decide when to split content into
two or more files.

I've always struggled with mapping any note organization mapping into strict
directory structure with ascii file names being the only meta-data. I'm
currently using Trilium Notes which solves most of these by using SQLite
instead of filesystem.

~~~
laingc
No subdirectories for notes, everything is flat. I have three directories:
zettel for the Zettel, Daten for the data, and Kasten for software/scripts.

Zettel are named as follows: z{%Y%m%d%H%M%S}_{slugified title}.md

Tags are formatted as +{hyphenated tag name}.

Scripts parse all the Zettel, construct a bipartite graph of tags and Zettel,
and populate tables in the index with lists of Zettel under each tag, a
visualisation of the graph, various other meta statistics etc.

The point (for me) of my Zettelkasten is that through links and tags, the
structure of the notes is _emergent_ rather than dictated _a priori_.

------
alexashka
The graphic design is stunning.

I did find it to be a massive distraction after the second or third page
however.

There is a time and a place for an artistic touch and in this case, I found it
distracting.

I find hand-written text difficult to read past 24pt and when done in gray,
even more so.

Ultimately however, I think the greatest disagreement I have comes from the
content itself - it reminds me of all the little tactics project managers I've
had tried to use. All the 'team building' and 'team lunches' and 'daily stand
ups'.

Life is about strategy, the long haul, not tactics. This approach is non-stop
tactics and it never pauses to ask why go through all this? What are you
trying to accomplish and is lack of organization bordering on OCD _really_ the
thing holding you back? Maybe it is, and if so, great.

This obsession with arbitrary processes to me, is simply manager-types trying
to justify their existence and slick sales-men, trying to sell yet another
'productivity booster' that has no empirical evidence behind it, just slick
advertising, such as these beautiful illustrations.

~~~
afarrell
> Life is about strategy, the long haul, not tactics.

Life is about _both_. Strategy _and_ tactics. Words _and_ action. For some
people, if they make a bunch of grand strategic plans but don't follow
through, then they repeatedly disappoint those around them. They find
themselves lonely and stressed as they lose jobs and relationships with people
who are sick and tired of them "making excuses".

> is lack of organization bordering on OCD really the thing holding you back?
> Maybe it is, and if so, great. > arbitrary processes

They look arbitrary to you because the author doesn't explain the "Why" behind
her system -- likely because it is very personal.

~~~
alexashka
> They look arbitrary to you because the author doesn't explain the "Why"
> behind her system -- likely because it is very personal.

Well, when something becomes a course, it is no longer about the author, it is
about the people the author offers the course to.

I don't want to discourage people from trying new things and developing their
own systems, courses, whatever. I do feel the need to point out that we live
in an age of immense amounts of information and one needs to be very careful
not to engage in information pollution. If there is a system similar to yours,
there is no need to create your own that you think is slightly better. We
really don't need another flavor of candy, at some point we need less 'stuff'
and less people engaging in trying to sell us something, not more.

I think we've been at that point for a few decades.

------
joe8756438
I recently built a note-taking system [0] to capture ideas quickly. The notes
are parsed as a DSL that understands different organizational techniques. It
also picks up on symbols for tracking things over time, such as transactions
and events.

What is great about the DSL is that once learned you can express a lot of
information without disrupting flow. To me that is one of the biggest barriers
for taking notes via phone or computer. Once a good note-taking habit is
developed it's wonderful to have that reservoir of information and ideas to
pull from.

0\. [https://www.tatatap.com/how-to](https://www.tatatap.com/how-to)

------
AnonC
A tangential point. I didn’t go through this article in detail, but I loved
the illustrations so much that I ended up looking at a few other articles by
her (Maggie Appleton). As someone who fails at Pictionary with very crude
drawings, there’s something about those illustrations that’s simple, eye
catching and admirable. I’m feeling envious.

~~~
swyx
i have a longstanding thesis that developers-who-can-draw always crush it in
online content, haha. but with Maggie, beyond just artistic ability she also
works really hard to come up with visual metaphor by understanding the
developer on an anthropological level.

------
hairofadog
These illustrations are great!

Regarding software, one thing I’ve long wanted and/or dreamed of making is an
app that can be pointed at any directory of markdown files and images that
would then use some kind of AI to analyze the data, look for patterns, present
statistics, automatically tag things, etc. I want to be able to dump things in
without much organization, but then to be able to view it in an organized way.
One small example is the way that the Bear app finds to-do items in any of the
notes and presents them in a separate list. That, but with all kinds of data.

~~~
juvoni
Check out [https://obsidian.md/](https://obsidian.md/), I believe it has a
good foundation to get to the features you're asking for.

------
wh-uws
I've basically built a version of this with trello, the butler addon, and some
custom code to use custom fields to rank cards.

have a been toying around with productizing this.

let me know if you're interested

------
FakeRemore
I've always found it a bit odd (and a bit frustrating) that many programs
around knowledge-building/note-taking are Mac-only. Anybody know why that is?
Devonthink sounds like such an interesting tool that I'd love to try, but it's
Mac only. This article's author relies on two tools which, at first glance,
are also Mac-only.

That said, am I the only one finding it really hard to parse pages of
illustrations? It feels like I'm stuck having to analyse every single
illustration to figure out what the author is talking about and that a bit of
supporting expository text is missing.

~~~
lukevp
I’ve noticed this as well (for example, with Ulysses, Bear and OmniFocus). I
am building a note taking application at
[https://NoteBrook.app](https://NoteBrook.app) that I intend to be a simple,
clean, fast app that runs on every major platform, works online and offline
with apps, and syncs to all your devices. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Plan on launching in the next few weeks as I complete the
edit/favorite/delete, some cleanup, and publish all the apps. Early access
code is ALPHA2020 if you want to sign up and try the syncing, but you can use
it without signing up too, your notes will just be local.

------
CGamesPlay
I'd never heard of BASB until this post, but it seems so much more useful than
the usual type of content about "zettelkasten" and such. Those seem so focused
on the mechanical actions you take and not enough on the steps towards getting
value from your notes.

Is there a book form of BASB, or is it a course only?

~~~
jacklondon
I found that book but haven't read it. From the description though, it appears
that it forms the base material for the course.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FLQHLTK](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FLQHLTK)

------
fizixer
I have not taken this course. I do feel I have a second brain. I have
constructed my own system of keeping my thoughts organized and making progress
in better understanding in a cohesive manner.

By taking longer to finish grad school and ending up with mountains of debt.

And this second brain would be lost to the wind as soon as I take up a 9-to-5
Monday-through-Friday tech/STEM job where I have to do mainly what my boss
tells me to do.

Go figure.

------
neolander
This is very well done. I've taken BASB and this does a fantastic job covering
all the main points.

------
kovek
That’s an awesome illustration. I always wonder how much value people get from
BASB

------
anotheryou
Aligns perfectly with my org-mode workflow flow

