Your Thoughts Do Not Belong in My Second Brain

I love you, but you ain’t driving this bus, brother, and I’ve got the template to prove it!

Illustration by Author, done in the new-to-her Noteful app

There’s been quite a change in the focus behind my work over the last couple of years. Two weeks ago I told you about the planting of the seed that saw me turn my notes upside down, striking out into the wilderness of a brand new Obsidian vault.

Yes, I do largely use Obsidian on my Mac to interact with my notes, but the app isn’t the focus of what I’m talking about today. This is about the innards of your raw files, not the glasses you use to view them.

PTPL reader Honore Francois recently shared her own second brain epiphany after reading the story I mentioned above:

My heart skipped a beat and I dove into this post…just the conclusion I’ve recently come to as I half-heartedly toyed with the idea of “ a second brain” that wasn’t and isn’t my own handwritten conclusions, questions, experiences, etc… As tempting as all the new solutions are, I’m quite comfortable with mine — it’s served me well decades before and continues to do so… Thank you for sharing this pivotal revelation .

Restricting my notes to my own thoughts and feelings is enormously freeing! It means that I can trust that the insights my notes surface…