Ask My Second Brain Anything (Public NotebookLM)

I receive probably hundreds of questions per day if you add up YouTube comments and X replies what we get in our support email inbox. And you know what? I love it. It tells me people are actually trying to build their systems, not just consuming passively. [music] But of course, I can't personally respond to thousands of comments, nor can my team. 6 months ago, I decided to use the latest artificial intelligence technology [music] to build something for exactly this problem. It's called the Building a Second Brain Public Notebook on [music] a platform called Notebook LM by Google. Very few of you have seen it, which is why that's what I want to show you today. I'm going to take questions that [music] we've actually received in the comments of these videos and see what the Building a Second Brain Notebook has to say. Here's one of the most common ones. What's the difference between areas and resources? This is referring to my PAR method. And there we go. That took about 30 seconds. And as you can see here, it says, "The distinction between areas and resources often trips people up [music] because a specific topic could technically fit in either category depending on your relationship to it." That is 100% correct. The fundamental difference lies in responsibility versus interest. So you can see here it expands on that, including terms that I haven't actually said, such as the context test, which it's sort of made up, but is accurate. What you're getting here is essentially a 100% customized piece of content that hasn't actually existed before this moment, but is perfectly tailored to answer your exact question. And of course, [music] because this is a chat interface, you are free to ask follow-up questions or to ask for examples or to ask in your specific case which one it recommends. Let's actually try that. I'm going to go ahead and hold down the key on my keyboard to activate Whisper Flow and say if I have some notes on a class that I'm taking about graphic design, [music] which category should that fit into within Perah? So, it says it's likely a project if that class is something I'm currently taking, but it could also be a resource if it's just something that I may want to reference in the future, or it could be an area. It's giving you a lot of the nuance that I would myself, which is it really depends. You ultimately have to decide what your relationship is to that piece of information. Let's try a slightly more challenging question. How do I do a weekly review? So, this one is not just a factual response. It's actually about a process or a procedure that one might undertake. All right. So, here it looks like it has a bit about the mindset you should take. And then this is kind of what I would expect is [music] the steps. Clear your email inbox. Review your calendar. Clear your workspace. Process your notes inbox. That's by the way exactly the order that I would put them in for a variety of reasons. And then you end by updating your project list. So I can personally certify that that is 100% accurate. You could even go down here and say, "All right, now I'd like to try doing a weekly review. Can you lead me through the process step by step using a [music] series of prompts and other tips to guide me?" And there we go. So what's interesting is it's more or less the same content, but it's kind of adapted it. [music] personalized it to be more actionable, like do this and then do this and then do this. It's very procedural, like a checklist, which is helpful. I could also, of course, ask follow-up questions, ask for more detail, ask it about my specific examples like we did before. What this is really showing is that a public AI notebook like this one is not just about Q&A. It's not just about I have a question, there's the answer. That's something that you could do probably using Google. It's really about having a coach. It's really about having an intelligence, not a human intelligence, but an AI intelligence that is kind of working with you. It's dynamically adjusting. It's iterating. It's responding and [music] shaping what it's telling you as it learns your context and your needs and your goals. That is something that is so much more valuable than just a simple database of answers. To illustrate that, let's ask it something that's less tactical and a little bit more philosophical. I'm gonna ask which is something I hear often. Why should I take notes at all? And here we go. The fundamental argument for taking notes is that your biological brain was not evolved for the modern world of information abundance. So here it's actually quoting someone else who I probably quoted in my own writing which is David Allen saying your mind is for having ideas not holding them. And then subsequently there's a breakdown. Taking notes is essential to overcome biological limitations to compound your knowledge which is something I call the slow burn to facilitate creativity i.e. remixing to turn consumption into production. You know what's so interesting is I don't think I have a single article or part of my books or even video where I answer this exact question in this detail. What it's essentially doing is it's reaching into my body of work across dozens of different sources and then bringing all that together into, as I said before, a customized answer. Those examples were pretty straightforward. It's a good start, but let's go deeper and look at some more advanced use cases. What we've just looked at is more or less using this public notebook for Q&A. You have a simple question and you're looking for a relatively simple answer. The power of AI goes way beyond that. It's not just about Q&A. It's not just about looking up a fact or a statistic or an answer. It's about really engaging with another intelligence. Now, it's not a human intelligence. I don't think anyone would claim that quite yet. But it is a form of intelligence. It can adapt. It can change. It can dynamically play in a world of information and sort of shape it and customize it for what you're trying to accomplish. You can really think of it as an AI coach. Someone that can guide you, that can give you advice, that can give you feedback, that can take you through a process that might be novel or challenging or uncertain. So, let's try this example. Help me reflect on my year using Thiago's annual [music] review framework. So, Thiago Forte's annual review framework is about deep reflection, emotional processing, [music] and strategic simplification. This is so interesting because I've actually now written an entire book on this topic of how to do an annual review. But this book that I've just written is not one of the sources. This notebook is about building a second brain. What it's actually doing here is [music] it's extrapolating a little bit. It's getting some of the principles and the practices from building a second brain and almost like imagining or simulating the approach to annual reviews that I [music] would take. And what I can see by looking through this is that it's quite accurate. I do put a big emphasis on choosing your 100 favorite photos. I do start with gratitude. I do have a narrative approach to journaling as a big part of my process. I do have reflection questions, a lot of them, that I answer. This is an example where it's a topic that is a little bit tangential. It's peripheral to the main subject of this notebook. But it can still do a pretty fantastic job just by sort of drawing on and building on the same foundation and kind of imagining what I would say, which I can say is largely correct. By the way, if you want to keep the results of what it said, all you have to do is click copy right here and paste it into a Google doc or a Word doc or your notes app of choice to keep it. Let's try another example that's a bit more complex, which is troubleshooting. Sometimes you've tried and failed to follow given piece of advice and what you really need is troubleshooting. You need support. You need someone that can look at a specific challenge you're having and help you overcome it or go around it. In this example, I'm going to say, "My second brain feels cluttered," which is the problem, and I never look at my notes. Another problem, what am I doing wrong? It's really about diagnosis. It's been about 30 seconds, and it says, "You are likely falling into a few common traps." And then it lists those. You're hoarding, not curating. Something I call the more is better trap. You're organizing by subject, not action. The librarian trap. This is so great. It's quite accurate, but it's also kind of making up different language or different terms or different ways of framing or explaining some of these ideas. And then it offers the solution, which is the one I typically offer, which is just to do a digital reset and just to kind of start over. I find myself being too perfectionistic, trying to take notes in exactly the perfect way, trying to put them in the perfect [music] place, trying to keep my whole system so perfect that I end up not actually using it. Which one of these traps do you think I'm most likely falling into? All right, so it says, "You are prioritizing order over output." It's citing me saying order is a sign of progress as a major limiting belief, which I would agree with. It has the trap, what I'm likely falling into, the reality that kind of argues against that, which [music] is action is always messy and chaotic. And it even has an anecdote, an example of my father, who's a professional artist and quite messy, to illustrate this point. It talks about which archetype I likely fall into, and it's even citing specific videos on the YouTube channel, which you can check out if you want more detail. And then it has the solution. So the specific principle or piece of advice which I cite [music] in the par method my book to overcome this limiting belief and this pitfall which has to do with lowering your standards for how notes are organized and where they're organized to stop organizing just in [music] case and to instead organize just in time to embrace digital bankruptcy. This this is just such a fantastic summary. Even though I've never actually written this advice in one specific place, I would say this is all correct and quite helpful for someone who is falling into this trap. Let's look at one more example, which is probably the most common question I receive. Honestly, this is probably 10% of all the messages that we receive across all platforms, which is which note-taking app should I use as my second brain? It's kind of leading you through a process. [music] It wants you to identify your note-taking archetype. That is important. There's the librarian, the architect, the gardener, and the student. That's accurate. Then there's my personal criteria, just in case you're curious how I make this decision, which is those. There's emerging AI tools. So, this is much more recent. I don't think I've actually recommended this, but [music] it is a good idea to consider pretty early on how AI is changing all this. And then to summarize, these are kind of the rules of thumb. If you're looking for just a simple digital filing cabinet, use Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. If you want to build a custom life OS, then notion. If you want to link ideas creatively, then Obsidian. And if you want simplicity and speed, Apple notes. That's a great golden rule as you can see down here. And that's it. That is the building a second brain public notebook. It's 100% free. [music] You can access it right now using the link in the description and the pinned comment below. You do need a notebook account, which you can sign up for free using your standard Google login. And if you have a question about anything that I've said in this video [music] or any other video, you're free to leave a comment down below. But I encourage you first to try asking the building a second brain [music] public notebook first and see if it gives you an answer that meets your needs. I'd love to know if that's the case. And you know what? There's a bigger picture idea here, [music] which is the reason any of this is possible is because I have a second brain. I have my knowledge and my expertise [music] stored in a place outside my head. That's why I was able to make that knowledge and expertise available to something like Notebook LM in the first place. I really want you to consider doing [music] something similar for yourself. Think about what this could do for your career, for your business, for your network. If you could [music] get the knowledge that is sort of stuck in your head and make it available as a resource for all sorts of people, even people that you don't even know and won't meet so that they can take advantage of the expertise [music] that you've built. Building a second brain is about making knowledge go to work for you, which includes making it [music] go to work for others, not just storing it away in some secret place. I encourage you to check out my book, Building a Second Brain, and the follow-up one, The Parthod, if you'd like to know more. But [music] first, I really encourage you right now to go and try the notebook that we've made for you. Ask it your hardest, [music] most unusual question, and let us know in the comments below what it says, whether it was helpful or not. I'll see you soon. >> [music] [music]

🧠 Get my official NotebookLM notebook – ask questions and get AI coaching on Building a Second Brain: https://bit.ly/3ZMRetz I get hundreds of questions every day — more than anyone on my team could ever answer. So I trained a free AI on 68 sources — my books, every blog post, every video on this channel — so it can answer your Second Brain questions directly. Everything it knows comes directly from my work — not the internet at large. In this video, I'll walk you through exactly how it works. 🗣️ Voice Dictation Tool I use: http://ref.wisprflow.ai/tiagoforte ✅ Check out my "Master NotebookLM" playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVNXAaej57W5Xc1Fueh8VaaWrMAo4GliF&si=v_J4P5jcsrnyk6RD CHAPTERS: 00:00 Why I can't answer every question personally 00:23 Introducing the BASB Public Notebook 00:48 Question 1: What is the Difference Between Areas vs. Resources in PARA 02:14 Question 2: How to do a Weekly Review 03:21 It's more than Q&A — it works like a coach 03:55 Question 3: Why should I take notes at all? 05:01 Advanced use cases 05:48 Question 4: Annual Review reflection 07:10 Question 5: Troubleshooting a cluttered second brain 09:25 Question 6: Which note-taking app should I use? 10:23 How to access the notebook (it's free) 10:54 The bigger picture: making your knowledge work for others #notebooklm #googleapps #google #googlelabs @Google ----------------------- 💌 Join our weekly newsletter for more tips and resources: https://fortelabs.com/subscribe/