Trying to build a second brain. Part 1: Choosing an app and why is not that important

Am I the only one that has gone into this rabbit hole of trying to find the perfect app to to make the perfect system to capture all the information (sometimes none) that goes through my mind?

I have tried some different apps (Notion, Obsidian, Apple notes, etc.) but I did not seem to be able to stick to any of them.

Notion

Not long ago I became another fan of Notion. I regularly watch Ali Abdaal videos (I also love his podcasts). The YouTube algorithm also led me to Thomas Frank. I was hooked.

I quickly signed up and start using it (or trying to) for everything. I have to admit that It has been very useful for travelling (I developed a very useful luggage and travel list) and some shared projects.

But I never really used it to capture my thoughts. It became apparent to me that It was to much of hassle to remember exactly where I had to store every single thing. That together with the fact that Notion requires internet (Its a SaaS) to survive made it just impossible to become my second brain.

Obsidian

We are getting closer. After what happened with Notion, I did not give up. I continued my search and found obsidian. I fell in love again. Why? Mostly the reasons described by Maggie Wang in her fantastic post (and no, I am not going to go into detail on every point because you should definitely read the post):

• Backlinking
• Future-proofing and privacy (aka markdown and local files)
• Access (again; a software that access local files)
• Cost (I don't want to break the bank just yet)

Sounds amazing, right?. For some reason I never really used it. I watched a lot of content about Obsidian but never really use it. The reason? I have an android, a windows and an Ipad Pro. I never found a free way to sync all of them.

Markor and the transition period

While I was again searching through the web trying to find another perfect app (and yes, you guessed it, until this transition period  I use to spend more time trying to find the perfect app than actually using it) I found this fantastic video by Tintin Smith about his second brain. Again, it is just so good that you should check it.

But I do not have an iPhone. And I do not want to depend on Apple Notes. So I had to do something different

I was already hooked up on markdown (I also use it for this blog). Markor is a free app that lets you write whatever you want in markdown. I just installed it in my phone and starting writting stuff on it.

And It worked. I realized that I was missing the point the whole time. I had been trying to find the perfect system and forgetting the main point: Trying to capture what goes through my mind

Logseq and the future

Don't get me wrong. Using markor was working. It was quick. It was effective. But It had some issues:

• I could not properly sync it whit my iPad Pro
• After a while, I found that I was creating redundant information and I was not linking the thoughts on day x with the on day x - n (sorry, I am and always by a little bit of a nerd)

I started searching again (if you are wondering, did not you just said that you were loosing the point trying to find the perfect system? then you are probably kind of right) and found logseq.

For me (this second brain thing is a very personal thing) logseq sums up the simplicity of "my" markor system together with the ability to produce backlinks that obsidian has. Again, there is someone that explains the virtues of this better than me. If you are interested on seeing what logseq can do for you I strongly reccommed that you check out this video course.

The title of this post is pretty clear Trying to build a second brain. I have just started using logseq a few weeks ago. In a future post I will go through how I made synchronization between all my devices possible.