4 tools to build a second brain for internalizing what you read for busy professionals
Ever read an interesting insight from a book, only to forget it?
In programming, we say code is written once but read many times. If you don’t store what you read for easy access later, then reading is just entertainment. That’s why I built a "second brain" note taking system to capture and recall the insights I read in books, articles, and podcasts. I got the idea from Ali Abdaal's video on the topic.
It has made me a better reader and writer. Now I read with intention and close attention to detail.
Tool #1: Capture book highlights with Kindle Notebook.
I used to think physical books were more authentic than digital books.
Then I caved and got a kindle, it transformed my reading habits. Every book is a click away.
Now I read several non-fiction books at once, alternating between self-contained chapters as I read one long form fiction book. I have read more books in the past 3 months than I did in the last year.
The best feature in kindle is the highlighting and notes. It allows me to capture insights to export into my note taking app for long-term access, more on that later.
Tool #2: Save podcast highlights and transcripts with Snipd.
If you aren't listening to podcasts, you're missing out on the most insightful voices of our time.
When compared to other media, podcasts are a fluid, loose format. It allows hosts and their guests to cover multiple topics with breadth and depth. For example, The recent episode of the Andrew Huberman Lab with Dr. Martha Beck was enlightening. In the episode Dr. Beck shares stories of meditation, truth, and how to be true to onself.
That’s why I use Snipd, an AI assisted tool for capturing transcripts, highlights, and notes from podcasts.
Tool #3: Build a reading queue and aggregate highlights with Readwise.
How often do you see an article you find interesting, but you don't want to get distracted reading it?
The Readwise reader solves this problem by creating a queue to send your reading to for later. There is a desktop and mobile app with highlighting and note features baked in. Now when I see something I add it to my queue and read it when I have time.
The Readwise core product is a tool to aggregate highlights across different apps:
Snipd
Kindle
Instapaper
Readwise Reader
From there you can export your highlights to popular note taking apps:
Notion
Roam
Obsidian
Allowing me to bring everything together in a single interface that is easy to use and searchable. Readwise is the glue that holds my second brain together.
Tool #4: Reflect and connect with Roam Research.
The utility of note taking is to make it easy to find the information you need.
Roam Research is a graph database with double linking.
Allow me to explain, every document in Roam is a node. When you connect two nodes together, it creates a two-way street between them. When you are taking notes, you add these links into your document as you go. Over time, this creates a graph of interconnected documents related by the references, or double links.
This appeals to me because I have a gardener mentality to note taking, I don’t want to be too prescriptive. I throw a bunch of seeds on the ground and nurture whatever grows. I build ideas bottom-up with the goal of surprising myself with the result.
As a Data Engineer that works with graphs daily, it clicks for me. Be warned, it does have a higher learning curve than other note taking apps.
Having all my notes and highlights in one app has made finding them later so much easier.
I learned that internalizing what I read requires systematic belief breaking.
In the Writing on Writing book Bird By Bird, Anne Lammot suggests when stuck on a writing problem, break it into smaller subproblems. It’s obvious advice, yet difficult to do. By coming back to this advice againa and again, it reminds me to dig into the root of the root on why I’m not doing it. That is the real work.
Books can change your life if you apply what you read.