This 👇🏻

The most prolific thinkers aren’t thinking with external brains. If you’re a photographer, take more pictures. If you’re a writer, produce more text. The tools will work themselves out. Source: RIP: The External 🧠

I don’t really like the idea of a “second brain”. My brain, the only one that I got, already requires all my energy. Why bother creating another “brain”?

@numericcitizen maybe I think of the second brain thing a bit differently? (I never got into Evernote.) I use my blog as a mind garden and have found the act of taking notes and writing about what I've read an invaluable part of my thinking process.

Taking the time to respond to an article makes me engage with it more deeply, investing more time and energy into processing it and considering connections to other ideas. YMMV obviously but at least the way I'm doing it, I am writing more through the process of keeping the mind garden. I feel so much more intellectually stimulated than I did before starting it three ish years ago, and I've written well over a thousand posts I wouldn't have without it 🤷‍♀️ Perhaps that's a distraction from fiction writing, my main creative focus, but I don't find blogging to be in competition with that work.

@tracydurnell I like your approach of your blog as a mind garden. Maybe I need to adopt that perspective to see if I can get my blogging re-vamped with at least some purpose, as that was what I was searching for in previous years. Thanks for the inspiration!

@numericcitizen 'Second brain', no; 'external brain', no; 'extended mind', very big yes. Can recommend reading Songlines for an introduction to indigenous understandings of the world as a living mnemonic device. Mind-blowing, extended or not!

@tracydurnell I agree with your take about notes taking while reading... I should do this more... when people are referring to second brain, I imagine the most extremist take on it.... where people use things like Notion templates called "BrainOS" where they store all sort of information... the "mind garden" expression feels less extreme in what it takes to maintain... something similar to "digital garden", which I do maintain, for fun.

@writingslowly much prefer that one.. extended mind. YES!

@ppel it really clicked for me, if it sounds intriguing I would say give it a try!

@numericcitizen cool, thanks, I never know exactly what a second brain means, the notion thing sounds kinda like managing a personal encyclopedia? The creative work comparison I'm thinking of is when writers spend a huge amount of time worldbuilding but never get around to the story part.

@tracydurnell It certainly does sound intriguing and with my new-found 'blogging spirit' on micro.blog I'm going to give it a try. Need to build a new habit though.