Tiago Forte's Blog, page 9

Bullet Journal: The Difference Between Our First & Second Brain

Ryder Caroll, the creator of the Bullet Journal, invited me to discuss all things personal knowledge management (PKM) and Building a Second Brain.

We covered:

First vs Second BrainWhat a Second Brain looks like How to use a notebook as a Second BrainGoals vs ProjectsThe Second Brain and reflectionThe future of digital notetaking toolsWatch our full chat on YouTube:

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

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The Origins of Personal Knowledge Management | Dr. Jason Frand

I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Jason Frand, THE personal knowledge management (PKM) pioneer.

In 1999, Dr. Jason Frand and Carol Hixon wrote the revolutionary paper ‘Personal Knowledge Management: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How?’. This article coined the term PKM and changed its trajectory forever.

In this interview, we discussed:

Where the idea for PKM came fromHow PKM compares to travel agentsWhy knowledge is our most precious resourceThe best structure for organizing informationAnd much more…

As far as I know, it’s the only interview with him on the subject. Listen to the full interview on YouTube.

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

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How to Capture Ideas Like a Pro | The Pinkcast

I joined best-selling author Daniel Pink on The Pinkcast to discuss how to take notes and capture like a pro. 

In 193 seconds, we also discussed:

Why we should offload information?The 30-day experiment to make you a pro at notetakingHow to retrieve your notes quickly and efficiently

Watch our quick chat here:

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

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All Things Second Brain | Productivityist

I joined fellow productivity nerd Mike Vardy on the Productivityist podcast to discuss the depths of PKM and what it really means to Build a Second Brain.

We dived into:

Why notetaking needs to be a little chaotic, messy, and informalWhy most life management systems failThe difference between productivity and personal knowledge managementWhen I prefer paper notes over digital notesThe “digital dumpster effect”How to decide what to capture in your Second BrainMy controversial stance on tagging and linking notesAnd more

Listen to the full episode here.

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

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The Business of Building a Second Brain | Conscious Creators Show

I sat down with Sachit Gupta on the Conscious Creators Show to discuss the business of Building a Second Brain. 

We covered…

Why I thought of shutting down my companyHow I went from solopreneur to a team of 10The biggest mistakes creators makeThe lessons I learned from my artist dadThe importance of systems vs. tools

I really enjoyed this insightful chat. With most interviews, I can predict where it’s going, but not this one!

Listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or watch our interview on YouTube:

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

 

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Building a Second Brain to Organize Your Digital Life | All the Hacks Podcast

I joined Chris Hutchins on the All the Hacks Podcast to discuss all things Second Brain. 

We dived into:

How you can remember and use the things you learnWhy you should only save the quote and not the whole bookWhy there is no one app to rule them allWhy you need to maintain your Second Brain like you maintain your carThe keyboard shortcuts that changed my lifeWhy I want my biological brain to remain unoptimizedAnd much more…

Listen to the full episode here.

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

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My Favorite Favorite Problems

One of my favorite things about open questions is that they can be freely borrowed anywhere you encounter them.

In my course Building a Second Brain, I lead students through an exercise to identify their own favorite problems. They can then serve as a filter for what to capture in their notes, a guide for what material to give their attention to, and a north star as they choose which projects and goals to pursue.

I’ve kept a running list of the most interesting, resonant, and provocative questions my students submitted . Feel free to borrow these questions for yourself as is or tweak and customize them for your own needs. 

I’ve grouped them into high level categories to make discovering interesting ones easier for you.

Self-improvementHow can I build a good reading habit?What can yoga teach me and move me towards?How do I improve the functionality of my brain including cognitive processing and memory?How can I improve every day by 1%?How can I structure my goals so I increase my chances of achieving them?What are the classics? What are they trying to teach us? And how is it relevant?How can I consistently achieve the goals I set for myself?What facets of my life can I automate?How can I become friends with people that I want to be like?What does systems thinking have to teach us about healing and personal growth?HobbiesWhat are ways I can be a more engaged, connected, and playful dancer?What is the most efficient way to learn how to draw?How can I improve my skateboarding skill?How can I use knitting as a means of bringing healing to the world?What kind of music do I want to create?How can I reduce friction to ensure practicing the keyboard is a part of my daily routine?Self-careHow can I live joyously with menopause and care for the aging female brain?What can I do to switch off and relax from time to time?How can I eat healthy food that is delicious, pescetarian, and gluten-free?How can I better strengthen and soothe the aching muscles in my feet, neck, and jaw?How do I create a body that I am proud of and that serves me well?How can I balance my personal life with my professional life while still feeling productive and fulfilled?How can I achieve regular deep sleep?How can I leverage social media in healthy and productive ways that add value to my personal and professional life?What are the optimum behaviors, habits and tools to mitigate my cognitive challenges (ADD)?Self-reflectionHow am I my own biggest stumbling block?How do I overcome my personal bottlenecks to be authentic, vulnerable, and risk failure?How do you find your way after losing your faith?What does living in integrity with myself look like?What does celebrating my life, showing gratitude for my life, look like?What can I do to accept myself as I am?What in my past casts a shadow on my present?What are the most simple and universally effective practices to experience and sustain inner peace?What am I missing?What does addiction and recovery have to teach us?Business/careerHow can I become a more natural and effective collaborator?How can I make problem-solving fun and attractive?How can I generate income pursuing my interests?What are the key skills to prepare for the future of music?What other things should I learn/unlearn to be an effective Executive Assistant?What forms of marketing are ethical, profitable for the marketer, and useful for the audience?How do I build a career I don’t want to retire from?How do I create residual streams of income that can buffer my productivity highs and lows?What is the best platform for me as a creator?What should my personal brand be, and how do I get it there?FinancesWhat should I invest my money into so it can work harder for me?How do I catch up building a nest egg midlife?How can we balance investing strategically with spending money on what we love today?LeadershipHow can I improve my leadership skills and consistently support, empower, and challenge those around me?What processes and people should I put in place in order to replace myself in the current business so I can focus on the next phase of the business before IPO?How do we create messages that are unique and persuasive to rural voters in Maine?Spouse/partnerHow do I express myself clearly and more often to my wife to show her that I love her to the moon and beyond?How can we cultivate a romantic relationship of respect, understanding, support, care, affection, and passion as a couple, which will serve as an example to our children so that they grow up to become adults responsible for the reality they live in, respecting themselves and others?How can I curiously explore life together with my life partner?EnvironmentHow can we learn to share and manage collective resources?How can we use models from nature to solve our gnarliest problems?How can I make environmental issues and climate justice appealing to Christian congregations?How can we reduce pollution while improving quality of life?How can I travel sustainably without harming the planet or other people?How do I determine the best intervention point in a dynamic but failing system?ValuesHow can I not lose track of my core values and live up to them?How can I foster greater understanding, equality, and unity without disenfranchising any in the landscape of gender diversity?How do I live a fulfilled life with no regrets in all aspects of my life?How can I deepen my self-awareness and sharpen the values that are most personal to me, so that they permeate all areas of my life?What can I do to get clearer on my purpose?How can people utilize technology in a way that corresponds to their values?

ServiceWhere should I prioritize my time, energy, and attention to make the greatest impact in serving others?How can I empower others to be better leaders and lifelong learners?How might I make academic philosophy feel alive and meaningful for everyone?How can we do better as lawyers when mentoring young lawyers?What are my gifts and how do I share them?How can I make it easier for African content marketers to grow, get paid their worth, and become respected?How can I create a home and safe haven for people like me?How can I take advantage of the capabilities of my Second Brain to improve the quality of the clinical care I provide to my little patients and their families, without neglecting the most human, close and warm aspect of the relationship?How can I build a nonprofit organization to help dogs that are abandoned or part of the meat trade?How can I give back to my community in a way that only I can?How can I develop a course for women struggling with their curly hair that’s enjoyable, and gives them the results they want?Self-expressionHow do I speak with more conviction and stand behind my opinions?How do I discover my voice through writing and sharing my ideas with others online?How can I better listen to what others say, reducing the personal interpretation to a minimum?How can I develop my ability to express myself spontaneously, creatively, and authentically?What do I feel is important for me to express?What can I do to launch my YouTube channel?How can I channel my emotions to become a better communicator?What are the key ingredients of global music’s top hits?How can I increase my writing output without taking time away from my family?What would creating look like if it were easy, light, and fun?How do I learn to meet criticism with more acceptance and less resistance?How do I find the time to think and write a book in 12 months?How can I share myself with the world without draining my energy?Institutions and communitiesWhat is the best way to influence change in the school system to turn it into a critical thinking and problem-solving system?What are we unnecessarily tolerating as female attorneys?How can I help people trust democracy and engage more seriously in political debate?How can Indonesia improve its child protection and social welfare system to ensure that all children have equal opportunities to live and thrive?How do I control the negative news cycle while keeping a pulse on all that’s going on around me?How can I improve the state of education in my province?How can we design a better city or society from scratch?How do I balance needed time alone with making time to build community?How do I set aside space for the culturally unique sacred knowledge held in each religion while maintaining egalitarian access to spiritually rich truths in an agnostic digital space or multicultural community center?How can we create more collaborative neighborhoods with sharing economies and alternative currencies?How can imagination and play fuel organizing grassroots movements that uplift the working class and poor?Family and relationshipsHow can I help my father keep his remaining cognitive capacity and extend his health span as much as possible?How can we prioritize our personal time when we are in demand by so many other people?How can I address sensitive issues after allowing so much time to pass that the only thing I feel is shame?How can I organize realistic/feasible family vacations with a limited budget?How do I raise kids to be loving and empathetic yet understand that not everyone will be that way to them?How do I pass on the love of learning to my kids?What do I want my relationship with my parents to look like moving forward?How can I slow down and enjoy the experiences that life has to offer without impacting my family’s income?How might I become more of an advisor than an authoritarian to my two daughters?How do I create a life of wonder, curiosity, and traveling while still having a family?What can I do to design a career that allows me to see my kids grow up?How do I raise a child into a healthy, whole and contributing adult as a single mother while still being fulfilled and achieving my own fulfillment in life?EmotionsHow can we stay present with our most difficult feelings?How can I recognize the factors that most influence my emotions and express them with disarming frankness?How do I become immune to micro-aggressions and focus on what I can control?How can we deepen a more compassionate life for ourselves, for those around us, and for the rest of humanity?Personal knowledge managementHow can I create a system that allows my creativity to flourish?How do I translate my perspective into a meaningful and productive financial endeavor?How should I keep track of my twelve favorite problems?How can I master overwhelm and live meaningfully in chaotic times?How can I live life where I feel independent, free, and unbound by time?Which note-taking tool/task management app should I stick with?How can I use my Second Brain to continue learning throughout life, while bringing experiences, knowledge, and motivation forward that can inspire others?How can I ask better questions?How can I capture, organize, and distill the knowledge and experience from my current and previous projects?What frameworks can I adopt to transform my curiosity into tangible outputs?The futureHow can I understand, embrace and use emerging technologies, the internet of things, and cybersecurity while protecting my privacy, autonomy, and sanity?How can we create modes of work so everyone can live by their own definitions of work/life balance?How can I contribute to building up the people of the Basques, in which the daily use of language is a value to be cultivated, preserved, protected, and promoted, in the face of the globalizing and homogenizing threats of the cultures that surround us, as a heritage and unique enriching contribution to this corner of the world?How do we help individuals put out of work by automation?How can I leave a legacy that will serve generations of my family not yet born?What do I want to achieve by the time I am 40?How can I be remembered?

In Part 7, I’ll answer your lingering questions about favorite problems to close off this series.

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

The post My Favorite Favorite Problems appeared first on Forte Labs.

How to Thrive in a World of Uncertainty

The future has become so uncertain that goals are now obsolete.

The stable, predictable world we grew up in is gone. The idea that you can make a “5-year plan” and execute it one step at a time is laughable. No one knows what’s going to happen in the next 5 years or even the next 5 weeks. 

Goal-setting was once central to our conception of what it means to navigate the future successfully. But goals can no longer serve as guides to an unfolding future that we have so little control over.

But this doesn’t mean that we have to throw up our hands in defeat. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do to influence our fate. It just requires us to make a shift from leading with goals to leading with questions. 

Replacing goals with open questions

Questions shine a light toward the future – but more like a lantern than a focused beam. 

They illuminate a space of possibilities where many avenues can open up, not just a single narrow path. Goals lead with certainty toward a predetermined outcome, taking the future for granted. While questions lead with doubt into the unknown, acknowledging the inherent uncertainty of everything that is yet to come.

Questions ask you to start with what you don’t know but would like to discover. They draw in others to pitch in and make their own contributions. They serve as open invitations to collaborative projects, versus the solitary path of individualistic achievement envisioned by goals.

In a world of uncertainty, questions are more powerful than answers. Answers serve you for a season, but a question lasts forever. Let’s revisit Richard Feynman’s story to discover the principles he used to navigate the uncertainty he faced effectively and even joyfully.

3 principles for navigating uncertainty

Richard Feynman rose to prominence during a 20th century which saw enormous advances in science, but also a destabilizing plunge into uncertainty that foreshadowed our own time. 

The famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle rocked physics when it was introduced in 1927. Formulated by German Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg, the principle stated that it is impossible to know with accuracy both the position and the momentum of a particle, no matter how much is known about its initial conditions. 

This introduced a fundamental amount of uncertainty into physics, which up until that point had been on a ceaseless march to ever-greater levels of precision. It defined for the first time a frontier of knowledge that it seemed we would never be able to cross. 

Feynman was part of the first generation of physicists to grow up in this “era of uncertainty,” and one of his chief contributions was developing an approach to scientific knowledge that worked despite such ambiguity.

His philosophy relied on three pillars:

The value of ignoranceThe value of transparencyThe value of a change in perspective

 

 

1. The value of ignorance

Feynman loved knowledge, but that doesn’t mean he hated ignorance.

As his biographer James Gleick notes, he seemed to “hoard shallow pools of ignorance, seemed to protect himself from the light like a waking man who closes his eyes to preserve a fleeting image left over from a dream.”

He famously refused to read the academic literature of his predecessors or contemporaries, preferring to work problems out for himself to see if he could find a simpler, more elegant solution (which he often did). He chided his graduate students who began their research by studying what had already been discovered. He believed that by doing so, they were giving up their chance of finding something original. 

He said later: “Maybe that’s why young people make success. They don’t know enough. Because when you know enough it’s obvious that every idea that you have is no good.”

Feynman believed in doubt, not as a blemish on our ability to know, but as the essence of knowing. The only alternative to doubt was to blindly trust in an external authority, which science had fought against for centuries. He believed that it was not certainty but freedom from certainty that empowered people to act even when they didn’t have all the necessary information. 

Toward the end of his life, he encapsulated his attitude in an interview:

“You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong . I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here…. I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose , which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn’t frighten me.”

2. The value of transparency

Feynman’s second principle for dealing with uncertainty was a deep commitment to radical transparency.

In a competitive academic world in which a discovery might lead to prizes, fame, and riches, the honest pursuit of truth sometimes takes a back seat. Then and now, scientists can be tempted to race to publish first, criticize each others’ results, or zealously guard resources and equipment.

It seemed to Feynman that scientific integrity required not just honesty, but an extreme form of honesty that included effort. In his book Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! (affiliate link), he describes it as a “leaning over backward” to purposefully expose your hidden assumptions and potential mistakes.

For example, when conducting experiments, he advised reporting not only on everything that went as planned, but also anything that could be invalid or misunderstood. Details that could throw doubt on your interpretations must be given, so that an independent observer can decide for themselves the value of your contribution. And his highest test of all: a theory should be able to explain something that you didn’t even set out to explain, not just your original hypothesis. 

Feynman’s commitment to this level of utter honesty can be summarized in perhaps his most famous quote: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself– and you are the easiest person to fool.” 

3. The value of a change in perspective

Both ignorance and transparency set the stage for the third principle in Feynman’s worldview: the importance of seeing things from a new perspective.

The most concrete example of this view was his extensive foreign travel. At a time when overseas trips were not nearly as common, he spent months at a time exploring Latin America and Asia on both work trips and personal vacations.

In Brazil, one of his favorite places, he became fond of the musical style known as samba and even joined a local samba school. There, he mastered an instrument known as the frigideira, a metal plate emitting a light, fast tinkle, well enough to perform in street parades and paid private gigs.

In Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1949, Feynman was invited to teach physics as a visiting lecturer at the newly established Brazilian Center for Research in Physics. He often expressed his appreciation for what the art of teaching taught him:

“The questions of the students are often the source of new research. They often ask profound questions that I’ve thought about at times and then given up on, so to speak, for a while. It wouldn’t do me any harm to think about them again and see if I can go any further now.”

His students gave him a fresh perspective from the point of view of a novice, which he cherished throughout his life. He once said: “There is a pleasure in recognizing old things from a new point of view. Also, there are problems for which the new point of view offers a distinct advantage.”

The ultimate “beginner’s mind” is that of a child, and Feynman consciously cultivated an innocent, childlike way of viewing the world. He said, “Children and scientists share an outlook on life. If I do this, what will happen?… Every child is observer, analyst, and taxonomist, building a mental life through a sequence of intellectual revolutions, constructing theories and promptly shedding them when they no longer fit. The unfamiliar and the strange—these are the domain of all children and scientists.”

As our own time becomes more ambiguous and our future more uncertain, we can learn powerful lessons from Feynman about what it looks like to thrive in a world we don’t fully understand. 

We can value our ignorance in questioning old assumptions, communicate with transparency to invite others to correct our mistakes, and purposefully take a chance on changing our perspective when the problems we are facing seem to have no solution.

The question of living a full life

Looking at the totality of Richard Feynman’s life, what stands out to me the most is not his scientific achievements. There have been many equally brilliant scientists through the ages.

What strikes me is that he also lived a full, rich, well-rounded life. He didn’t limit himself to excellence in just one arena or force himself to fit into a particular mold. He traveled, made music, raised a tight-knit family, formed many close friendships, and contributed to important causes, always pursuing what fired his imagination regardless of whether it was popular.

For me, this is the heart of a question-oriented approach to life: the decision to remain fundamentally open to the full range of experiences that life has to offer. To express your values and dreams without fear, trusting that the universe is inherently full of possibilities more wondrous than you can possibly imagine.

In Part 6, I’ll share examples of favorite problems you can borrow or use as templates for your own curiosity.

 

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

The post How to Thrive in a World of Uncertainty appeared first on Forte Labs.

How To Build A Second Brain | Anthony Pompliano

It was a pleasure to sit down with Pomp to chat about all things Second Brain.

We dove deep into a host of topics, including:

Are we consuming too much?How many hours do I read a day?How to create projects from your notesWhy removing risk from your life is wrongDo our team members have a company Second Brain?And much much more… 

Watch the full interview on YouTube here: 

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

The post How To Build A Second Brain | Anthony Pompliano appeared first on Forte Labs.

How Favorite Problems Evolve: A Case Study

Your favorite problems will likely stay consistent over many years, but that doesn’t mean they can’t evolve. 

I’ve found that in most cases I never actually arrive at a final, definitive answer to a question. Instead, the question changes as I learn more.

Let me illustrate this with a case study. I’ll show you how one of my favorite problems – teaching – changed over time as my life went through different stages. 

The 15-year evolution of my favorite problem

When I first started teaching English as a volunteer at my local community college in Orange County, California, my open question was very specific to the challenge at hand: “How do I teach English to recent immigrants who have no background in the language?” 

That question led me to seek out specialized learning resources that used images and games to bridge the gap from their native language to English.

I soon fell in love with teaching, and when I moved overseas to study abroad in Brazil during my senior year of college, I started a side job teaching English at a small private school in Curitiba where I lived. 

My open question changed a little: “How do I most effectively teach English to working professionals who are tired after work and only have an hour of instruction per week?” 

Notice how this question introduced the element of effectiveness for the first time. This was now a job, and I had to think about how my work would be evaluated. Not only that, but I was charged with making a difference for my students in only one session per week, forcing me to come up with easy ways to help them practice speaking throughout the rest of the week.

A couple years later, I joined the Peace Corps, a U.S. government program that sends American volunteers to serve abroad. I found myself stationed in a small town in Eastern Ukraine, the lone American for many miles around, and responsible for about 8 classes of students ranging from 3rd to 11th grade. 

My question suddenly became “How do I keep Ukrainian students of all ages engaged and interested in English?” I looked for ways to use games, role play, and improv activities to make learning English an interactive, and even fun, experience. 

For example, we painted a large map of the world on a classroom wall, labeling each country in English. We made up adventure stories, narrated, of course, in English. I showed them pictures from my life in the U.S. and asked them to point out words they knew. 

When I returned to the U.S. after two years of service, I wanted teaching to remain a part of my life. And after two years working in consulting, I decided to try teaching online as a freelancer. Once again, my attitude toward teaching had to adapt in line with my changing life. 

My new question became “What do I know how to teach that could become a profitable business?” I had to think about the economics of teaching for the first time, which eventually led me to a model of “cohort-based” courses that combined online content with live interaction on Zoom.

As that business has grown and evolved, my question has continued to change. I’m no longer directly responsible for most aspects of our programs. I don’t make most decisions, don’t answer most questions, and am not in direct contact with students most of the time. My job is instead to build the team that does all those things, and to keep them productive and happy. 

My questions these days include:How can I design an effective online learning community that sustains itself?How do I build and maintain a high-performing remote team to run the best training program on personal knowledge management in the world?How do I use free content on our blog, YouTube channel, and social media platforms to serve people even if they never take our course, but prepare them better for the course if they do?What new formats, mediums, and platforms can we use to reach more people more effectively with the Second Brain message, without overtaxing our resources or bandwidth?What kind of company are we? Are we a media company, a professional development company, a tech-enabled services firm, or something else? What should our model of success be?How do we make our community bottom-up instead of top-down? How can we enable others to unlock their potential using our community as a platform?How can I be the kind of leader and manager that inspires people to greatness without me needing to be there?

These questions have led me to such unexpected places. In pursuit of answers, I’ve unexpectedly found myself learning the art of recruiting, figuring out how to structure an organization, designing salary ranges and benefits, and spending time doing financial planning, among many others.

These are topics I never imagined would have anything to do with teaching. And yet they are the natural consequence of an underlying, insistent question that has been with me for as long as I can remember: “How can teaching change people’s lives?”

Your favorite problems are always a “draft”

As you formulate your own favorite problems, keep in mind that they are always just a first draft. They can and will evolve as you uncover deeper and more subtle layers of your initial curiosities. 

Not only should you be open to this change, it is the entire point of this exercise: to immerse yourself in the inherent uncertainty that comes with asking questions with an open mind, and embracing the unknowns that will inevitably come into your life as a result.

The information you consume is ultimately a result of the questions you are trying to answer. Change the question, and you’ll begin to notice entirely new kinds of answers you never imagined existed.

The quality of your life depends on the quality of the questions you ask. Ask wisely.

In Part 5, I’ll revisit Feynman’s life and work one last time for a look into the heart of how he viewed the world – as a place of fundamental uncertainty – and the principles he used to navigate that uncertainty effectively and even joyfully.

Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

The post How Favorite Problems Evolve: A Case Study appeared first on Forte Labs.