![]() The pitfall of Gardeners is that they often don’t know where they are headed. This requires a nurturing, exploratory approach of protecting new ideas until they’re ready to make their debut. The Gardener’s job is to create space for them to emerge, to cross-pollinate promising ideas, and harvest them once they’ve matured. Knowledge gardening is about favoring relationships and connections, so that each individual seed can entangle itself with others and grow into something greater than the sum of its parts. They are most at home imagining, dreaming, wandering, and making spontaneous creative connections in a way that no upfront plan could ever predict. They tend to think in a “bottom-up” way, cultivating many kinds of ideas and possibilities at the same time like seedlings sprouting in a wild garden. Gardeners are the exact opposite of Architects. Succeeding at knowledge management as an Architect requires you to make executive decisions about how you want your notes to work: the hierarchy of pages or folders, which categories you want to use, where an index or table of contents is needed, or which columns should be included in a database, for example.Īpps like Notion and Craft are well-suited to architecting your knowledge as part of a holistic system. Often Architects seek out collaborators with other styles that balance and complement these tendencies. If their needs change, the system needs to be rearchitected from scratch at significant cost. Their need for consistency often leads Architects to plan their system upfront. Because their thirst for order is so strong, they may sometimes ignore information that doesn’t fit with their mental model or follow a favored approach when the situation has changed and it no longer makes sense. The pitfall Architects must avoid is inappropriately “force fitting” information into the system when it doesn’t fit. They are masters of structure, using a systems mindset, and making tradeoffs between form and function. They excel at interpreting every piece of information through the lens of their overarching principles, and fitting it all into an elegant framework that many kinds of people can make sense of and act on. The same way a real architect needs a precise blueprint that details exactly where each part of a building goes, information architects tend to use a single overarching goal as the driving force in their knowledge collection.Īrchitects are ideally suited to large-scale projects that demand significant resources, where a plan is needed in advance. Let’s look at each of them: The Architect: Building SystemsĪrchitects want to fit all their information into an all-encompassing “ultimate system” with a clear hierarchy. These insights extend beyond notetaking apps to any tool you use to manage information. Through my work with thousands of people seeking to create a Second Brain for themselves, I’ve discovered that there are actually four:īy understanding which group you fall into, you’ll know not only which software program you should adopt, but also how to use it in a way that complements your own mind. Anne-Laure points to three common groups that people tend to fall into. I first learned about the notion of notetaking styles or “archetypes” through this article by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. In this article, I’ll guide you through the process of choosing the perfect notes app for you, taking into account your personal notetaking style. While adopting one that aligns with how you already think is a formula for accessing an incredible amount of energy. Trying to force yourself to use a piece of software that isn’t compatible with your temperament, your style, and your personality is a recipe for frustration. It calls out to you based on the natural ways your mind works. How do you pick the right app? You don’t! You don’t choose a notes app – a notes app chooses you. ![]() There’s been an incredible explosion in this category of software in recent years, and we now have too many options. These apps can save many kinds of content – not only text but images, drawings, links, tables, attachments, and more. They are open-ended, allowing you to free-form sketch without necessarily knowing where you’ll end up. ![]() They are inherently informal and messy, allowing new and unexpected ideas to emerge free of rigid rules. Notes apps are perfectly suited to the demands of modern work. It’s the long-term memory bank where all your important information gets sent for safekeeping. That said, there is one kind of app that is the centerpiece of your Second Brain: a digital notes app. ![]() A “Second Brain” is a system for knowledge management – a trusted place outside your head to preserve and protect your most valuable knowledge.īut it’s not one piece of software – it is the entire ecosystem of apps and tools you use to handle information.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |