>[!External Links]
>[Session proposal](x-devonthink-item://819CE944-9626-4D18-A1FB-775AE45BB648)
# _Sorry, but your brain is not very clever: The importance of a ‘Second Brain’._
[[AUA Session summer 2023]]
## Learning Outcomes
_1._ _Explain the benefits of the Second Brain methodology, and how it can be applied in a Higher Education setting._
_2._ _Describe how this tool can be used by leaders to generate and capture new insights and ideas, and also empower colleagues._
_3._ _Start their own Second Brain_
Start with why our brains are not very clever?
- Easily distracted (Quote: "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention" - Herbert Simon)
- recency bias
- not good at knowledge retention. (Quote: Everything not saved will be lost - Nintendo “Quit Screen” message).
- Research from Microsoft shows that the average US employee spends 76 hours per year looking for misplaced notes, items, or files. And a report from the International Data Corporation found that 26 percent of a typical knowledge worker’s day is spent looking for and consolidating information spread across a variety of systems. Incredibly, only 56 percent of the time are they able to find the information required to do their jobs.
- not good at distillation.
- Not good at 'stigmurgy' - leaving marks in our environment for when we want to get back to something important.
- Some are better than others
- Code libraries in IT
- Case files in Law
- Portfolios in art?
- Swipe files in Marketing
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### LO1: Explain the benefits of the Second Brain methodology, and how it can be applied in a Higher Education setting
- mise-en-place
- mirror to your own brain
- not a dump of information- curated content. Different to evernote.
- history- 'commonplace books' and Memex Machines
- CODE model- capture, organise, distill, express.
- Intermediary packets- ask participants to create something. Neil has what is the difference between accountability and responsibility. I have "what is an SU".
- Idea of 12 favourite problems
- Don't worry about making it perfect.
- Give your second brain a birthday, and start your knowledge management afresh.
This approach can improve
- knowledge retention, an issue in this changing world
- handovers (especially in high staff turnover times)
- your understanding of issues
- having a knowledge retention and analysis discipline/ habit
## LO2: Describe how this tool can be used by leaders to generate and capture new insights and ideas, and also empower colleagues.
PUBLISHing your second brain can help:
- understanding of roles such as the CEO of an SU
- helping to understand unusual areas of an organisation such as an SU.
- Establishing some core values in your organisation- transparency, experimentation, learning, authenticity, modesty (lack of certainty is strength), vulnerability,
- Help others- it can potentially fill a gap.
- It helps to overcome perfectionism, which seems to be pervading our lives at the moment.
- Improve the quality of your thinking and your arguments, as you know your notes could be read by others.
- - sharing our ideas with others introduces a major element of serendipity. When you present an idea to another person, their reaction is inherently unpredictable. Links to [[digital garden]]
## LO3: Start their own Second Brain
- need to integrate this throughout.
## Dangers/ traps for participants.
- Not for them
- Some people resolve things afterwards. This is an investment in your future self. So if you're not that type of person then don't worry. Reactive people don't worry about coming.
- Trap of "tried this before with Evernote"
- Trap of fiddling around with the tool and not doing the job (procrastination)
- Can be a tool for confirmation bias. Have to be careful. But does help with recency bias.
## Other stuff in my second brain
- [[Second Brain]]
- [[Second Brain Capture Tools]]
- [[My Second Brain Workflow]]
- [[Why I'm sharing my second brain]]
- [[Claim making Second Brain]]
- [[So, you want to start a second brain?]]
- [[Source - Building a Second Brain]]
## Session Feedback
See [the email here]([AUA: Working Session Feedback 2023-07-21 From
[email protected] to
[email protected]](hook://email/LOYP123MB2783D1D704915F0B5C5DC3F9B33FA%40LOYP123MB2783.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM)) . Basically, all positive feedback across the 10 people who responded.
[[AUA Session Text]]