BOOK REVIEW : Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte Atria Books , 2022
reviewed by MARTIN HUECKER , MD Your mind is for having ideas , not holding them . – David Allen ( Getting Things Done )
Martin Seligman1 revolutionized psychology with his 1998 speech as president of the American Psychological Association . He proposed a paradigm shift toward Positive Psychology , going so far as to offer a counterpart to the DSM with his book Character Strengths and Virtues . 2 Intending for patients to look for their strengths rather than weaknesses , he listed six virtues ( wisdom and knowledge , courage , humanity , justice , temperance and transcendence ), each with several strengths . Building the Second Brain was written for my fellow wisdom and knowledge people , especially those with the character strengths of curiosity and love of learning . It is also for everyone who still tells themselves that big fat lie : “ I don ’ t need to write that down , I ’ ll remember it .”
Tiago Forte had some health problems in college , developing a persistent sore throat and voice changes . Seeing numerous specialist physicians and increasingly despondent about finding an answer , he got proactive . He requested and collected his extensive medical records , organizing them into a filing system . He found patterns in symptoms , signs and diagnostic tests to eventually connect his illness with the medical literature on functional voice disorders . He cracked the case . He accurately diagnosed himself . He stopped taking anticonvulsants and methodically researched breathing , nutrition , vocal habits and exercises that empowered him to take a mind-body approach to alleviate and reverse years of troubling symptoms .
Forte ’ s personal story inspired his quest to harness the transformative power of organizing and using information . He started a book club , then a workshop , then a paid public course . All of that synthesized wisdom now appears in his book . Before assuming this is a self-improvement book , you should understand that Forte calls his system the opposite of self-improvement : he teaches how to optimize a system outside yourself . Externalizing your thoughts leads to new discoveries that might not have been otherwise obtained . It ’ s called Detachment Gain . When we externalize our thoughts , we make ideas concrete , real and workable . We all maintain information
20 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE