The challenge of knowledge is not acquiring it. In our digital world, you can acquire almost any knowledge at almost any time.
The challenge is knowing which knowledge is worth acquiring. And then building a system to forward bits of it through time, to the future situation or problem or challenge where it is most applicable, and most needed.
This is the job of a “second brain” — an external, integrated digital repository for the things you learn and the resources from which they come. It is a storage and retrieval system, packaging bits of knowledge into discrete packets that can be forwarded to various points in time to be reviewed, utilized, or deleted.
The PARA Method is a system he's created for maintaining notes to their actionability instead of meaning.
The four top-level categories of PARA — Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives — are designed to facilitate this process of forwarding knowledge through time.
A note-first approach to knowledge management means we have to think about design. You are, in a very real sense, designing a product for a demanding customer — Future You.
Progressive Summarization works in “layers” of summarization. Layer 0 is the original, full-length source text.
- Layer 1: Notes
- Layer 2: Bold passages
- Layer 3: Highlighted passages
- Layer 4: Mini-summary
- Layer 5: Remix