This article argues that the obsession with remembering everything you read actually hinders learning. The important thing is not to memorize, but to select and learn the necessary knowledge based on the goal you want to achieve and apply it to actual actions and creation. He also explains that note-taking apps and 'second brains' are not a purpose in themselves, but are only valuable when you can store ideas and take them out at the right moment to use them for creation.

1. Why you should stop obsessing over remembering everything

The article begins with the following sentence:

"It's not important if you have to remember it. If it's important, you'll remember it."

Recently, content that teaches how to remember everything after watching a book or video has become very popular. Many people feel that they have failed or wasted the time they spent reading if they cannot remember what they read. However, the author says that the purpose of reading is not to memorize every sentence in a book.

The reason people want to memorize everything is hidden in their desire to gain an intellectual image. The idea is that if you memorize a lot of knowledge, you will look smarter and be able to impress people in conversation. But the ability to sound truly smart comes from understanding, not memorization. To understand, you have to learn in a completely different way than simply memorizing things over and over again.

School education also reinforced this misunderstanding. Students study for a long time to remember the correct answers on the test and practice writing the correct answers on the test paper. But in real life, simply remembering the right answers isn't enough to make better decisions or create an advantageous life.

The author says that he also understands the real purpose of people wanting to gain knowledge. You want to make better decisions, have more money and influence, and create a life where you don't have to worry about survival. However, memorizing a lot of facts is not the most effective way to do this.

"Piling up memorized facts is the most inefficient way to get there."

2. Learning is not an input but an output process toward a goal

Most people think of learning as a process of absorbing content. So I keep collecting books, lectures, flashcards, spaced repetition methods, etc., and try to cram as much material into my head as possible.

However, the author explains that learning is actually an output-oriented process. This means that when trying to create something or achieve a goal, the input required for the process naturally becomes important and memorable.

To explain this principle, the article introduces the concept of cybernetics. Cybernetics comes from the Greek word meaning 'one who steers a ship' or 'helmsman.' A coxswain is not a person who sets the direction of the ship once and then leaves it at that. Continuously check the wind, waves, current location, and direction of travel, and adjust the direction if it deviates from the target path.

In other words, learning and growth are achieved through the following feedback system.

1. Target signal: Determines the state the system wants to reach.
2. Sensing and Recognition: Identify your current state.
3. Comparison of differences: Check the gap, or error, between the goal and the current state.
4. Action and Coordination: Take action to close the gap.

The thermostat, which turns on the heating when the temperature drops, and the pancreas, which secretes insulin when blood sugar rises, work on the same principle.

The same goes for learning. Only when you have a goal can you feel the difference between your current state and your goal, and that difference becomes a filter that tells you what you need to learn. When a filter is created, unimportant information is filtered out, and only the information you actually need comes into view. As a result, the relevance of information increases, and highly relevant content is better remembered.

"Goals create error signals, error signals create filters, filters create relevance, and relevance creates memory."

Conversely, without a goal, negative feedback doesn't work. For example, if you don't have a serious goal of improving your health, you won't see it as a problem if you drink all night and fail to exercise the next day. This is because it is not connected to your goals.

3. You must break away from the goals set by others and set your own direction.

Without realizing it, people are conditioned to go to school, get a job, and have a stable job as their goals in life. Then you see only the knowledge and opportunities necessary for that goal.

For example, someone who believes that going to work is the only path to success may not be able to recognize new opportunities or ways to make money outside of work. This is because the brain automatically filters out information that does not match its goals.

The author compares such people to puppets who follow the ideals set by others. Rather than controlling your own life, you are simply following the path set by society.

On the other hand, if you clearly know what kind of life you do not want and continue to develop the life you want in the future, things will change. You can recognize the moment when your current direction is out of sync with your future vision, and you can change your direction and learn what you need.

To achieve this, the author advises to first immerse yourself in a meaningful goal to the point of obsession. The idea is to calmly imagine where your life will go if you continue your current actions, and if you don't like the results, use those feelings as energy for change.

"Burn that ship. Change your life."

The author believes that sometimes extreme and clear changes can be more effective than gradually changing small habits. This is because strong determination can change the way the brain works and increase neuroplasticity, the ability to learn and adapt to new things.

4. Start a project first rather than trying to learn

The second step is, paradoxically, "Don't start learning"**.

According to the author, the life you want is at the end of the process of completing several meaningful projects. Body, mind, relationships, and finances can all be viewed as one project. A project is a work with structured goals and intermediate steps.

When you start a project, you naturally decide what to learn. There is no need to learn information right now that is not directly related to the project. Since there is no reason to use it right away, it is not remembered.

"If you want to learn something new, don't start with learning, start with the first action toward your goal."

This principle shows the difference between random collection of general knowledge and specific problem-solving learning.

When learning After Effects

If you want to learn After Effects, you don't need to watch a lecture that covers all the program's features from beginning to end. First, you must decide on the specific appearance of the video or animation you want to create.

Then, start the project with your current knowledge, and if you get stuck, look for a tutorial that is most similar to the result you want to create. You may not need most of the tutorial, but you may find one little trick that will get you moving forward with your project right now. After applying the technique, repeat the process to solve the next problem.

As you work on multiple projects like this, your skills build up, and the next task becomes easier.

When learning a musical instrument

If you want to learn guitar, it's better to pick one song you want to play instead of studying all of music theory first. Learn the first chord of the song, learn the next chord, and learn guitar tuning or playing tips when necessary.

After completing a few songs, you will understand the basic structure and eventually be able to create simple songs of your own. The author claims that this is the real way to learn.

5. The second brain is not useless, but it is being misused.

The author says that using Roam Research has changed his writing significantly, allowing him to gather powerful ideas and use them when writing. He explains that he later created a tool called Kortex, which evolved into the current Eden.

So he is not saying that second brains or knowledge management systems are useless. The problem is that many people collect notes and bookmarks without actually using them.

"I'm not saying the second brain is useless. I just think it's being misused."

People save notes, bookmark links, and categorize materials, but don't revisit them later. At the same time, they mistakenly believe that they are learning. From the writer's perspective, time that could have been spent actually working on a project or creating something was spent organizing notes.

In the past, there was no software sold under the name 'Second Brain' like there is today. Instead, many writers and thinkers used the commonplace book. The common notebook was a personal knowledge notebook where you recorded what you read or thought about.

• Marcus Aurelius' 『Meditations』 was not originally a book written for publication, but was closer to a personal notebook in which he recorded the notes he left to himself and his digested philosophy.
• Leonardo da Vinci wrote thousands of pages of sketches, observations, questions, and ideas he got from others.
• Mark Twain, H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Montaigne, and Rick Rubin each had similar recording systems.

However, there are important differences between them and the typical modern second brain user.

"For them, a collection of ideas was fuel for creativity."

Their records led to outcomes such as inventions, writing, and music. It has value because it is not simply collected and stored, but used for actual creation.

As Seneca said, you must collect pollen from various flowers and digest it within your body to make honey. In modern expression, it means "Steal like an artist". Rather than simply copying other people's ideas, you should transform ideas from various sources into your own perspectives and creations.

The author believes that the reason writers feel like they have no writing skills is because they do not have a repository of ideas. He says the writing he writes also comes from articles, videos, social media posts, random thoughts, and highlights he saved in the past.

6. Two ways to create a digital common ground

The author explains that in order for ideas to accumulate and not disappear, a system is needed to retrieve stored knowledge when needed.

What is especially important is not a simple keyword search, but the ability to find ideas based on meaning and context. This is because creativity often comes from making new connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, rather than finding materials that already contain the same word.

The article presents two methods.

Method 1. Combining Obsidian and Claude

This method stores knowledge in Obsidian and organizes and searches it using Claude. The basic setup process suggested by the author is as follows.

1. Download Obsidian and Claude.
2. In Claude Code or Claude Cowork, designate the Obsidian library folder as the work folder.
3. When you save an idea, create a function to create a note in the inbox folder with a title.
4. As you review your inbox, create the ability to add tags, move them to appropriate folders, and link them to other related notes.
5. Define the tags and classification system that Claude will use.

This allows you to make requests like this:

"Find everything in my archive related to the topic I'm writing about."

However, this method has the burden of requiring users to manage the structure and system themselves.

Method 2. Use self-organizing tools

Tools like MyMind or Eden store links and ideas in a library, automatically tagging, categorizing, and placing them in a semantic space.

In the case of Eden, if you save a Substack article or YouTube video, you can convert the content into text and highlight important parts. It is explained that it also provides the ability to import Kindle's existing highlights.

While Obsidian and Claude find 'related content', Eden finds 'close content' based on the semantic distance between ideas. Because each idea is expressed with about 1,500 numbers and arranged like a kind of GPS coordinates, you can find ideas that are close in meaning even if the words do not overlap at all.

The advantage of this method is that the user does not have to organize all the notes manually. There is no need to manually manage a separate vector database, run embedding APIs and indexing scripts, or do the complex work of reconnecting every time a file changes.

At the beginning of the article, it is advertised that new Library, Reader, and Highlights features have been added to Eden. This means that creators can research popular content and trends, build an interconnected library of articles, links, and ideas, and search based on meaning rather than keywords.

7. Don't store all the information, but select the ideas that represent your ideal thinking.

Just because you have a system in place to store and find ideas doesn't mean you should throw everything in there haphazardly. In an era where AI can create almost anything, the author says selection is more important than collection.

Rather than hoarding an endless stream of information like a social media feed, you should select the ideas that inspire you and shape your worldview.

These days, people don't simply follow people with a lot of information. This is because anyone can easily obtain information using search engines and AI. People follow specific creators to see things like:

• That person's unique perspective
• Opinions and interpretations
• Character and story
• A way of understanding the world
• A way of thinking that cannot be easily replaced by others

The author says that when he talks about the nature of reality, perspectives he finds useful, such as history, integrated theory, and spiral dynamics, naturally come to mind. They are not just information, but have become your own lens through which to interpret the world.

So what you need to save are not just interesting data, but ideas that best represent the mindset of the person you want to become.

To achieve this, the following attitude is required:

• Read more books and follow your curiosity.
• Reduces meaningless dopaminergic scrolling.
• Select and read writers and thinkers who consistently produce good ideas.
• If you are a creator, you accept research as the core of your work.
• Synthesize research into a form that is helpful to others.

"For creators, research is 80% of the job. The rest is synthesizing that research into something useful for others."

8. Build an ideal way of thinking through creation

Once you've created a system for storing and retrieving ideas, it's time to apply it to actual projects. Otherwise, knowledge remains as material that will not be used again.

The author says that the reason we want to improve our memory and intellectual ability is not simply to look smart. Our lives change depending on the decisions we make, and the ability to accurately express our values ​​also has a positive impact on our lives.

Although he cannot decide for you what to create, he introduces specific processes that can be applied to writing or content creation.

Step 1: Choose a topic

A good topic lies at the intersection of performance and interest.

• Performance: A topic that has already attracted people's attention and received a good response.
• Interest: A topic you are curious about and want to explore further

You can find proven topics by saving posts that have received positive responses on social media, or by looking for content that has performed exceptionally well in a specific field.

Then, connect the topic you want to write about with a topic you are already good at. This way, you'll increase the likelihood that people will be interested while still covering something you really want to explore.

The author explains that the current article is based on a topic that has gone viral several times, such as "How to remember everything you read," but by applying his opposite perspective, "Don't try to remember everything."

Step 2: Pour out your thoughts, create an outline, and write a draft

You should not try to write a sentence right from the beginning. A writer is not someone who leaves a page open and expects ideas to flow naturally and in order.

First, do a brain dump where you write down all the thoughts that come to mind regarding the topic. At this time, you can also review and add any saved notes, links, and ideas.

Then organize it into a rough story structure.

"Problem → Insight → Solution"

Once the outline is complete, keep the ideas and materials open next to you and connect them one by one to create the actual draft. In this process, the knowledge repository becomes not just a storage box, but a warehouse of materials that compose writing.

Step 3: Use AI to reduce friction, not do the writing for you

The author emphasizes that he is not saying that AI should not be used at all. What he means by "don't use AI for writing" is don't let AI express your beliefs and opinions on your behalf.

If the purpose is to convey pure information, the explanation provided by AI can be used as is. For example, since an objective explanation of a theory or concept is not much different from the search results, there is no need to spend excessive time rewriting it in your own style.

However, you must consider expressing your thoughts, values, and beliefs yourself. It is useful to use AI to:

• Receive several suggestions for writing structures that fit your ideas
• Receive a choice in which direction to develop the article next
• Investigate concepts you don't understand
• Receive feedback like a lecturer, mentor, or editor
• Reduce friction in areas that get stuck in the writing process

Conversely, the core arguments and viewpoints of an article should not be left to AI. You must ultimately decide what to present.

"You have a brain, after all. You are ultimately the one who decides what to publish."

If the text created by AI does not properly reflect your values ​​and thoughts, you should revise it until it becomes your own voice.

9. Summary of core principles

The argument of this article can be summarized as follows.

1. Don't try to remember everything.

   • Important things are remembered naturally, and memorizing everything is not the purpose of learning.

2. Create clear and meaningful goals.

   • Having a goal creates a filter to determine what is important.

3. Start projects before learning.

   • Learn in detail only the knowledge necessary in the process of solving real problems.

4. Pursuing specific knowledge rather than general knowledge.

   • Knowledge that matches your goals, strengths, and interests becomes competitiveness.

5. Use notes as fuel for creativity.

   • Knowledge that is only stored has no value, and becomes meaningful when it is converted into results.

6. Select ideas that represent your way of thinking.

   • Rather than collecting a lot of information, curate the content that will form your perspective and worldview.

7. Make what you have learned your own through creation.

   • When you think, write, share, and receive external feedback, your ideas become a part of yourself.

8. AI is used as an auxiliary tool, not a replacement for thinking.

   • Use it for structure and research, but directly express core beliefs and perspectives.

Conclusion

The key point the author wants to convey is rather than forcing your memory, create memorable goals and projects first. When the goal is clear, the necessary information comes naturally, and through actual action and creation, knowledge remains for a long time.

In the end, good learning is not about collecting a lot of information, but the process of deciding on the direction of life you want, moving in that direction, and learning what you need. Memos and second brains are also just tools to help with the process, and they only become meaningful when you connect the saved ideas to actual creation and changes in your life.