Information Overload? Grow and Manage Your Knowledge with "Second Brain" System

DDVC #47: Where venture capital and data intersect. Every week.

👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my weekly newsletter, Data-driven VC. Every Thursday I cover hands-on insights into data-driven innovation in venture capital and connect the dots between the latest research, reviews of novel tools and datasets, deep dives into various VC tech stacks, interviews with experts, and the implications for all stakeholders. Follow along to understand how data-driven approaches change the game, why it matters, and what it means for you.

Current subscribers: 12,110, +250 since last week

---

Brought to you by VESTBERRY - A tool designed specifically for data-driven VCs

Request your FREE demo account to explore the potential of establishing live data links from over 300 diverse data sources, apps, and platforms, paving the way for distinctive VC insights.

---

In today's digital era, we find ourselves immersed in an unprecedented flood of information. With the rise of the internet, social media, podcasts, newsletters, and advanced communication technologies, we have access to an overwhelming abundance of data at our fingertips. It holds the potential for incredible knowledge and connectivity, but also presents a significant challenge: information overload.

In the context of last week’s introductory statement “Information is the currency of venture capital investors”, growing and managing knowledge is one of the key challenges (and most exciting drivers) as an investor. Attention is limited, so we need to maximize knowledge extracted per time, i.e. the ROI of knowledge workers.

Mastering this crucial challenge requires the right systems, otherwise, you won’t materialize your full potential and will be left far behind by your peers. Today, I’ll share a highly effective knowledge management system that every knowledge worker should know: Second Brain - a systematic approach to save and recall the ideas, insights, and connections we accumulate.

What is a second brain?

The concept of a Second Brain was popularized by Tiago Forte, a renowned productivity expert (book here). In essence, a Second Brain is an external, centralized, digital repository for the things you learn and the resources from which they come. It’s a system of knowledge that ultimately expands our memory and our intellect using modern tools of technology.

Why VC Investors Need a Second Brain

VC investors deal with vast amounts of information daily, including emails, pitchdecks, research articles, meetings, calls, podcasts, newsletters, LinkedIn posts, funding announcements, and a lot more. Properly processing and storing relevant information is key to staying on top of things, yet relying on conventional note-taking and bookmarking methods can be limiting and hinder the ability to access and synthesize information quickly.

Create your own Second Braind

Thankfully, there exists a simple framework to create an effective Second Brain via the CODE framework - Capture, Organize, Distil, and Express.

1) CAPTURE the ideas and content worth storing in the most efficient way. If you prefer to use multiple tools, then know which system is for what purpose (private, work, etc.) to keep everything in order. I personally use the following tools:

• Note-taking via Apple Notes to store ad-hoc ideas and private notes (even offline) and Notion for all work-related notes. I also use Fathom (for Zoom) or the live transcription feature in Teams to transcribe calls, see example part #1 below.

• Save to Notion to store passages or full web pages to Notion. It also works for social media content, newsletters, research papers, etc. - essentially for every piece of online content that has an individual URL.

• Social media platforms allow you to bookmark or “star” something as a favorite and get back to it later. Start using these important features to curate your content feed.

2) ORGANIZE for easier searchability. I follow a simple rule: One note per item. For example, I create one note per company I talk to, then add segments for each person and call or meeting notes within the respective people paragraphs. In case you store information across different tools (like I do with Apple Notes and Notion), I advise merging them into one place (for me in Notion) and also pushing them into your team’s system of record/CRM system right away, either via copy & paste or via simple automation tools like Zapier.

Once all content flows together in one place, it won’t take long for you to become overwhelmed by an exploding amount of information. Although it’s tempting to create the most sophisticated folder structure from the get-go, trust me and start simple. Over time, it will naturally grow into the most effective structure. I’ve personally evolved and iterated my Second Brain in Notion for 5+ years.

If you’re just starting out, you might want to create a simple folder structure like “internal, external, portfolio companies, newsletters, HR, events, etc.”. Another framework I like a lot is the PARA framework which allows you to organize according to actionability with three simple questions.

• Projects: short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind

• Areas: Long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time 

• Resources: Topics or interests that may be useful in the future

• Archive: Inactive items from the other 3 categories