Your Second Brain Can Just Be a Chat
The internet is full of people showing off their intricate Notion setups and linked note systems. But for most of us, the ‘second brain’ doesn’t need to be a PhD project. Sometimes simpler is just… better.
The Second Brain Industrial Complex
Section titled “The Second Brain Industrial Complex”Spend any time in productivity corners of the internet and you’ll encounter the “second brain” concept. The idea is appealing: build a personal knowledge management system that stores everything you learn, connects ideas together, and becomes smarter over time.
In theory, it’s beautiful. In practice, it’s spawned an entire industry of increasingly complex setups. Notion templates with nested databases. Obsidian vaults with plugin ecosystems. Roam Research graphs that look like conspiracy theory boards.
People spend weeks building these systems. They watch tutorials. They tweak and customize. They export and migrate. And somewhere along the way, maintaining the system becomes more work than actually using it.
The Setup Is Not the Point
Section titled “The Setup Is Not the Point”Here’s something nobody talks about: the people with the most elaborate systems often aren’t the most productive. They’re just the most interested in systems.
There’s a difference between productivity and productivity theater. Organizing your tasks isn’t the same as doing your tasks. Building the perfect capture workflow isn’t the same as capturing things. The map is not the territory.
The goal of any “second brain” is simple: get thoughts out of your head, store them somewhere you can find them, and occasionally resurface them when relevant. That’s it. Everything else is optional.
What Most People Actually Need
Section titled “What Most People Actually Need”Strip away the complexity and most people need:
- A fast way to capture thoughts before they disappear
- Some light organization so things don’t become chaos
- The ability to search and find stuff later
- Maybe reminders for time-sensitive items
That’s a pretty short list. You don’t need bi-directional linking. You don’t need tags and nested folders and custom properties. You don’t need a graph view showing how your thoughts connect.
You need a box to put things in and a way to get them back out. The fancy stuff is nice if you’re into it, but it’s not required.
The Anti-System System
Section titled “The Anti-System System”Some of the most effective knowledge workers have embarrassingly simple systems. Warren Buffett famously uses paper and pencil. Many successful writers use plain text files. People who actually build things often have fewer organizational tools than people who write about building things.
There’s wisdom in this. Every hour spent perfecting your system is an hour not spent using it. Every decision about how to categorize something is a decision that could have gone toward actual work.
The best system is one you don’t think about. It’s there when you need it, invisible when you don’t.
Texting Yourself as a Second Brain
Section titled “Texting Yourself as a Second Brain”This might sound like heresy, but: texting yourself is a legitimate second brain strategy.
It’s fast. It’s familiar. It doesn’t require any setup. You capture things when they happen, and they sit in chronological order waiting for you. Is it sophisticated? No. Does it work? For a lot of people, better than the elaborate alternative.
The limitation is when you need more structure — different areas of your life, tasks vs. notes, things that need reminders. That’s when a pure chat falls short.
Finding Your Middle Ground
Section titled “Finding Your Middle Ground”The answer isn’t “go complex” or “stay simple.” It’s finding the minimum viable system for your actual needs.
If you’re happy texting yourself random notes and scrolling back to find them, that might be enough. If you need separate spaces for work and personal stuff, a bit more structure helps. If you need reminders and tasks, you need something that supports that.
But you probably don’t need a graph database. You probably don’t need templates and relations. You probably don’t need to watch a 45-minute YouTube video to understand your notes app.
tetrify is a second brain that doesn't require a PhD
Capture thoughts in a chat, organize into spaces when you want to, and skip the complexity. No account or internet needed.