Blog - Forte Labs

Unspeakable Pain: A Personal Journey Through Psychosomatic Illness

In this blog post, I share a deeply personal journey through an unexplained illness that affected my voice for years. What began as a small scratch in my throat eventually spiraled into debilitating pain and silence, leaving me without answers after visiting dozens of doctors across four countries. It wasn’t until I explored the mind-body connection through the work of Dr. John Sarno and other experts that I finally began to understand the root cause of my suffering.

The 10 Most Transformative Books on Personal Development I’ve Read

I’ve read hundreds of books on productivity and self-improvement over the years. Many of them are filled with vague prescriptions or clichéd advice, but a small number were truly transformative for me. They served as intellectual lighthouses on my journey, helping me understand what was happening to me as I explored my past, my psyche,…

VidCon 2024: 8 Takeaways on How YouTube and the Creator Economy Are Changing

In June 2024, I attended VidCon, the preeminent global conference on YouTube and all things Creator Economy. It was the first large-scale event of its kind I’ve ever been a part of, and it introduced me to many fascinating and surprising trends emerging on the Internet. Here are my top takeaways from the conference that…

How Your Projects Shape Who You Are

I’ve long believed that our choices about which projects to take on are among the most important decisions we make, and now I have evidence to back it up. In an article on the TED blog and a paper called The Methodology of Personal Projects Analysis, research professor Brian R. Little examines how the pursuit…

Did My Bestselling Book Turn Out to Be a Financial Failure?

It’s now been two years since the release of my book Building a Second Brain. It has already reached and surpassed every goal I had for it, with 250,000 worldwide sales and many new countries and languages still to come. On this occasion, however, I want to answer a longstanding question that is only just starting to come into focus: Has the success of this book grown the underlying business?

Rewriting My Financial Story: How I Healed My Relationship with Money

I recently attended a 3-day intensive program designed to shift people’s attitudes toward money, hosted by executive coach and teacher Joe Hudson and his team. I didn’t really know what I was in for. I went mostly to accompany my wife Lauren, who said she needed a new perspective on money and thought I might…

Digital Attention Spans: AI as a Source of Infinite Patience

I recently came across a Substack post by Venkatesh Rao called Oozy Intelligence in Slow Time that was one of the most insightful I’ve ever read for understanding the nature of Artificial Intelligence. We tend to think of Artificial Intelligence as being in an arms race with Human Intelligence. Which one is smarter? When will…

The Creative Power of Procrastination

Creativity is often described as an elusive, even magical, phenomenon. In reality, it’s a skill – and there are many ways to prime your brain to be more creative. Surprisingly, one of them is procrastination. We generally think of procrastination as a bad habit, a mental hurdle we need to overcome. But research shows that…

New Book, New Strategy: The 7 Main Things I’m Doing Differently for the Annual Review Book

I recently announced my next major book project: a book on how to complete a year-end life review as a ritual for self-reflection and growth. I’ve had an annual review practice in some form since 2008, and I can’t think of anything else that has more dramatically impacted my life in that time. I can’t…

Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Need for Second Brains Entirely?

Like so many others, I’ve spent the past year exploring and experimenting with emerging AI tools. Throughout that time, there has been one question I’ve been trying to answer: Will AI replace the need for Second Brains entirely? A lot of people seem to think so, and I admittedly have a self-interested motivation: to decide…

Launching Building a Second Brain in Brazil and Mexico

One of the aspects of writing a book I most looked forward to was releasing it in my family’s country of origin, Brazil. I’d spent years daydreaming about what that would feel like, returning to my homeland bearing the gift of hard-won knowledge to share with the people who had given me so much. Criando Um Segundo Cérebro came out in July 2023, about a year after the US release, and I decided to travel to Brazil the following month for a press tour to promote it.

Introducing the Second Brain Summit

I’m unbelievably proud to announce the inaugural Second Brain Summit, taking place October 3–4, 2024, in Los Angeles, California! We’re gathering the most dedicated experts and practitioners of personal knowledge management in the world’s creative capital with three goals in mind: To meet other like-minded people and see that we’re not alone To celebrate the…

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