The Forte Labs Blog
Dedicated to Exploring the Frontier of Modern Productivity
How to Thrive in a World of Uncertainty
The future has become so uncertain that goals are now obsolete. The stable, predictable world we grew up in is gone. The idea that you can make a “5-year plan” and execute it one step at a time is laughable. No one knows what’s going to happen in the next 5 years or even the next 5 weeks. Goal-setting was once central to our conception of what it means to navigate the future successfully. But goals can no longer serve as guides to an unfolding future that we have so little control over.
How To Build A Second Brain | Anthony Pompliano
It was a pleasure to sit down with Pomp to chat about all things Second Brain. We dove deep into a host of topics, including: Are we consuming too much? How many hours do I read a day? How to create projects from your notes Why removing risk from your life is wrong Do our…
How Favorite Problems Evolve: A Case Study
Your favorite problems will likely stay consistent over many years, but that doesn’t mean they can’t evolve. I’ve found that in most cases I never actually arrive at a final, definitive answer to a question. Instead, the question changes as I learn more. Let me illustrate this with a case study. I’ll show you how one of my favorite problems – teaching – changed over time as my life went through different stages.
Amplify Your Thinking Ability With Open Questions
Writing down your open questions is an act of “externalization” – you are taking passing curiosities and interests from your mind and externalizing them into the outside world. That is a first step to making those questions active generators of possibility in your life, but certainly not the last. Once they exist in written form, such as in your notes, you now have a place to begin collecting potential answers to those questions without having to memorize them.
How to Generate Your Own Favorite Problems: A 4-Step Guide
In this step-by-step guide, I’ll share the exact process I use for myself and my students to formulate the most powerful open-ended questions possible. In Part 1, I introduced “favorite problems” as a lens through which to filter the immense amount of information we are exposed to every day. A favorite problem is an open-ended question you use to prime your subconscious to notice potential answers in the information you’re consuming.
12 Favorite Problems: How to Spark Genius With the Power of Open Questions
Richard Phillips Feynman was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. Born on the outskirts of New York City in 1918, his work in theoretical physics radically reshaped our understanding of the universe we live in at the most fundamental subatomic levels. When it was all said and done, his biography would simply and fittingly be titled Genius.
Everything Is Information | What Is Money Show with Robert Breedlove
I talked to Robert Breedlove on the What is Money Show about Building a Second Brain, email, PARA, and more. We covered… What is “Inbox Zero” and is it something you want to aspire to How to organize your email with the “executive approach” How I manage my daily calendar and what tool I use…
Growing a Sustainable Business & Living a Life of Service | The Build In Public Podcast
On the Build in Public podcast, KP and I dove into my journey as an entrepreneur, course creator, author, and dad. We covered… Why and how I “build” my book in public How being a dad influences my business decisions Why hiring people is a lot like having kids What ambition really means When can you…
The 1-Percent Rule for Capturing the Best Information | Smart Passive Income Podcast
I joined Pat Flynn on the Smart Passive Income podcast to chat about everything Building a Second Brain. We covered… What is a Second Brain and how to use it How to find the right notetaking app for your needs and get started with it in the first 30 days How the CODE system can help…
Why Building a Second Brain Is a Proven Method | Transform Your Workplace Podcast
I joined Brandon Laws on the Transform Your Workplace Podcast to discuss how to start your Second Brain, why it’s important to express information, and how a Second Brain can benefit you and your life. We also dived into: The bottleneck of civilization How to capture information Why beautiful notetaking is not the best way A…
The Future of Personal Knowledge Management | Timothy Kenny Podcast
I joined Timothy Kenny for the second time on his podcast. It was great to chat about Building a Second Brain and discuss things I don’t often talk about. We dived into: Why a Second Brain is a fusion of creativity and analytical thinking The difference between logic and emotion What it means to be “trauma…
Topics I Write About Include
- Practical tools for making your day-to-day work more productive
- Summaries of the most important books for understanding modern knowledge work
- The nature of human attention and the flow state
- How to build a “Second Brain” to organize your ideas outside your head
- Insights from cognitive science we can use to change our behavior
- Practical techniques to enhance creativity
- How to use design principles to create workflows that support our performance
- Modern education and how to best take advantage of online learning resources
- Emotional intelligence and self-awareness as learnable skills
- The role of entrepreneurship and self-employment in the future of work
- Using science-fiction and futurism to predict the future
- New perspectives on traditional productivity topics like goals, habits, and time management
- How to effectively take notes and organize information to enhance your learning
- New ways of thinking about marketing in the digital era
- What personal growth looks like without mysticism and religion
- Project management and how it is evolving alongside new technology
- Deep trends in technology and culture and how they impact business strategy
- The power of curation and writing in carving out a niche and becoming a thought leader
- Exploring the Theory of Constraints and how it applies to knowledge work
- and much more…
Explore Our Articles By Category
Series
- Choosing your Second Brain apps
- The Making of a Bestseller: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Creation of Building a Second Brain
- Building a Second Brain Book Updates
- The Complete Guide to Landing a Book Deal
- Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for Designing Discoverable Notes
- Just-In-Time Project Management: A Digital-First Framework for Modern Projects
- The Rise of the Full-Stack Freelancer: A Portfolio Approach to Modern Work
- The Theory of Constraints 101: Applying Principles of Flow to Knowledge Work
- MESA: Creating the Ideal Work Experience
- The Untethered Soul: Roadmap of My Personal Growth
- A Quest for Self-Knowledge: From Self-Help to Somatic Healing
- 12 Favorite Problems
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