One of the most influential yet under-appreciated parts of how large language models work is something most people never see: the system prompt. This is the block of hidden instructions given to the model before it ever receives your input. It establishes the model’s tone, boundaries, and behaviors. You can’t change the system prompt, but…
When it comes to storing and organizing digital information, photos are in many ways the elephant in the room. They’re highly valued and meaningful, yet require a lot of storage space. For many people, photos are probably the earliest experience of having too much digital content to manage. I first felt this sensation of information…
The PARA Method is a simple, intuitive system for organizing all information in your life so you can find them when you need them. The first step to using PARA is to apply it to your notetaking app of choice. This is much easier when you see examples of how it’s done. So, we’ve curated useful YouTube…
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
How do you establish the habits of personal knowledge management in your life? Here are twelve practical steps you can take right now to get your Second Brain started: 1. Decide what you want to capture Think about your Second Brain as an intimate commonplace book or journal. What do you most want to capture,…
From the Dawn of Email to the Rise of Personal Dashboards In the beginning… was email. The very first email was sent 50 years ago, in the spring of 1971. The incredible spread of email since then unleashed an unimaginable torrent of information into our everyday lives. And to this day, we still haven’t recovered….
I recently taught this workshop on How to Take Digital Notes, hosted by Teachable, the online learning platform I use for my courses. This is an introductory workshop for people just getting into this crazy world of Second Brains, personal knowledge management, and digital notetaking. I presented some of the core concepts you’ll need to know…
By Praxis Fellow FRANK ANAYA Every day you journal, you’re bringing fresh soil into your idea garden. But if you never look back at what you wrote, you’re losing the opportunity to till that soil, to work it and see what grows. Experts like Tim Ferriss and Julia Cameron say that the process of journaling is…
Over the last year I filmed a short documentary on the life and artistic career of my father Wayne Forte. He has been one of the strongest influences on me, not only as a father, but as a prolific lifelong artist. I wanted a way to share his remarkable story with a wider public, to…
This guide details the exact gear I used to make my personal documentary film Wayne Lacson Forte: On My Way To Me. For the full story behind the film, read here. My priorities were: The most minimal and affordable gear possible, since this was an experiment Products that were highly adaptable and could be repurposed for other…
Everything you’ve done up to this point has been preparation for this singular moment: the launch of your book.
An incredible amount of time, energy, money, and attention has been invested by many different people. The foundation has been laid for sales of your book to reach thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of
After all this work and finally signing a deal…it’s time to do the thing you’ve been asking for, and write the book.
Leave plenty of time to do this — more than you think you need. And then, add additional time for unexpected rewrites, reviewer feedback, finding photos and illustrations, securing permissions, doing followup research,