I was searching for FOSS note-taking apps that support markdown editing to make formatting easier. That’s because I’ve been using Standard Notes, but it’s really buggy and clunky (I appreciate any recommendations, by the way). While searching, I came across the term “second brain.”

I’ve heard this term years ago in several productivity and minimalism videos. In those videos, everything always looked super organized — endless connections, lists, calendars, and references — with notes cross-linked to the point of making the whole thing even more complex.

Personally, I’ve never been able to organize myself in that way. I couldn’t manage to create references to everything I read or planned to read, so I had to settle for just marking things down or referencing them in texts or stories I wanted to write. It simply didn’t work for me. It felt like too much work for too little return. Privacy concerns and the excessive use of AI were also big reasons why I stayed far away from these kinds of solutions.

The video I linked here brings an important reflection for anyone still using the “second brain” system:

When was the last time you actually produced something with the notes you created?

In the end, are you an accumulator or a producer? Are you actively creating something that strengthens your own wisdom, or are you just collecting fragments of references in digital form?