For years, I had been building what technologists and lifehackers call a “second brain.” The premise: capture everything, forget nothing. Store your thinking in a networked archive so vast and recursive it can answer questions before you know to ask them. It promises clarity. Control. Mental leverage.
But over time, my second brain became a mausoleum. A dusty collection of old selves, old interests, old compulsions, piled on top of each other like geological strata. Instead of accelerating my thinking, it began to replace it. Instead of aiding memory, it froze my curiosity into static categories.
And so…
Well, I killed the whole thing.
Understood. I had my first PC in 1990, always kept some notes.txt and info.txt over the years, from 5¼ floppy to 3½ floppy to HDD to SDD, for more than 30 years, a collection of texts, pictures, notes of interest, hobbies, research I did on stuffs etc.
I deleted everything a few years ago, in a way, it was useless I never needed it.
Great read, thanks.
