I Deleted My Second Brain

I don’t think I want a map of everything I’ve ever read. I want a mind free to read what it needs. I want memory that forgets gracefully. I want ideas that resurface not because I indexed them, but because they mattered.

Over the past couple of years I’ve started writing down less and letting go of things I have written down, so it was interesting to read Westenberg talk about deleting it all. I read without a pencil most of the time, knowing that the important bits will stick and I’m OK if I forget things. The ideas that I can’t stop thinking about, that come back to me on a walk or while driving, those are the ones that I’ll pursue and I’m OK with letting go of the rest.