Is Obsidian the True Second Brain? ft. Nick Milo

Obsidian expert Nick Milo joins Tiago for a dive deep into the art of using notes to transform ideas into tangible creative projects. Watch them put Obsidian to the test, tackling a real-life project: producing a Building a Second Brain TV show.

This video is perfect for those at the frontier of novelty - be it starting a new job, learning a new skill, or exploring new places. Find out how Obsidian can act as your digital workbench, helping you navigate and make sense of new information.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
01:28 Using Obsidian to tackle a concrete project
04:51 Importing notes into Obsidian
06:31 Creating a map of content
15:57 Editing the map of content
18:03 Creating evergreen notes
22:01 Adding backlinks
26:58 Recap and closing thoughts

-----------------------
Building a Second Brain is the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.

We're on a mission to help you increase your productivity, and lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress.

🔎 WHAT'S YOUR PRODUCTIVITY POTENTIAL?
Take our Productivity Pulse Check to evaluate your daily habits and find out where you can make improvements.

🧠 HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR SECOND BRAIN

📬 JOIN THE FORTE LABS NEWSLETTER
Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential.

🐥 FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS
Always get the latest updates and insights around Building a Second Brain.

[linkingyourthinking]

This was so much fun nerding out in Obsidian. The linking, the clustering, the LIVE mapmaking! What a joy to see the process of moving a project into a linked-based environment and seeing what resulted.

[LucasAlexK]

Please do more videos of live editing / live thinking !!!
It's great to see the thought process instead of only the final setup - the questions and doubts are so insightful

[andricheli]

Evernote was great at one period of time, but it can't even come close to touching what Obsidian can do. The great thing about Obsidian is that it can be as simple or as complex as you need. And those needs can change over time but you can still keep using the same application. I work in research and Obsidian is a powerhouse. Dataview; backlinks and unmentioned links; canvas; markdown all make Obsidian so much more powerful than Evernote. In addition, Obsidian gives you true ownership of your data/information and really good portability. I love that I can just take my Obsidian vault folder and move it into another app. I have been keeping notes in Markdown for over a decade now (first in Bear, then Craft, now Obsidian) and this longitudinal information has been invaluable in my work.

[stoictrader]

One of the best videos about creating a 2nd brain with Obsidian I've watched, I've learn a lot with you guys here. The idea of creating a map of content from scratch along with the explanations step by step with an expert and a person that is learning how to do it was simply amazing

[snicket]

Really like this kind of "guided experiment" for tools. This is the most productive for me!

To give an illustration, it is like the difference between a video of "what is a hammer" and a video of you creating a table with the hammer.

Really like your content!

[mintchip]

Thank you both for this clear beginning step in creating links in place of folders. I see a series using this format for Tiago's evolution while implementing Obsidian for various aspects of his professional and personal life. And Nick continues to light the way for a deeper practice of using the vast array of plugins available. I'm waiting...

[profetik]

This format is very risky for a show - which essentially says, both are truly invested and care about uncovering the methods in organizing thoughts, content, ideas, etc. Thank you - proof that you can "learn in real time" and be okay with exposing your first reactions to learning something new. I felt like I was in the room hanging with you both learning as you go. Fantastic format/content. Thank you.

[guilhermwn]

I really liked this video, the experience was incredible, showing someone who really didn't know anything about working using obsidian, explaining the ideas and showing the step by step. I use Obsidian daily for my studies and notes, but with this video I was able to get a new perspective on how to organize projects and ideas efficiently with an extremely practical example. I fully support more videos like this, whether using Obsidian or any tool, just objectively exploring a project was satisfying to watch.

[danielmmckeown]

What a great video. It’s cool seeing both Tiago and Nick’s mindsets in action here.

[marcio]

Thanks Tiago and Nick for sharing this video! It was really insightful! I've been using Tiago's Para method in Obsidian for a couple of months now, and this video gave me a lot of new ideas!

[Osomex]

I am impressed by the level of GENEROSITY of both sharing what they know and humbly learning from one another. The content of course is good. But I am struck by how much willingness to teach us they both put into this.

[ChipWhitehouse]

THIS is such a helpful video! I love watching you go through the process like this, I learn so much better this way! More videos like this please?! MORE OBSIDIAN CONTENT!!! I just learned about Obsidian a few days ago & it feels like something I’ve been looking for my entire life. Almost finished reading your “BASB” book & Obsidian really does feel like the TRUE Second Brain to me. More Obsidian & more Nick Milo collabs please 👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌💖💕

[robleon]

The map of content. Mind blown! 🤯 and Nick is just getting started.

[vinimanara]

Eu estava lendo o livro (li em 3 dias) e começando no Obsidian...e olha o que vem de presente! Tks!

[JStack]

The visual representation of all the nodes can be fun and informative as well. I was feeling kinda down about my productivity lately but also hadn't gone to the view mode in months. I just popped it open to see if I had some glaring missed connections, and I had added thousands of small notes and tens of ideas that still were pertinent. And having them appear by date created showed that what I thought was an unproductive patch, still had lots of productivity.

[Mrnai_]

Such a great video! Very calm, detailed and positive. Live walkthrough and perspective. Very inspiring and informative

[StevenMichels]

It’d be easier to use note properties and the dataview plugin, rather than having to maintain all of the MOCs.

[DavidROliver]

I loved the last 2 years on Obsidian but have since migrated because I found there is a plateau in how effective you are when you have a large number of files and folders; it was this realisation that made me decide I needed to move to another tool that released me for this restriction, where I could completely live on the Graph.

Obsidian is a great tool to start with and maybe the only Note-Making tool you ever need however, please recognise that a tool has to work for you and not the other way around.

[simplyniels]

Even knowing the Linking your thinking channel I only understood the idea of creating MoC by watching your conversation and Demo! Very helpful, thank you! Is there a reason you didn’t „fly“ through the Graph of this new vault? I remember this one video by Nick doing this and developing connections between notes in this visual exploring and linking way …

[wraith]

I've been hearing a lot about Obsidian but I switched from Evernote to notion a while back and that was quite a move. I would love to see a comparison of notion vs obsidian video. Honestly I feel like switching apps again might kill me.