Justin Finkelstein

Internal Auditor

I’ve got some big ambitious goals….I feel like I’ve got the tools to be able to take on longer-term projects and have them persist over a long period of time, and allow for that incubation period, and allow for serendipity, allow for ideas to marinate, allow different perspective… opening up that wheel and making progress every single day, has been very fulfilling and really just a life-changer as far as overall happiness goes.

Wess Daniels

University lecturer, administrator, and author

I cannot overstate how much BASB has helped me. I am an administrator and faculty member in higher-education and am constantly trying to manage multiple streams of input, while managing many projects, staffing, budgets, my own research and ideas, and more. Until I took this course, I was often literally holding my breath, hoping to remember all the moving parts, hoping to not show up and be too unprepared, and dreaming of the day when I would have more time to work on my own projects. Now, within the span of 6 weeks, I feel completely different not just about my projects and creative output but about all of my work. There is a clear delineation for me before and after I started this course. It is just what I needed. And just in time. The class has not only been a lifeline for me, it has been spiritually and emotionally rewarding. I don’t feel defeated or like I’m always playing catch-up. I know what I need to do and I have the tools and ideas to accomplish it well.

Luke Walquist

Head of Sales & Customer Experience

BASB taught me how to think more critically about my knowledge management approach and has given me the tools to overcome my biggest hurdles that were preventing me from getting more out of my previous PKM system.

Gregory Williamson

Having an established second brain system has allowed me to become more productive, creative, and valuable than I have ever been before. It has not only allowed me to optimally manage my workflow but has allowed me to become a resource to others. Now, when I’m in conversation with others, or when people have questions on a specific topic, I typically have a note or two in my second brain that I can use to add to the conversation or answer someone’s question.

Kristy Carlson

Director, Education Research & Scholarship Development, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska

I was overwhelmed with the amount of information from a wide variety of sources (i.e., email, teams, social media, text messages). Building a Second Brain allows me to manage the information through organization and storage it so it's easy to access when needed.

Jimmy Conway

Organizational improvement consultant

Imagine being able to recall all the really interesting things you’ve ever read, seen and done. How good would that be? Any problem, any piece of creative work boosted with a library of relevant material right there at your fingertips. That’s powerful. Well, this course helps you do just that. It’s fast-paced, expertly taught and full of examples, exercises and discussion that help you organise all the really interesting, useful stuff in your life into a system that allows easy access. I wish I had done it years ago.

Farhan Fyzee

After taking BASB, I'm less overwhelmed by information overload. I now know that nothing is too big to tackle.

Neil Thanedar

@NeilThanedar

@fortelabs That's why I loved taking both Building a Second Brain and Write of Passage. I now have 5,264 notes and 89 posts, and am organizing many of my best ideas into my first book! Took both classes in 2019! Thank you! I've met so many awesome people through my posts!

Yuri Burchenya

Co-founder at GetFoundXL

This course completely re-organized the way I consume content. It changed what I pay attention to and why.

Savera Tasawar

Project Manager

After taking the BASB course, everything has changed for me. It really helped with note readability. I used to capture a lot and some of the notes weren't easy to understand. The concept of progressive summarization and intermediate packages has helped with this immensely. This system is GENIUS and I'm so excited to read the book!

Mia Lang​

My second brain is one of the best resources I have because it gives me the freedom to easily consume information, organize it, and create a blog post…It taught me a fantastic way to simultaneously learn more, and archive information to be able to fully focus on one thing, all while keeping the information I have already collected readily available.

Barjes R. Angulo

Financial Planner

Building a Second Brain is life-changing. I feel more organized. I know where everything goes. It's cleared up my information hoarding and replaced it with buckets for distilled work. One example of how it's helped me: I had a meeting with a team about an upcoming presentation. I discussed my thoughts, recorded them during the meeting, distilled the content, pushed it to my VA. She drafted a presentation that took 15 minutes to edit! BAM!

Chris Mazder

Olympic athlete

I am finding this course extremely beneficial and have actively taken a step back from my current projects to re-evaluate how I pretty much do everything (in a good way!!!). If anything, the course might be moving a little too fast as I am still finding flaws in my own unique approach (based off the teachings) to PKM and trying to address them while we are moving to the next phases of this course. But, I love how all of the information and lectures have remained up so I can always go back if I need help or want to re-visit a certain topic.

Matthew Lecki

General Manager

Building a Second Brain is helping me create mental clarity and focus in a cluttered digital environment. Practically speaking, it's helping me prepare to start a business and train for a new career.

Jayme Del Rosario

Strength and Movement Coach, NTP, Business Owner

Building a Second Brain has given me the tools to have less stress and anxiety. Having a system of finding things means I don't have to switch context and I'm now a producer more than a collector. My tasks now take 1/3 or 1/4 of the time and I'm able to have weekends, Friday mornings, and evenings free for my relationship, family and friends. I'm even enjoying my hobbies like cooking more!

Somangshu Goswami

Engineering Leadership

BASB has made me feel more organised. I wish I was doing this all my life.

Sean Kearney

Founder, UpGaged LLC

I got much more than my money's worth before I even started the Building a Second Brain course. One of the biggest benefits I've received has been about connecting with so many amazing, super smart people from around the world including the mentors and peers. The Circle is easily one of the best resources for tapping into high-quality peer-created and curated content that I will continue to use for years to come.

Stevie Depew

Chief of Staff, Sandler Training

BASB opened up a whole new world of note-taking. I feel so much more productive and my brain physically feels better! It has changed my entire mindset around knowledge management.

Zeek Beam

Creating this second brain was super fun and I would definitely recommend taking Tiago’s program if you are looking for a new way to boost your productivity and creative breakthroughs…Keeping track of everything in a system that won’t be compromised means you will never forget a thing again!

Karen Roldan

@karenroldanblog

I’m halfway done with @fortelabs’s BASB Foundation course and it was life-changing. 💫

Mikael Suomela

Guitarist and entrepreneur

Building a second brain has given me new skills to gain deeper understanding and make sense of things, in a quicker and more organized way than before.

Michael J. Smith

Former College President

I loved the Building a Second Brain course. I wish I started 40 years ago. If I had, today, it would be one of my most valuable tools and possessions.

Danielle Bellows

Assistant Professor & Board Certified Pediatric Clinical Specialist

I feel much less overwhelmed than when I started Building a Second Brain. I believe I will be much more productive with my scientific writing in particular this year as a result of taking it.

Andreas Wettstein

Managing Partner Agility3

The BASB course has helped me with my creative output. It allowed me to generate new business and has given me a clear process that is oriented towards output, not just input.

Patrick Strubbe

Founder and Owner of Preservation Specialists, LLC

I have much greater confidence in what I'm storing, how I'm storing it, and more importantly how to put it to use. The Building a Second Brain course has given me clarity on what a project is, and how to stay focused on it.

Rob Wilson

Financial services professional

For YEARS I had searched for an outlet, some way to store, collate, manage, keep track of all of my thoughts, ideas, tabs (!), work and personal notes, and it was all-consuming and overwhelming. BASB was truly a godsend and a life changer for me.

Adrian Orozco

Headshot Photographer & Technical Onboarding Engineer at Cisco

Just like the invention of the telephone was a necessity for the development of the skyscraper, I can feel that BASB has changed something inside of me that continues to morph and evolve. Having gone through the course reminds me of the final scene(s) of the original Total Recall. The glass ceiling has been shattered and the proverbial Mars, that is my understanding of PKM, has been terraformed. The sky is quite literally the limit and I feel ready to soar!

Dr. David Zovak

Career Coach, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service

BASB has given me a more "action oriented" approach to my knowledge management. This will help me both produce and gather information more selectively. I also appreciated the scholarship that you made available as it meant I could afford the course as part of my professional development budget.

Traci Reuter

CEO, Divine Social

My Second Brain has been very impactful in relieving "cognitive drag". I'm already doing things with the knowledge I've been collecting. Even something like cooking Thanksgiving dinner has been easier. I had three different menus to prepare while dealing with a lower back injury. Because of my Second Brain, I laid on my floor while my family helped. Because it was so well organized and planned in my Second Brain it came together easily and incredibly.

Matthew Armstrong

Before taking BASB, I never thought of myself as a writer. This course has really helped me find my voice and gave me confidence to share my knowledge with the world.

Felipe Fraga

BASB transformed the way I organize my information and look at my workflows. It opened up my perspective to new ways of doing things. Especially regarding creating and expressing, and how it's important to have the outcome in mind while going through all subsequent steps.

Doug von Kohorn

Startup co-founder

This course offers a highly adaptable method for building your own digital brain. What? Yes. How? PARA + constraints. Why? Tiago offers a loose set of standards which you can start extracting long term, compounding interest on all of your work. I’ve never explicitly valued my attention, but I found myself regretting how much I’ve forgotten about the 100s of articles I read monthly — 100s of hours of attention, wasted! At work, I couldn’t easily find materials for my current projects — much less my previous projects. My attention was scattered. Tiago’s system strikes isn’t complicated or strict, which allows you to grow your very own personalized digital cortex. Now I can match my work to my mood and add value to my projects no matter what the week throws at me. In the two months since starting, I’ve produced three blogposts, planned three backpacking trips, decluttered my room, created an enterprise workshop, and got admitted into a developer conference. All using the *SAME* system! I’m living the PARA lifestyle now, and I’m never going back. This way lies not just productivity, but happiness and ease of mind. I started with no experience with GTD. I didn’t understand constraints. I never used a notetaking tool. I used my inbox as my todo list (starred messages). In other words, a total productivity degenerate. Take this course to start to feel agency in the world of infinite information and filter failure!

Michael Rosidor

Personal Trainer, L.A. Fitness

This course has honestly transformed my life! I’ve always struggled with being organized and keep track of my many obligations and interest, but after taking the course and applying the material learned, I now find myself exciting to wake up in the morning to enjoy this new life this course has helped me put together.

Kristin Tweedale

Host of the Crafty Ass Female podcast + awesome lady behind The Awesome Ladies Project

Building a Second Brain has given me the permission to dive deep into my own personal data. The things I know, the things I care about, the things I love. And that I can do it in a way that works for me and my life. There's permission to do it my way -- not the one way that works for everyone.

Amaya Gutierrez

Art Director

Building a Second Brain has changed the way I think about my work. I've learned how to recover my time with better notes and develop an intuition of what truly interests me. Seeing my notes together in my Second Brain has allowed me to cluster my interests to produce and express my ideas more fluently.

Hansjoerg Schaechtelin

Teacher

Now that I have a Second Brain, I have a trusted system to deal with information. It's changed my ability to go from just consuming information, to actually making something out of it.

Dawn Williams

Management consultant

High-value knowledge work requires high-quality knowledge resources: abundant working knowledge capital, a reliable knowledge infrastructure, knowledge liquidity, and a differentiating knowledge value proposition, all coherently leveraged to provide a competitive advantage. Building a Second Brain has transformed my relationship to, and understanding of, personal knowledge capture and retention. The value to my business is significant; the value to me personally — immeasurable.

Aidan Helfant

BASB has changed everything for me.

Elaine Warren

Entrepreneur & Content Creator

BASB has opened up my mind to new possibilities. The pearls of wisdom that Tiago sprinkled throughout the course --not directly related to notes or productivity -- were golden.

Meagan Beltekoglu

ClickUp Consultant, New Leaf Digital

Building a Second Brain gave me the tools to create a system that works for me. It has showed me the potential of using such a system with regards to creative output. It was a wonderful experience and I’ve not only made major changes to my life in terms of how and where I spend my time, but I’ve also been able to impact my clients in a greater way as well.

Wendy Mak

Building a Second Brain gave me the confidence to kickstart things I've had in my mind but was never able to move forward. Originally, I was looking for a way to store things for systematic retrieval. After the course, not only did I learn a way to capture and express myself, I have also gained understanding about how my struggle in the learning process reflects how I approach things in life.

Rodney Daut

The Course Builder Coach

Building a Second Brain taught me how to translate knowledge and insights into action. It showed me how to sift through a lot of stuff to get to the gold. And it showed me how to make starting points that can actually grow into a full project. It will save me hours of time spent on researching and reading that went nowhere.

Roy Kutteh

Founder of Elite Digitalist

Having a Second Brain allows me to work and collaborate on multiple projects at a time.

Alicia I.

My Second Brain has allowed me to free up my poor biological first brain! This has been profoundly calming while also supporting greater possibilities of expression to build over time.

Dallas Fuentes

Gerontologist & Transformation Coach

Building a Second Brain is like a fuel injection. I'm ready to create, design, and get things done!

Terry Toh

Program Manager @Google, Life Coach @TalkToTerry.co

Now, I can't live without my Second Brain.

Lavinia Iosub

Managing Partner Livit International and Founder, Remote Skills Academy

BASB has set me on a path where I feel less overwhelmed and more hopeful about organizing my digital life and producing high-quality outputs more easily. The inspiring people I met and the community that continues well after the course is over are no doubt among the highlights of the program, too.