Why you need a knowledge base
How many open tabs have you currently open? How much time did you lose looking for this piece of information in an old WhatsApp group or Slack channel? How many bookmarks that you never visited again do you have?
Since the advent of internet, we have been submerged by information, but the Humans that we are hadn't enough time to adapt to this trend, so our instinctive mechanism to cope with it is to simply stockpile it and call it a day.
But let's face it, this way of managing information doesn't work.
And that's why most people struggle to learn new things after leaving school. Schools teach us many useful skills, but not the most important one: how to learn.
What if, instead, you could reuse what you read, watch or listen to so that your knowledge compounds over time?
That's what I call continuous learning: the ability to assimilate and organize the information that your brain processes into actionable knowledge that can be used later.
The central part of this system is the knowledge base.
A central repository to offload your brain
Our brain is simply not that good at memorizing a lot of information. Maybe it's actually possible to get Sherlock Holmes' memory palace in real life, but I personally never succeeded.
Instead, I'm using what technology has best to offer: unlimited memory to assist my brain.
You may actually find many mentions of the term "second brain" when people are talking about their knowledge base. It's because a knowledge base is kind of a second brain, optimized for memory, that is the perfect complement for our biological brain, optimized for creativity and/or logic.
Grow, don't build
A knowledge base is not a toy or desk that you build once and for all and then basta.
Instead, it's like a Bonsai or a garden, something that you grow over time and need continued attention.
First, because you need to fill it every day, then, because like a garden, you need to maintain it.
For example, every few months or so, I take time to clean mine, remove duplicates (there always are duplicates), or fill some holes.
I've compiled everything I learned, growing my knowledge base for more than 4 years in my new course that will be out of beta this week: Continuous Learning - My simple system to turn information into actionable knowledge and thrive in the information age. Among other things, you will learn how to organize your knowledge base for easy retrieval, how to fill it with knowledge, and what software I use to be able to access it anywhere, anytime.
If you are a premium member, you can already access it now. Let's go!.