Anyone have any experience with this software. Years ago David listed it as one of his key software components. Frankly I dont hear anyone talk about it much anymore. To look at the website, it seems to marry perfectly with GTD. Specifically when comparing some of the cognitive science involved. Anyone have any experience?
The Brain/Personal Brain Software
- Thread starter sesteph6
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mcogilvie
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I looked at it years ago. Although it seemed very brave in what it was trying to do, it was too complex for me. By and large, the passage of time has not been kind to complex productivity software, but many limp on.
OF user
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I agree with mcogilvie on this. You have to have an idea of how you want to use it and then you can work through the support files and videos to build it. Like sholden says it is a like a mind mapping program but you can integrate all your mind maps so that in essence you have one giant mind map of your life as you want to define it. My suggestion would be to try WORKFLOWY, which is freemium software online. It accomplishes what personal brain does but in outline form rather than mind mapping. If you find yourself working with Workflowy a lot then Personal Brain is probably a worthwhile investment. I used PB for a while but felt I did not need all of its power.
Mark Jantzen
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I tried it years ago but it was clunky across iOS & Mac. The connections part is interesting & useful. Evernote has the ability to do some of that with links but it's not as visual as the Brain. Any software that can automate or easily create connections gets my attention.
lzaretsky
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I've been using The Brain for many years now. A bit of a learning curve, but once you get going I find it easier to use that most other software packages. And its ability to support multiple links between topics is key to relating data topics. I use it exclusively for research and managing reference data, as it seamlessly connects file, drawing, websites and audio/video content. In the latest version they finally dumped Java, so it is now smooth and effortless to utilize. And for me, a key factor is that it's accessible at work whereas cloud-based services such as Evernote or Dropbox are banned by our IT department policies.
I’ve not used it for GTD, and I’m not sure how well it would work for this.
However, for knowledge management, I really liked it. I have a very hierchical approach to knowledge management, but find mind map apps like XMind quickly become overwhelmed as structures become complicated. PersonalBrain uses a mesh rather than tree and branch architecture, so can scale as far as you need.
It also creates a structure on disk that can scale to whatever size of KB you create, not just one huge file.
I used to use it for tracking meeting notes and relationships - for my industry, companies, people, organograms, and how those people related to others, products, skills, companies based on conversations: I then wrote all my meeting notes in it and linked to those people as attendees.
It meant I could pivot from a meeting, to an attendee, to all the other times we’d crossed paths (other meetings, mentions by others, etc). It revealed history and motives that I otherwise just wouldn’t have remembered.
The only problem was that it was a lot of work to update it with my notes after each meeting, and I didn’t want to trust the cloud to some of this data, but wanted to have it acccessible on my phone via the mobile app.
The mobile app is pretty good, but not fluidly native - they’ve tried to create all the functionality and features that people love in the desktop app, and it doesn’t quite fit.
But yeah, it’s a hidden gem. If you think and organise in this way, and are willing to go all-in, it’s incredibly powerful and seamlessa
However, for knowledge management, I really liked it. I have a very hierchical approach to knowledge management, but find mind map apps like XMind quickly become overwhelmed as structures become complicated. PersonalBrain uses a mesh rather than tree and branch architecture, so can scale as far as you need.
It also creates a structure on disk that can scale to whatever size of KB you create, not just one huge file.
I used to use it for tracking meeting notes and relationships - for my industry, companies, people, organograms, and how those people related to others, products, skills, companies based on conversations: I then wrote all my meeting notes in it and linked to those people as attendees.
It meant I could pivot from a meeting, to an attendee, to all the other times we’d crossed paths (other meetings, mentions by others, etc). It revealed history and motives that I otherwise just wouldn’t have remembered.
The only problem was that it was a lot of work to update it with my notes after each meeting, and I didn’t want to trust the cloud to some of this data, but wanted to have it acccessible on my phone via the mobile app.
The mobile app is pretty good, but not fluidly native - they’ve tried to create all the functionality and features that people love in the desktop app, and it doesn’t quite fit.
But yeah, it’s a hidden gem. If you think and organise in this way, and are willing to go all-in, it’s incredibly powerful and seamlessa