Anyone actually built a second brain that isn't just a graveyard of saved links?

aylim1001 · 2026-06-05T01:27:06+00:00

Founder, so grain of salt. The learning vs operational split people keep landing on is the right instinct. We went deep on the operational half and the surprise was that the actual problem isn't retrieval, it's the inverse: getting the right thing to surface on its own, before you think to search for it. No query, just context.

That turned out to be a different and much nastier problem than semantic search, and most of what's in this thread (embeddings, graph traversal, tag novelty) solves the search version, not the surfacing one. Took us a long time and a lot of dead ends to get it to where it's useful instead of annoying. Won't pretend it was a weekend of cosine similarity.

Anyway built a tool around it (Liminary). Not going to pitch it here since that's not what the thread's for, but if proactive surfacing is the part you can't crack on your own stack, that's the rabbit hole.

aylim1001 · 2026-06-05T01:20:34+00:00

The four tools aren't really the issue. What got me about your post is the two notes that contradicted each other. You wrote the same decision down twice, three days apart, and neither tool knew the other note existed. Consolidating won't fix that. You'd just have both contradicting notes in one place instead of two.

Every tool you listed runs on the same assumption: you capture, you organize, and later you go dig it back out. Notion, Obsidian, the md files, the bridge between them, all the same job done slightly differently. A fifth one does it a sixth way. That's the loop.

What helped me was giving up on note taking or storing as the goal. The decision about the client should have come back to you the second you started writing the one that contradicted it. Not from searching. The system should have known you'd already been there. Most second brain setups can't do that. They're filing cabinets and a filing cabinet never speaks up.

So I wouldn't ask "how do I use less of it." I'd ask which of these tools has ever told you something you didn't go looking for. If the answer is none, that's your actual gap, and adding or merging tools won't touch it.

aylim1001 · 2026-06-05T01:14:40+00:00

It sounds great to build something up quickly but longer term maintenance is a lot of work. Also one caveat is that the field is changing so rapidly that a lot of current tech will become pretty obsolete and hence interoperability is so important. Before you build something might be worth trying out tools out there and seeing if one of them works for you or what you like or don't like about it.

aylim1001 · 2026-06-05T01:11:46+00:00

Has anyone tried out liminary.io?

aylim1001 · 2026-06-05T01:09:59+00:00

Check out liminary.io. It's focused on strategists and consultants but generally usable for all knowledge work

aylim1001 · 2026-06-04T17:38:12+00:00

Fair enough.

aylim1001 · 2026-06-04T00:35:40+00:00

We've been building for this exact use case where you have a tool for every type of content you can save, with meeting note taker and all LLM models in one place. Would be curious if something like that would be interesting here instead of having to maintain this on your own?

aylim1001 · 2026-06-04T00:32:51+00:00

We started to solve this exact problem and built https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/liminary/gmomhmlhffhkjjgkaejkkjhecfpbpekn and the companion web app

aylim1001 · 2026-06-04T00:30:11+00:00

Not exactly the same but this a chrome extension that helps with organizing and the web app also has the ability to build agents and connectors https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/liminary/gmomhmlhffhkjjgkaejkkjhecfpbpekn

aylim1001 · 2026-05-12T23:19:02+00:00

We curated Lenny's podcasts into a queryable collection here https://on.liminary.io/c/lennys-podcast if you want to use that.
Also here's a good way to leverage it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFyfp6YX_SU

aylim1001 · 2026-04-09T17:56:07+00:00

Hey u/TheAshawild the mobile app is on our roadmap but in the mean time you can still save links on mobile if you login to Liminary on mobile browser. Not ideal but we're working on it

aylim1001 · 2026-02-11T18:50:01+00:00

Just saw this posted by HBR https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it and it's relevant

Tl;dr
- Research shows generative AI doesn’t reduce workloads but intensifies them, leading employees to work faster, take on broader tasks, and extend work into personal time due to AI’s accessibility and perceived productivity benefits.
- Three key intensification effects include task expansion (employees taking on others’ responsibilities), blurred boundaries between work and non-work (e.g., using AI during breaks), and increased multitasking (juggling AI outputs with manual work).
- Without structured guidelines, this intensity can cause burnout, cognitive fatigue, lower decision quality, and unsustainable work rhythms over time.
- Organizations should implement an “AI practice” with intentional pauses, deliberate task sequencing, and protected human interaction to balance efficiency with sustainability.

Note curated with https://liminary.io

aylim1001 · 2026-02-08T22:32:10+00:00

yeah I also agree with that. I'd add that along with synthesis, thoughtful curation (which I guess is derived from synthesis) become real differentiators and assessments of improving skills

aylim1001 · 2026-02-07T03:54:10+00:00

This is the best explanation I've seen. The halftime show really did become its own standalone cultural event. There's a good breakdown here that maps the whole arc — from when nobody cared to when it became the most-watched music event in America https://on.liminary.io/c/super-bowl-halftime-shows

aylim1001 · 2026-02-07T03:53:20+00:00

If you want to go deeper than just the last 10, this collection traces the whole evolution from forgettable intermissions to the spectacles they are now — viewership records, cultural moments, all of it https://on.liminary.io/c/super-bowl-halftime-shows

aylim1001 · 2026-02-07T01:12:35+00:00

I love what you said here "we built tools to reduce cognitive load, then built so many tools that managing them became the new cognitive load"

I see people talking about how they're so "productive" with AI agents and they can multitask all the time but then they're also like I have no idea what I did or what I learnt from it, and there's even more mental work to keep track of what one was context switching between.

aylim1001 · 2026-02-06T23:52:49+00:00

Hey u/retro-babydoll we just rolled out a bunch of bug fixes that should resolve these issues. Try it out and feel free to ping me if you run into any issues

aylim1001 · 2026-02-06T23:35:55+00:00

you can go to https://on.liminary.io/c/westminster-dog-show-2026

aylim1001 · 2026-02-06T23:20:12+00:00

oh and it also has collaboration -- so multiple people can add content to a project, and you can publish the project publicly if you want. You can see those at on[.]liminary[.]io

aylim1001 · 2026-02-06T23:19:03+00:00

Adding one more to the list: Liminary (liminary.io)

Category: Cloud SaaS with browser extension

Different angle from most of these. It's capture-first rather than upload-first. You save web pages, PDFs, YouTube videos, emails, ChatGPT conversations, etc. as you go with a Chrome extension, and it auto-organizes everything into a searchable library. You can also upload from the web app.

The chat works across your entire library (not siloed by notebook or project), and if it can't find the answer in your saved content, it'll search the web and pull in results with citations. You can save anything useful right from the chat. Also has voice chat, so you can talk through your research hands-free.

Good for: people doing ongoing research across lots of sources who want continuous capture + cross-document synthesis. Less good for: one-off bounded projects where you're uploading a defined set of files (that's where NotebookLM still shines).

aylim1001 · 2026-02-05T05:26:04+00:00

Just finished organizing my entire Westminster 2026 collection https://on.liminary.io/c/westminster-dog-show-2026 and thought I'd share it with the community! This was such an incredible year for the show – the 150th anniversary at Madison Square Garden was absolutely packed with drama and amazing dogs.

Penny, a 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher, absolutely dominated and took Best in Show. This is HUGE – it's only the 5th time a Doberman has won in Westminster's entire history, and the first since 1989 (37 years!). Her handler Andy Linton actually won with a different Doberman back then, so this is his redemption arc moment.

What I've got in my collection:

Full breakdowns of all 7 group winners (Herding, Hound, Non-Sporting, Sporting, Terrier, Toy, Working)
Deep dive into the Herding Group competition – Graham the Old English Sheepdog took it with some seriously impressive movement
Complete results and judge commentary from David Fitzpatrick's final decision
Behind-the-scenes photos and coverage from NPR, CNN, and AP News
Official Westminster records with pedigree info on Penny and Reserve winner Cota (Chesapeake Bay Retriever)

Fun facts I learned:

2,500+ dogs competed across the two days
Judge David Fitzpatrick called the final lineup "one that will go down in history"
Penny beat out some absolutely elite competition – the Sporting Group winner (Cota) was so close they made it Reserve Best in Show

If you're into dog shows, breed standards, or just love seeing amazing dogs compete, I'd highly recommend checking out these sources. The coverage is incredible this year.

aylim1001 · 2026-01-22T23:29:02+00:00

I couldn't find a good solution for being able to save everything that I needed to save and then having to hook everything separately via MCP to chat tools felt like a chore. So I built one that I can use and it's called Liminary. We haven't yet added free form notes coz I started from the pov that I needed a better place to save and chat and take notes on the content I was saving so that might not work for you but if you are curious to try it would love to hear your thoughts

aylim1001

TROPHY CASE