Glossary — Shared Language
A multi-disciplinary room needs a little common vocabulary so we can disagree clearly. These are short, friendly definitions, not final verdicts. Many of them belong to specific thinkers, and we credit them gladly.
First brain. The one in your head. Brilliant, creative, and forgetful. Everything else exists to support it.
Second brain. Your external, digital memory and thinking system: notes, files, links, and the structure that holds them. The term was popularised by Tiago Forte. It is where personal knowledge management lives.
Third brain. The collective one. The shared intelligence that emerges when practitioners think together, build in the open, and pool what they learn. It is the brain this Guild exists to grow. No single person holds it.
PKM (Personal Knowledge Management). The craft of capturing, organising, and using what you know. The umbrella over most of what we do here.
Zettelkasten. A method of atomic, densely linked notes, each with its own identity, so ideas connect and compound over time. Originated by sociologist Niklas Luhmann, brought to a modern audience by Sönke Ahrens in How to Take Smart Notes.
GTD (Getting Things Done). David Allen’s productivity method: capture, clarify, organise, reflect, engage. The aim is a “mind like water,” nothing nagging at you because everything has a trusted home.
LLS (Live Lens System). Martijn Aslander’s idea for what comes after static note storage: one canonical set of data, with AI offering many living lenses onto it. “Same data, infinite lenses.” A working picture of the third brain in practice.
LYT (Linking Your Thinking). Nick Milo’s approach to note-making, built around linking and Maps of Content, so structure emerges from your notes rather than being imposed up front.
Octalysis. Yu-kai Chou’s framework of eight core drives behind human motivation. Useful for understanding why we actually keep (or abandon) our systems and habits.
OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence). Producing insight by collecting and analysing publicly available information. A discipline of finding signal in open sources, increasingly powered by AI.
Community of Practice. A group bound by a shared domain, who learn together through ongoing practice. The idea comes from Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave. It is the shape this Guild deliberately takes. See 02 About the Third Brain Guild.
The commons. Our public, open layer, readable by anyone. Where we share our learnings with the wider world. See 06 Sovereign by Design.
Conditions-holder. The role of someone who tends a community by holding the conditions for good things to happen, rather than controlling or broadcasting at it. It is how we try to lead here: connectors, not distributors.
Missing a term you keep seeing!? Reply and we will add it. This page grows with the room.
Stephan
Community Connector