This podcast, an audio tour of a visual product, if from an interview with Harlan Hugh and Shelley Hayduk of The Brain Technologies at their offices in beautiful Marina Del Rey, California.
As I've written before, Personal Brain is an amazing tool for mapping your brain. You might even call it a true mind mapping tool. Listen to the podcast and you hear why I think so. I plan to make The Brain a key component to my personal knowledge management tool kit along with Lotus Notes, MindManager, and other excellent productivity tools.
The link to listen or download this podcast may be found at the end of the show notes...
Highlights:
We discuss many things, including Harlan's brain - it's BIG (10,000 thoughts)
How to link thought types (parent/child/sibling/jumps)
I compare The Brain capture method to that of ActiveWords to create memorable thoughts.
How to navigate around the plex
How to get started with The Brain
Wander Mode in Expanded View - an awesome way to explore your brain.
I want a Digital Tigers multi-monitor display!!!
Key features of Personal Brain 4
Universal interface: PC, MAC, Linux
Expanded view, wall papers, etc.
Auto-hide your brain for quick access (like Vista TIP)
Outlook integration with The Brain (Lotus Notes coming soon?)
ESP Sync - watches keystrokes and activates as you type
Comparison to MindManager active links
Differences between The Brain and traditional Mind Mapping.
Brain EKP: The Enterprise Knowledge Platform (I want one!)
How to know if The Brain is right for you?
The Brain as the everything-in-my-life manager
The Brain Limited is available for free (no expiration)
Top 12 ways to use the Brain
The Brain as a visual bookmark manager
Free Brain Webinar each Friday at 10:00 AM PST
The Brain as a CI BA tool for investors/academia/entrepreneurs
The Brain as a presentation tool
Drag and Drop Lotus Notes into The Brain - coming soon! (Hooray!)
You can share your brain with SiteBrain - create a web site from your brain (Spooky)
Jerry Michalski, 70,000 thoughts in the brain, posted on the web.
Official Launch Target: end of July, 2007
I hope you find this interview worthwhile. This podcast is an experiment fo rme to explore the idea of doing eProductivity podcast interviews on a regular basis, so I hope that you'll give me your feedback. I'd like to know what you think!
Enjoy!
An interview with Shelley and Harlan of The Brain, Pt 2
Discussion/Comments (10):
Very interesting and definitely worthwhile. But still a pity that there we couldn't see what the screens.
And while the software looks very interesting, I'm a bit hesitant to add yet another tool to my collection - I fear the whole thing might end up too cluttered. But at the same time I'm struggling learning GTD with 'raw' Lotus, so I'm also looking forward to your template (did you get my email?).
I'm very curious how you envision to integrate this into your "productivity zoo" and how you draw the boundaries of what you do where and why...
Willy (): 7/3/2007 3:53:24 AM
Hmm... If you endorse this product fervently, it must be good. I will check it out too!
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 7/3/2007 8:56:12 AM
Hi Michael,
Some quick answers to your questions:
Indeed, it would be great to do this as a videocast. Perhaps in the future. As far as tools, The Brain, or any other tool I talk about, is just that - a tool. The key is understanding the strength and purpose of each tool so that you can select the best tool (for you) for the application. For example, I would not use The Brain to draw a mind map for a project plan. At the same time, I would not use MindManager to create a complex knowledge map. But I would use both, together, to solve parts of my personal knowledge management strategy. Although the eProductivity template will definitely make your efforts to implement GTD in Lotus Notes MUCH easier, it will not implement GTD for you. That's something that you will need to do on your own. The GTD process is the same, whether you implement it on paper, a napkin, or in a powerful information management tool, Like Lotus Notes. "productivity zoo" I love that! The integration that I will do will consist first of learning about the software so that I can choose wisely from among my available tools.
I hope this helps.
Eric
Tom van Brunschot (http://www.transformation-economy.com): 7/11/2007 10:15:08 AM
This stuff makes me smile!
Michael Baas (http://www.dls-planning.com): 7/21/2007 9:51:43 AM
Eric, I really like the brain, thanks for your podcast which brought my attention to it (again, I must say - I had a look at it some yrs ago and didn't get it back then).
I also think I'm seeing better now where to draw the line between all those 'productive zoo'-tools, and at the same time I wish there was a closer integration from TB + Notes. I would appreciate your thoughts on this: { Link } :)
Thanks
Michael
Chinarut (http://www.chinarut.com): 10/5/2007 12:06:23 PM
After a long haitus - it was such a pleasant surprise to see Personal Brain 4.0 for Mac OS X!
I found this article you wrote and clicked the link you gave to Jerry's 70k thought brain on the web - it requires a login - is there a guest login?
I started a brain from scratch and now wanting to look at how some other people's brains are organized now that 4.0 is jam packed with new features such as coloring and typing which opens up a whole new realm of classification!
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 10/8/2007 4:23:01 PM
Chinarut, take a look at The Brain web site - they have links to several web brains. Or, check back in a few weeks as I plan to post some of my own brains on-line.
Todd (): 10/2/2008 8:11:31 PM
Hi Eric,
Was there ever any further progress on Notes integration with Personal Brain 4.x?
-Todd
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 10/5/2008 5:45:15 PM
Todd, you may want to check with the folks at The Brain for Details but I have seen a version that supports doclinks.
Levent AKSOY (http://www.istanbulsacekimi.net): 12/22/2008 5:17:34 AM
I think you have a problem about your version. Because this version may be not support doclinks.