Why 2026 Is the Year to Build a Second Brain (And Why You NEED One)

Nate B Jones details how to build a second brain using AI, emphasizing that in 2026, this is achievable even without engineering expertise. He argues that traditional storage systems for notes fail because they demand cognitive effort at inconvenient times. Jones introduces the concept of an AI loop, where the system proactively classifies, routes, and extracts information, offering daily and weekly nudges. He recommends a stack of Slack, Notion, Zapier, and either Claude or ChatGPT to create this system. Jones outlines core engineering principles, such as reducing human input to a single action and separating memory from compute and interface, to ensure the system's scalability and reliability.