Gain a New Outlook on Stuff You Need to Know

TheBrain is a new medium of intellectual expression that can be applied to your self-fulfillment, education, research and projects at work. The novel and enriching interactivity of this visual medium enables you to not only build an outline of the topic, but to make the connections and see the relationships that drive insight and a clear understanding.

For instance, you can read about how the United States Senate functions in the Government but visualizing the core concepts and looking at these key ideas above the fray of information and documentation on the subject can simplify and illuminate complex information sets.

Oh, and did I mention that creating a brain is also really fun? TheBrain looks and feels good, so learning even mundane subjects becomes a lot more interesting. It’s great for easily distracted students and CEOs alike!

Creating a Brain on a Topic You Don’t Know

You are smarter than you think you are – your brain will prove it to you by helping you visualize your ideas and organize concepts. Creating a new brain or section in your existing brain on a topic that interests you but that you thought you knew nothing about can be a really rewarding experience. Let’s look at Modern Architecture as an example.

The topic of enquiry is your first thought. Add under this thought any other ideas you have on the subject. This enables you to capture and reflect on your existing knowledge. At this point you might surprise yourself with what you come up with, capturing your ideas and seeing them in a new medium. Now you can start to create thoughts that serve as placeholders for knowledge such as questions you want to find answers to or subjects that you need to do more research on. For instance, you might be aware that Frank Lloyd Wright was a key contributor to modern architecture but know nothing else about him. Now you can use TheBrain’s Search Web feature on this topic to launch a Web search from your favorite search engine to find web sites about him. Then you can drag and drop key web pages under your topic.

Also as you read through the information you’ve found I encourage you to create new thoughts for key ideas that pop up. This enables you to highlight key concepts and build on what you know. You can also use TheBrain’s notes section to cut and paste key definitions and excerpts for easy access and retrieval. This process of information integration will serve to build and crystallize your knowledge on the topic.

Creating a Brain on a Topic You Do Know

Creating a brain on a topic that you are an expert on helps to solidify and augment your knowledge. For this type of brain you will probably need to do less web searches and more integrating of existing information resources. Creating a brain on an area of your expertise enables you to expand your thinking and gain a new perspective.

A Place for Thinking and New Ideas to Grow

In creating a brain you are making your ideas and thinking explicit and distinguishing key ideas that you want to focus on. Elevating them above the many paragraphs on a web page or search results list lets you put that information into your perspective. Furthermore, each thought in your brain and file you add can then be assimilated with your ideas and the worldview they constitute. Maybe your research on modern architecture also relates to your passion in art and society. Now you are free to connect and relate your idea to literally everything and anything you think of!

Final Result

After you create your brain on a topic you will be amazed at the final result and how easy the connections develop once you get started. The ultimate benefits go far beyond simply creating a static outline:

• Enhanced understanding of key ideas and themes
• Retention of knowledge
• Instant access to key concepts and information
• Refresh your memory, without rereading large articles
• Gain new insights and perspective
• Relate ideas to your worldview

You now have a digital network of information that continues to grow and evolve, becoming an indispensable tool not just for research and organization, but for your mind itself.

More posts by: Shelley Hayduk