Over 10,000 people either attended last Thursday's livestream, where I unveiled our new cohort, or watched the recording afterward (!).
I've been in education for 18 years and never seen a response like this.
We're welcoming the first wave of participants in the discussion forum, who represent 36 countries so far. I'm seeing an incredible variety of backgrounds and viewpoints, including:
- A freelance hydrographic survey project manager from the eastern edge of England
- A public relations and advertising professor from the American South
- A retiree from the southwest of the U.S.
- An instructional designer living nomadically by boat, RV, and camper van
- A government employee seeking to use AI while preserving the privacy of constituents
- A psycho-spiritual counselor and non-dual tantric meditation teacher
- A marine biologist with a startup developing innovative products from marine resources
- A serial entrepreneur running four dog-related brands
- A digital marketing strategist passionate about developing those skills in his small European country
I also love hearing what people are seeking specifically in their use of AI.
In my first couple of emails, I wrote about the dark side – the cognitive debt, the emotional loops, the loss of perspective.
What struck me reading through these early forum posts is that people aren't joining despite those concerns. They're joining because of them. They want AI to serve what matters at the end of the day:
- "I want to be a better husband, father, and friend."
- "I want to make a bigger impact via nonprofits and investing."
- "I want to write a book about my relationship with my dad."
- "I want to free up more time to read, dance, and get into good trouble with friends."
- "I want to continue turning my ADHD into a superpower rather than something that has held me back in the past."
One participant's comment encapsulates so much of what we're trying to do:
“I spend far too much time just looking for things that either I've written or others have and need a better and faster way to organize and deliver that to others. I want to spend less time on that and more time building new stuff.”
That's what augmentation is all about – offloading, externalizing, and delegating the stuff we can't, won't, or don't want to do to AI, so we can spend an increasing share of our time, attention, and care on the parts we do.
And another:
“I've been part of this community for years but kept sensing I was only getting a glimpse of what was actually possible. Like standing at the edge of something much larger and not quite being able to see the whole of it."
What all these people share, despite how different their lives and work look on the surface, is that feeling of standing at the edge of something larger. And the desire to step into it.
So, who is The AI Second Brain for?
It's for people who have more ideas than time, who every day see possibilities they can't possibly explore, but with AI's help, they can.
It's for leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs who want to multiply their own and their team's capacity without burning themselves out.
It's for professionals who sense AI is critical to their future but feel overwhelmed by how fast it's changing. And for existing PKM and productivity enthusiasts who want to leverage the systems they already have using AI.
It's for those who are changing jobs or careers, or want to, and see in AI the chance to reinvent themselves in ways that weren't possible before.
It's for creatives, creators, artists, and founders who need systems to produce, but don't want the system-building itself to consume all their time.
It's for those who manage complex information for others for a living – architects, engineers, marketers, consultants, COOs – but can never quite seem to get a handle on their own.
It's for the neurodivergent, who feel the tool complexity problem more acutely than others, but also have more to gain if they can master it.
Most of the thinking around AI is dominated by a very small group of people in one particular place, Silicon Valley. That’s why it doesn't reflect more than a tiny fraction of how people all over the world think about AI, and what they want from it.
We're doing everything we can to bring together the widest range of experiences possible, because that is how we all gain access to perspectives we'd never arrive at on our own. The real people you read about above have things to teach each other about AI that no influencer on social media is going to cover.
If that sounds like what you’re looking for, you have 15 days left to join.
Best,
Tiago