Added: 2026-05-08
Started: Not Started
[table_of_contents]
Summary ๐ก
This name, ‘NeuroTraction‘, was previously given to my task management and recovery web app, but I decided to use it for the second brain plugin instead. The idea behind the second brain system is to help users learn and comprehend the information they ingest and synthesise new understanding that will help them assimilate the ideas in the long run. Ideas about the world and about oneself will gain traction in the mind and give you a grip, and ground you, in objective reality, or the truth, as you discover it.
The plugin will incorporate a system that involves re-expressing all information according to how you understand it and making it more concise and easy to remember. There will be an internal LMS-type system with a learning track for new information, spaced repetition, and AI review of your understanding of ideas. You will be required to explain ideas to the system in as simple and universal terms as possible (as in, fit for a 10-year old) before the ideas graduate to a higher tier of knowledge or understanding.
Technology ๐ฅ๏ธ
The system will be primarily built on custom post types and custom taxonomies, a technology already built into WordPress. It will use custom post types for the various types of information and differing mass permissions. I will custom taxonomies for the different tiers or phases of information ingestion and assimilation.I will be prototyping the system using Advanced Custom Fields.
For automatic linking between nodes of information, I will use a custom built tool tips plugin. Linked ideas will have special syntax, such as a hash symbol attached to the beginning of a term, like #term. The popup will be a list of descriptive page/post title links with their tag taxonomy listed as a line below the title.
Or I could use the tool tips principle and have a symbol connected to the beginning of a term indicate that the term is a certain custom tag taxonomy term, linking to an archive page. The archive page could use a custom template that shows just the title as a link, the various custom taxonomies as lines of terms, and the page/post excerpt.
Structure ๐๏ธ
Te following is a brainstorm/brain dump of ideas for the structure and organisation of items/nodes in the overall system of the second brain. It is not necessarily written well or in its final order or hierarchy.
I will probably try to simplify the structure while maintaining its usefulness in organising items for browsing or retrieval. Keep it simple, stupid. three main ideas, each with three sub ideas, is the ideal. It makes it easier to understand and retain the structure of information in your head,
I think I will try to make the structure, syntax, and naming AI-friendly. In the future, I’d like to have a built-in AI use the accumulated content for Retrieval Augmented Generation. This will lead to an interactive knowledge base about me, my worldview, or my projects/work..
Primary Categories:
- Experiences – The beginning and end of conscious life. Reflections on where I’m coming from and articulating where that points me to, and chronicling my journey there and how it turns out. It is a record of my life for others to know me and for me to know how I got to where I am and predict where I am headed. Without remembering what I’ve done and why, I am doomed to make the same mistakes again, or miss what has lead to some benefit that I should embrace.
- Knowledge – All the accumulated information about myself and the universe, based on my experiences of my internal and external worlds. Knowledge is imprecise and formless when it begins, and solidifies and grows in depth and breadth, and becomes more aligned with Truth, as it is explored, contemplated, questioned, and reasoned about.
- Wisdom –
- Endeavours –
Secondary Categories:
Experience:
- Pad – First Knowledge tier?, like seeds in the garden. A brain dump of ideas and questions to explore and flesh out. These will go under an ongoing root project as tasks in a backlog. When you complete work on any item by saving it, a prompt to work on a new item in the Pad, or the next item in the backlog, will come up, perhaps with randomised suggestions. This can be a simple plugin that pops up a scripted modal whenever you hit the save button in the editor. These may be kept private, restricted, or made public using a plugin, the user choosing an option at the top of the editor side bar which will automatically select the required role to view the post/page.
- Journal – First Wisdom category. Final Experiences category?. My personal journal, not meant to be public. Reflecting on my daily experiences and articulating how I judge them and feel about them. Setting new to-dos for the immediate or near future, and goals and projects for the longer term. Users will need a certain role or hierarchical role level to view these pages/posts. I will have a tool tip based on the unique, descriptive, and memorable, slug for the Journal/Pad/Blog post/page so that one can easily link to it as the source of the idea and list all other posts or pages springing from this origin.
- Blog – First Endeavours tier?, for articulating thoughts and feelings on past experiences that lead to plans. Expressed in a way that encourages mindfulness and maximum satisfaction and quality of my life. My public-facing journal. Uses a descriptive slug name as a custom tag in the meta to track all other items stemming from this blog post, with a symbol attached to the front to avoid duplicate link names. Any links meant to be a private/restricted track, or leading back to journal entries, will only be visible to those with the needed roles to view the journal, and set apart wit their own meta taxonomy field that is only visible those with the needed roles.
Knowledge:
Data – The facts. Raw details about myself and the world that stem from Journal or Pad entries/Blog posts.
Notes – Data that has been expanded to include related information and its place in the grander schemes of things. Notes on information I have learned, but that has not been fleshed out or vetted.
Truth – Information that has been vetted and verified through research, reasoning, and critical thinking.
Memory – Truth that has been rephrased and expressed in my own words, and made more concise/atomised, and more memorable.
Understanding – Second Wisdom tier? Memories are assimilated into the network of Knowledge items, establishing links between memories. New Pad ideas are synthesised from the connection of those memories.
Learning – Second Endeavours tier? Memories that are being actively learned and retained as a valuable or useful piece of knowledge.
Maybe I’ll combine Data and Notes, and combine Truth, Memory, and Understanding, and then have Learning and the LMS as the final category. Maybe combine Truth with Understanding as the middle category, and Memory and Learning as the final category.
Wisdom
Endeavours
Structure – Types – Knowledge, Data, Blog, Journal, Project Management/Tasks, Project Work, Notes (raw and not vetted, from reading/media), Pad (ideas, brain dump), Questions (to be explored and answered), Goals and Milestones, Information (vetted info from Notes), Contacts and People, Places, Things, Synthesized Knowledge and Understanding (to be vetted), Wisdom and Choices, Values
Tasks โ
- Decide on symbols for different custom taxonomies and create a list on this page.
- Decide on naming convention. Perhaps make a plugin that has structured fields that are combined on save to form the title/slug.
- Tool tips plugin reviewed and deployed as part of auto-linking system.
- Archive templates for root items. Make sure root item is placed at top of archive list. Archive should be alphabetical, not chronological.
Log ๐
- 2026-05-08: Started working on technology stack and structure. Turns out that PublishPress Shortlinks creates links to my desired URL for any keywords appearing in pages and posts. Just need to make sure they work in custom posts, but if they don’t, now I know precisely what feature I want to duplicate and how.