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this is a book a technology where you
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can't search the text exporting
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highlights is painful and your
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note-taking space is limited but
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sometimes reading an actual book simply
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can't be beat in this video we'll show
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you the easiest way to create a second
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brain that lives right on your bookshelf
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are you guys seeing this this is
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incredible a technique taught to us by
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book reading influencer Alex in books
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who used this system to read hundreds of
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books a year and build an audience of
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over six hundred thousand book reading
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fans
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Alex's first step is capture as I read
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the book you want to highlight the
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important information if something
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really resonates with you sticks out you
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want to capture that if you open up the
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front few pages of the book you have the
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table of contents but what you want to
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do as a reader is create your own table
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of contents so as I read the book and I
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find something interesting not only will
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I highlight it I'll go back to like the
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front cover of the book and then I'll
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write down the page number and why I
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found that interesting page 19 how you
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explain what common book is page 40 like
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three steps of product management system
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page 43 of the code framework the more
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impactful the book is more life-changing
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it is the more notes you're going to
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want to take on it because your brain
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would just be screaming at you like hey
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this is important write this down write
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this down as I'm reading the book I'm
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taking down the lessons and then
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organizing those lessons you have your
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own custom table of contents essentially
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inside of the cover which is like you
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said the subjects the ideas the
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observations that you found most
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impactful and a page number if I
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highlight something and I find it like
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really important I'll put a star next to
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it and then I'll add it to like the
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table of contents so it has like the
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star at the end so I know it's like not
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just important but like super important
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the book becomes the notes themselves oh
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what was that really great quote you
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open up the front cover you kind of just
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skim your table of contents it's like oh
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yeah that quote was on page 77 let me
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flip through it and there it is as I
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finish the book next up would be to
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distill the information so I go to the
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back cover and on the back left hand
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side I'm distilling the most important
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lessons I've learned from the book in
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your own words do you write them yep
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brilliant perfect maybe like it's been a
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few months since you built your second
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brain you want to refresh pressure
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memory you just go to the back cover and
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you're like okay what lessons did I find
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important or what did I want to apply
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that I haven't yet applied the last step
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in the framework is to express I try to
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take the lessons I've learned and try to
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figure out how I could turn them into
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actionable device on the inside of the
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back cover you have your expression your
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interpretation which is how you're going
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to apply those lessons exactly and then
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what I also do on the front cover I
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write down the day I start a book and on
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the back cover I write the day I
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finished it and then I could see like
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how that kind of changed the trajectory
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of my life you can either look just at
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those few pages which are kind of a
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snapshot of who you were and what you
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found valuable at that time or you could
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reread it perhaps jumping around based
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on your custom table of contents even
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see it in a different line Come Away
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with different lessons when do you do
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this as you're reading do you stop and
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then go add something to the table of
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contents and something to the lessons or
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do you like batch it into stages as I'm
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reading it I'll wait till I finish the
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page before I start highlighting because
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otherwise I kind of find everything
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interesting it is kind of a balance
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because if I go to write it it kind of
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breaks the flow of the reading so what
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I'll often do is I'll dog here Mark the
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page or I'll just like put a star next
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to it that's super important and then
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once I finish the chapter that'll take
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like a few minutes to like just write it
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down quickly and I'll go back to the
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reading process it might depend on the
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book too right like some books that are
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intellectually dense if you stop
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dissolves right other books are almost
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like each paragraph is just one idea
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very simple and you can almost stop
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anywhere and just keep going the next
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time so there's probably like a
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calibration depending on the subject how
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and when does that make the jump into
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digital what is the bridge between the
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paper world and the digital world
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usually after like I finish a book my
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one wait a few days just to like kind of
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cool off and then kind of go back to it
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and revisit the back cover where it's
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like the lessons and actionable device
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if you read a book like Atomic habits
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you can't just apply 20 habits at once
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so yeah I just came up with like a rule
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of three let me just find like three
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lessons and three pieces of actionable
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advice and that's kind of like my goal
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with every book I read let me just get
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three and three usually I write the
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newsletter like every Thursday or Friday
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open up a new email doc I'll look at my
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book notes and try to think okay what
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are like the three biggest takeaways I
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had from this book share like a few
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sentences about it once I'm done with
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that is trying to figure out okay now
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that they know these lessons how could
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you possibly apply them or how could you
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take this information turn into
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knowledge once the newsletter goes out
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then I usually copy and paste it and
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then upload it to like notion from the
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moment you read the book I bet part of
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your brain is thinking about the
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newsletter the audience what they're
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gonna think what they're gonna expect
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right so it's like you have a reason to
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keep going in like a like a filter for
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things it takes serious time effort
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energy you have to say no to things to
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say yes to books it's a really cool
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point to like build an accountability to
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your life and not just assume you're
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gonna on a regular basis decide oh I'm
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gonna write I'm gonna read a book now I
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love that team first questions like what
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would this look like if it was easy and
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you talk about this in your books like
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you never want to start with a blank
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page so if I read this book and I take
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notes on it I have those notes I'm not
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starting with a blank page so this
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newsletter Echo writing like less than
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an hour like the whole thing so the
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structure of the newsletter mirrors the
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structure of the steps of your
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note-taking process lesson since
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actionable advice yeah it's not like
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you're having to do a lot of like re
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reorganizing exactly so recently
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um been trying to figure out how can I
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digitalize my notes to kind of make it
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easier to find easier to search and just
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bring up old notes or old books that I
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haven't like touched in a while I do
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want to write a book one day it makes
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sense to digitalize my notes make it
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easier to find I just keep like a simple
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notion dock where I have like the bug
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title the author the reading progress if
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I finish the book or how the note-taking
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process is going the rating of the book
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what genre the book ball is in what made
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you choose notion for this one is like a
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free software two is pretty easy to use
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I'll use Apple notes but then usually
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I'll graduate to another system once you
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hit like the ceiling and the system
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breaks like for Twitter I'm not going to
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write Twitter threads in my notes app
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because I can't see the format of it so
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then I move that to typefully the nosap
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is like the high school of where you
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want to keep your nose and then if they
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graduate then you move them to like a
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certain college or specific app or a
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certain area of that so you want the
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nosap as your foundation and then once
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the system breaks or you can't handle it
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or you need more features then you go to
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the next app but for now just stick to
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the basics of the works and then if you
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need something better there's always an
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option out there oh my gosh I love this
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point and I'll talk to people oh yeah I
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want to write a book one day what is the
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ultimate book writing platform oh I want
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to make a video what is the best most
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powerful video editing software used by
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Hollywood Studios Hollywood editors they
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worked up to that they started I think
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usually with informal general purpose
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tools that are not highly specialized
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and then as you actually hit the ceiling
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only then do you move to the next
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solution and even then you just go to
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the minimal next stage it's like you are
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from high school college then your
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Masters then your PhD you don't go from
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high school PhD if it's too complex if
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it's too fancy you're never going to use
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it that's the way I look at it which app
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or like technique am I more likely to
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use and if it works that's the one I'm
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sticking with Simplicity over complex to
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learn more about how to incorporate
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digital and physical notes together
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watch this video next
