Introducing Reflect

A message from Alex

My goal with Reflect is to improve your thinking. Ambitious? Perhaps, but surely something worth spending time on.

Analog vs digital

Our brains are analog machines. This means they're super efficient. We can effortlessly beat super-computers (although at a dwindling list of things), all while using less energy than your bedside lamp.

But analog has a serious downside: it's error prone. We run into this every day. We forget stuff. We make bad decisions. We suffer from cognitive biases. That's just part of the human condition.

I think that's why I find computers so compelling. They're an oasis of logic in an irrational desert. When I’m programming it often feels like first-contact with an alien intelligence. It’s becoming clear that our future lies with these machines, bridging the analog and digital worlds. 

Human ingenuity combined with machine infallibility… now that’s a force to be reckoned with. One day we’ll truly achieve that with Neurolink. In the meantime, Reflect will have to do.

So what is Reflect?

Reflect is a networked note-taking tool. It’s designed to be super fast, secure, and always available. The difference between this and say Apple Notes, is that notes can be linked to each other. We call this backlinking and it mirrors the way that your neurons are connected inside your brain.

Think about how a conversation flows. Topics flow into each other via associations. You’re talking about one thing, and then segway into talking about another thing. This happens because associations are fundamental to how our memory works.

Backlinking a note in Reflect associates it with another note. Say you want to associate a note about Elon Musk with a note about Tesla - you’d backlink them together. Behind the scenes this creates a graph that mirrors how your brain thinks about the two entities. 

The advantage of digitizing these relationships is that computers don’t forget things. And, while you might not forget that Elon is the CEO of Tesla, you will certainly forget other associations. Things that might be very important to your work and relationships.

How to use Reflect

Treat Reflect like your brain’s digital hemisphere. It's private, encrypted, and distinctly yours. Put a running commentary of your life in the Daily Notes, and make sure to backlink entities (people, companies, books, etc).

Over time as you write more notes and backlink more entities a graph will form. This graph will represent your life. It’ll contain your thoughts, your research, the books you read, the people you meet. Consider this your infallible second brain.

Then, when the time comes, use Reflect as a crutch. You've forgotten something. Or maybe you're trying to find that VC you met last year. Or you want to pull up some research you did. Some book that made an impression. It's all at your fingertips. Instant access and retrieval. A superpower.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. This is going to be a lot of fun!

Love Alex