Jerry's Brain

Curated knowledge at its finest

1 follower

Curated knowledge at its finest

1 follower

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Hunter

So Jerry's Brain is a really weird product. It's kind of like a special curator at the Smithsonian made an app connecting all the things he found most interesting in the world, and offered it to the world for consideration—while he continues to curate and expand it. I first got a demo of Jerry's native visual database in 2006 at one of Jerry's Retreats in Oaxaca. This was way before quantified self existed — and was the first real example that I'd seen of someone lifelogging his mind. The demo he gave back then was pretty amazing, enabling him to revisit thoughts and memories through associations that allowed Jerry to explain the origin, context, and meaning of every node in the database... like a memory palace on steroids. Anyway, now he's made this app and even though it looks dated by today's standards, you have to appreciate the amount of raw meaning, content, and context contained in the app's datastore. And if $0.99 is too high a price to pay, you can always visit the web version for free.

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12yr ago

Howdy! Jerry (the wet version) checking in here. Chris, thank you for your super description of your run-in with my Brain. You've been in there a long, long time :) Happy to answer questions here. I also created a Fb page for it at https://www.facebook.com/groups/... It's an odd feeling to have something so personal available for public perusal, but I love it. It's doubly odd to see an icon on friends' iPhones and iPads with my face on it. Several have sent screen shots, just for grins. Compared to all the other inert, impersonal icons in that world, it seems different and cool. ThaBrain's not perfect, but it's by far the best of all the things like it that I've ever seen (all of which are catalogued in my Brain, under thoughts like Concept Mapping, Visual Analysis Tools, Visual Search Tools and Brainstorming Tools.

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12yr ago

An update: Jim Fallows wrote an update about my Brain in The Atlantic today. It's over here: http://www.theatlantic.com/techn...

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11yr ago

Kitty

He should have named the app "Jerry"

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12yr ago

Raycast

Hunter

@gliechtenstein well, Jerry (@jerrymichalski) has been working on his "brain" for a very long time, and has always called it "Jerry's Brain". I suppose if he were to follow the trend that you've set, then yes, "Jerry" might be the more fashionable choice. :)

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12yr ago

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