This month in our Second Brain Membership, we’re tackling one of the top productivity killers every knowledge worker faces: meetings that drain energy instead of generating progress.

Your calendar says you’re busy, but your projects say otherwise.

We’re going to change that by showing you how to design and run meetings that actually drive action, clarify objectives, and foster real collaboration.

Here’s what our team will explore in the weekly Office Hours:

• 9/9: How to Make Your Meetings 10x More Productive - Learn the fundamental principles that separate productive meetings from time-wasters, plus a simple framework you can apply immediately.
• 9/16: The CODE Meeting Framework - Discover how to structure any meeting using the same methodology that makes your Second Brain so effective.
• 9/23: AI Meeting Intelligence - Explore how to leverage AI for better meeting preparation, real-time assistance, and follow-up actions.
• 9/30: Meeting Documentation as Knowledge Assets - Transform your meeting notes into valuable knowledge that compounds over time.

(You'll also unlock instant access to everything we've covered so far—past themes, Office Hours, expert workshops, and more.)

Why Strategic Context Beats AI Tools Every Time (6-Question Framework)

Most businesses are starting to drown in AI chaos, throwing money at random experiments without seeing results.

I brought the co-facilitator of our Second Brain Enterprise program, Dale Meador, on the channel to share his six-question framework that creates crucial strategic context before AI implementation.

Using AI without strategic context is like strapping a jet engine to a bicycle. You have power but no foundation to harness it.

Stop Chasing New Models, Start Building Context

The AI arms race has shifted. While everyone obsesses over the latest model releases, the real competitive advantage now lies in context engineering—the information and background you provide to your AI.

Here’s what this means practically:

• A “worse” AI model with rich, relevant context will consistently outperform a cutting-edge model with minimal context
• You can now ignore roughly one-third of AI news that focuses purely on new model releases
• Your energy is better spent building comprehensive context documents than waiting for the next GPT version

This shift is liberating. Instead of constantly switching between the newest tools, you can focus on what actually moves the needle: gathering better information, writing clearer prompts, and building robust context libraries for your specific use cases.

Action step: Pick one AI task you do regularly and spend 30 minutes building a detailed context document for it. Test whether this improves your results more than switching to a “better” model.

Reply and tell me what you discovered when you prioritized context over chasing the latest release.

Book Recommendation: Reshuffle by Sangeet Paul Choudary

I picked up Reshuffle expecting another “AI will change everything” book. Instead, I found something much more valuable: a clear-eyed look at how AI actually works as an economic force.

Choudary’s insight is brilliant in its simplicity. AI isn’t just a better calculator—it’s a coordination engine. He shows how the shipping container didn’t just move goods faster, it reorganized global trade itself. Now AI is doing the same thing to entire industries.

What I love most is how he uses concrete examples. Google Maps doesn’t just give you directions—it coordinates millions of drivers in real time. That’s the pattern he sees everywhere: AI bridging gaps between fragmented systems.

If you’re trying to understand where AI is actually heading (beyond the hype), this book delivers the framework you need.