YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Stop Using Obsidian for Your Second Brain, Use This Instead

Stop Using Obsidian for Your Second Brain, Use This Instead — Transcript

by Ben AI · 2,512 words · 363 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00Using a second brain for Claude is
0:01probably the most valuable thing you can
0:03do in AI right now. But while most
0:05people have been setting it up with a
0:06tool called Obsidian, there are real
0:08limitations with this tool, especially
0:10in team settings. So, in this video,
0:12I'll show you a new app that me and my
0:14team built that has all of the features
0:16that Obsidian lacks as a second brain,
0:18including easy team sharing, permission
0:20settings, automatic backups, and more.
0:22I'll show you a full demo and show you
0:24why you might want to consider using it,
0:26how to set it up fast and for free, even
0:28if you're new to the concept of a second
0:30brain. Now, the app we built is called
0:32Balder, but before showing you a a demo
0:34and all of the features of this tool,
0:36let me quickly go over who this is
0:37actually for and why I built it in the
0:39first place. Now, if you've been on
0:40YouTube over the last couple of months,
0:42you've seen the concept of a second
0:43brain or AI operating system everywhere.
0:46Uh it's blown up because of one simple
0:47reason, it gives your AI agent
0:49persistent context and memory across
0:51different chats, across different AI
0:53providers, and even across your entire
0:55team. And this means that instead of
0:57your AI tool giving you generic outputs,
1:00uh you and your team's AI agents can
1:02always pull relevant context and have
1:04memory, giving you far better output.
1:06Now, all of this context around your
1:08business, your team, and the memory, of
1:10course, just lives in uh text files on a
1:13folder in your on your computer that you
1:15give your AI agent access to with folder
1:17access, uh so it can use it to give you
1:20better output. But because this becomes
1:22messy quickly with hundreds of files and
1:24subfolders, most people have been using
1:26this tool, Obsidian, in order to
1:28organize all of these files and these
1:30folders in a better way. Because, of
1:31course, what Obsidian is, this tool is
1:33just a visual overlay of a folder on
1:36your computer. And even though it is a
1:38great tool, if you've been using it uh
1:40for yourself, maybe across your team, or
1:42maybe even uh implemented it for clients
1:45or other people, you might have noticed
1:47some real limitations with the tool uh
1:49for the second brain use case, which is
1:51exactly why I built this app. So, what
1:52limitations am I talking about? Firstly,
1:54there's no team sharing or team syncing
1:57of the context and memory in your second
1:59brain directly from Obsidian. Secondly,
2:01there are no permission settings in a
2:03team setting, so you can't have some
2:05files private, some read only, and some
2:07open to the whole team. We also don't
2:09have version control or backups. So,
2:11when something goes wrong, and sometimes
2:13things go wrong in your second brain,
2:15there's no real way back. And also, you
2:17can't turn your second brain into a
2:19connector or an MCP, which means no
2:21schedule tasks or routines can
2:23automatically update your second brain
2:25to keep it up to date with your latest
2:28meeting transcripts, your email
2:29communication, your lead statuses, or
2:32any other relevant information you need
2:34to have up-to-date info in your second
2:36brain. Now, because of these
2:37limitations, many people have been using
2:39a variety of solutions to sort of build
2:42workarounds for these problems through
2:44maybe GitHub, Google Drive, Dropbox,
2:47iCloud, Notion, or an Obsidian plugin
2:50called Relay. I've used a few of these
2:52myself, and you might have seen them on
2:54my channel. But, if you've tried some of
2:56these, you know that most of these are
2:58sort of clunky workarounds instead of
2:59real solutions. And depending on the
3:02exact workaround you use, there are
3:03always usually still limitations.
3:06Mostly, they're either not real-time
3:08syncing and updating, meaning you can
3:09get conflicts in your context docs, or
3:12you need to do manual backups. There are
3:14no straightforward permission settings.
3:16And in essence, it just becomes also
3:18just very impractical, technical, and
3:20error-prone, especially to set it up
3:22across a team that might not be that
3:24technical. And this is exactly why we
3:26decided to build our own app that gets
3:28around all of these limitations. It
3:29basically takes all of the good things
3:31from Obsidian, and then we have added
3:33the features that are missing to
3:34actually make this practical to roll out
3:36across a business. Now, it's an
3:37open-source app, so you can use it for
3:39free for yourself. You can also use our
3:42hosted version. The link also will be in
3:44the description below. You can use and
3:46download it for yourself for free, and
3:49I'll walk you through how it works and
3:50how to set it up, including how to set
3:51up your initial second brain if you're
3:53still new to that. So, as you can see,
3:54it looks very similar to Obsidian. It's
3:56essentially the same concept. Um so,
3:59it's still connected to a folder on your
4:00computer, and it's just a nicer way to
4:03um visualize some of these MD files. We
4:05also still have these wiki links, of
4:07course, and we also still have the graph
4:09view uh that many people like from
4:11Obsidian. But, we've implemented all of
4:12the features that are lacking in
4:14Obsidian to make this, I think, a better
4:15setup if you use it as a second brain.
4:18Now, firstly, we have implemented easy
4:20team sharing and real-time sync. So, for
4:22sharing uh a second brain setup with a
4:25team member, all you need to do is go
4:26into your settings, go into vault
4:28settings,
4:29go to members, and there you can just
4:31invite one of your team members with an
4:33email.
4:35You can decide if they become an admin
4:37or a member.
4:39And when they download the app and log
4:40in, they just need to fill out one code
4:43uh and the entire second brain will be
4:45instantly loaded and set up on their
4:47computer. So, we don't actually need to
4:49share folders with other team members
4:51that are maybe non-technical
4:53or not really AI native, and they don't
4:55have to do any technical setup. It will
4:57be automatically loaded into their vault
4:59account. And then, second, we have
5:00real-time sync. So, when I or one of my
5:02agents or anyone else across the team
5:04updates one of these docs, for example,
5:06here, it's updated and synced in real
5:09time across the entire team's second
5:11brain. And because there are no delays
5:13uh like with many of these workaround
5:14solutions that I covered, you won't have
5:16any issues with conflicts, etc. We can
5:19even see our team members if they're
5:20inside of the doc or adapting something
5:22live. We can also have multiple second
5:25brain or folders here in the same
5:26account. Um for example, if you have one
5:29personal one and one for your team, you
5:31can share it easily and switch between
5:33them very easily.
5:34Now, the next thing we've built in,
5:35which we've seen a big need for across
5:37businesses, is all the permission and
5:39control settings that you might need.
5:41So, again, in the vault settings, we
5:43have a tab called access. And here we
5:45can basically decide for every folder,
5:47subfolder, or file to set it on shared,
5:50read-only, or private, so it's only for
5:52you. Or I can do it for a specific file,
5:55like my strategy doc, and I can even
5:57have member-specific
5:58uh permission settings. So, I can decide
6:00it for each of the
6:01team members in my account if it needs
6:03to be read-only or um shared. Next,
6:06we've also built in automatic backups
6:08and version history, so backups will
6:10basically be made every day
6:11automatically or can be created manually
6:13here. And also the second brain owner,
6:16which I'm not in this case, can also
6:17revert the second brain to an old backup
6:20at any time. The version history can
6:22also be checked for each of the files by
6:24just uh clicking here, where you can
6:26then see when a change was made and by
6:27who, and can also be reverted. Next, it
6:31also has a built-in MCP and connector
6:33for Claude or any other AI tool you use,
6:35and this means we can basically run
6:36Claude routines or schedule tasks that
6:39can automatically pull real-time context
6:41from your softwares, uh for example,
6:42your meeting transcripts or your email
6:44communication, and automatically update
6:46your second brain with the latest data.
6:48So, all you need to do is just copy this
6:49link here, go to your connectors, click
6:52on add, click on add custom connector,
6:54add in the link here, give it the name
6:56you want, for example, second brain.
6:58Now, mine's already connected, but you
6:59click continue. Then you can just look
7:01for it, second brain.
7:03You then click on connect here. You log
7:06in You log in to your account, and then
7:08you can see all your vaults appearing,
7:09and you can decide for which vault you
7:11want to create this connector or MCP.
7:13So, in this case, I'll choose this one.
7:15And now I have an active MCP or
7:16connector setup in Claude that can
7:18access my second brain. And again, this
7:20means that I can now run routines here
7:22um where automatically, for example,
7:24meeting transcripts get updated as soon
7:26as meeting finished. Now, if you don't
7:28know how to set up these routines yet, I
7:29have a full tutorial uh also covering
7:31this, which I'll also make sure to link
7:33in the description below. And in my AI
7:34accelerator, we also have a full uh
7:36second brain course together with skills
7:38that actually help you set up these
7:39routines and set up your initial second
7:41brain a lot easier and faster. So, if
7:44you don't have it set up yet or these
7:45routines yet and you want to do it a bit
7:47easier, definitely check out my AI
7:49accelerator. Now, lastly, we've made the
7:50app entirely open source and this
7:52basically means two things for you.
7:54First,
7:55we've allowed for basically easy
7:56self-hosting. So, by default, the data
8:00will basically be synced through the
8:01server that we manage for the app, but
8:03you can also easily set up your own
8:05self-hosted version. So, the data will
8:08only run through your own servers and
8:10can also maybe
8:12a GDPR compliant if that's a need for
8:14you. All you need to do is go to the
8:15GitHub repository of Baldur, which I'll
8:17also link in the description below. If
8:19you scroll down here, you'll see an
8:22option of self-hosting, which is here.
8:25You then just click here on deploy on
8:27Railway. You create your own Railway
8:29account, of course, and you can set up
8:30your own server.
8:32And then when you're back into the app,
8:33you can just replace this link for your
8:35own server link and then you basically
8:37have it self-hosted. I've also prepared
8:39a full step-by-step guide that you can
8:41go through. It covers basically all the
8:42features of the app and how to use it,
8:44including step-by-step how to set up
8:46your own self-hosting version
8:48in the first link in the description
8:49below, so you can check it out and read
8:51it in more detail. And secondly, because
8:53it's open source, of course, it also
8:54means you can fork it
8:56and basically either improve our entire
8:58app or their features. You can customize
9:00it, basically do whatever you want with
9:01it for yourself.
9:03Again, you can just find the GitHub link
9:05in the description below. So, how do you
9:06set it up? Really easy. You just go to
9:08baldur.com. Again, link in the
9:10description. You can just download it
9:11for your specific computer. Once you've
9:14installed the app, you'll land on the
9:15onboarding screen. Here you can either
9:17create a new vault, which basically
9:18creates a new folder on your computer.
9:20You can open an existing one, of course,
9:22if you already have a second brain. You
9:23can just open your existing folder
9:26through this option or you can join a
9:28team. So, if you've already been
9:29invited, you can just log in with that
9:31email and put in the code and
9:33automatically that entire
9:35second brain will be updated in into
9:37your account. Now, of course, if you
9:38don't actually have the files yet or a
9:40second brain yet, that's the first thing
9:41you need to do. Again, I have a full
9:43video covering exactly how to set this
9:45up fast. Also, you can check out my AI
9:47accelerator where we have a full second
9:49brain setup course together with the
9:51skills that make this entire process
9:52really fast and easy for you to do.
9:55We also offer unlimited one-on-one live
9:57tech calls to help you with any issues
9:58you might be facing and a community of
10:00serious business owners and
10:01professionals, many of which have
10:03already rolled out a second brain
10:05successfully across their teams. And I
10:07also just launched three new beginner to
10:09advanced cloud courses, so definitely
10:10check it out if you want to set this up
10:13a little bit faster and in the right
10:14way. Now, when you're signed in with a
10:15new account, automatic syncing and team
10:18sharing it's not turned on yet, you so
10:19you can just go to your vault settings,
10:21go to general, and here you just click
10:23on turn on sync. Now, it sets up the
10:25server for you, uploads all the file
10:28files there, and now you can see we get
10:30all of the options. So, you can, of
10:31course, invite your team members. You
10:32can also create your MCP from here. You
10:35can set up the permission settings from
10:36access. And in order to use it, of
10:38course, it works exactly like
10:40you used to with a second brain. Here in
10:42general, you can also see where the
10:44folder is stored. And then in your AI
10:46provider, you just find that exact
10:48folder to give your AI agent access to
10:50the second brain.
10:51And if you want to self-host it, of
10:52course, you have to set up and deploy it
10:54on your own Railway server,
10:56and then you can just go to your account
10:57settings
10:58to connection and change it to your
11:00server link. Now, we built this a couple
11:02of weeks ago. We've been actively using
11:04it, and it's working really well for us,
11:06but as it is new, we'd love to get your
11:08feedback. So, please let me know in the
11:10comments below. I'd really appreciate
11:11it. And again, if you're looking to dive
11:13deeper into this and work closer with me
11:15and my team and get the full second
11:16brain course including the skills that
11:18make this entire process of setting up
11:20your second brain a lot faster and
11:21easier and according to our file
11:23structure, definitely check out my AI
11:25accelerator in link in the description
11:27below. And if you want to learn more
11:28about AI and a second brain, you can
11:30check out the video here above.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Stop Using Obsidian for Your Second Brain, Use This Instead by Ben AI, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,512 words across 363 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.