An AI second brain that does the filing for you
A second brain is a system outside your head for what you want to remember. An AI second brain reads what you save, files it by meaning and summarizes it, so finding it later is a question instead of a search.
Most second brains fail at the same step. Saving is easy. Organizing and summarizing everything you saved is a second job, and nobody keeps doing it.
Butter chicken
Sourdough
Pastel de nata
Lisbon cafes
Goa, 3 days
Back stretch
Pull up plan
CookingTravelFitness
What is an AI second brain?
A second brain is a system outside your head for the things you want to remember: articles, videos, ideas, notes. Tiago Forte made the term popular with his book Building a Second Brain, and its four steps, Capture, Organize, Distill and Express.
An AI second brain keeps the first step for you and does the middle two itself. It reads what you save, files it by meaning, and summarizes it, so the last step is a question instead of a search through folders.
The four steps, by hand and with AI
- ### Capture
By hand
You save it.
With Dissect
You save it. Same as before, from any app.
Butter chicken
- ### Organize
By hand
You pick a folder or a tag.
With Dissect
It reads the thing and tags it by what it is about.
Butter chicken
butter-chicken
weeknight
- ### Distill
By hand
You highlight and write a summary.
With Dissect
It writes the summary and transcribes video and audio.
Butter chicken
Bloom the spices in butter first
- ### Express
By hand
You go looking for it when you need it.
With Dissect
You ask a question and get an answer with the source attached.
What was the trick with the sauce?
Bloom the spices in butter first.Butter chicken
Butter chicken
Butter chicken
butter-chicken
weeknight
Butter chicken
Bloom the spices in butter first
What was the trick with the sauce?
Bloom the spices in butter first.Butter chicken
Where it falls short
Dissect is built for what you save, not what you write. If your second brain is mostly your own notes and the links between them, a notes app like Notion or Obsidian is the better home, and you can still save into Dissect alongside it.
Pages behind a login cannot be read, so those are saved with whatever was reachable. And reading costs money, which is why the free plan caps it at 10 saves a month.
Questions people ask
What is an AI second brain?
A place outside your head for what you want to remember, where AI does the organizing. It reads what you save, tags it by what it is about, summarizes it, and answers questions about it later.
Where does the term second brain come from?
Tiago Forte popularised it with his book Building a Second Brain. His method has four steps: Capture, Organize, Distill and Express.
Is Notion an AI second brain?
Notion can be one if you build it. You write the pages, design the structure and keep it tidy, and its AI works on what you wrote. Dissect starts from what you save and does the filing itself.
What can I save into Dissect?
Links from around forty-five sites including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X, plus PDFs, documents, images, screenshots and voice notes. You can save from the browser extension, WhatsApp, an Instagram DM to @dissect_ai, or the share sheet on Android.
Is there a free AI second brain?
Dissect is free for 10 saves a month, with no card. Free to start.
Keep reading
- The best second brain appsThe field compared, including the ones we lose to.
- AI bookmark managerWhat it means for a library to read itself.
- Chat with your bookmarksWhat asking your own library actually looks like.
- Dissect vs NotionBuilding a second brain versus capturing one.
Save it. Let it read.
Free to start, no card.
Start your second brainSee pricing
Product
- Pricing & Plans
- AI Bookmark Manager
- AI Second Brain
- Read It Later App
- Chat With Bookmarks
- Browser Extension
- MCP Server (AI Agents)
- WhatsApp Capture
- Instagram Capture
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