From someone who never loved reading,to helping a group of people actually get theirMy Second Brain is finally up and running.

At 30, my money, time, and confidence were all burned out

I never liked reading since I was young. It wasn't that I couldn't learn; I just disliked being told "what you should study." In high school and college, I got into fights, skipped class, hung out at internet cafes, and played in a band. My family's four-character verdict on me was: "Good for nothing."

At 30, I made the first major decision of my life—start a business. A physical event business, to be specific. It failed completely—burning through my money, time, confidence, and relationships all at once.

That was the first time I seriously thought: the gap between "wanting to do it" and "being able to get it done" isn't passion, it'sthe books I never read. Before I turned 30, I hadn't finished a single extracurricular book, and my monthly salary of 35K was the lowest among my classmates.

After gaining 15 kg, I asked myself a question

After that year of failure, I seriously studied business. I read books, took courses, and took Notes every day, barely leaving the house for a year and a half. During this time, I met a life mentor—he was truly amazing. What I learned from him transformed me from "someone who can't get things done" to "someone who can get things done."

But the cost was very real: kneeling, writing letters of repentance, gaining 15 kg, and hair loss. After leaving that relationship, I asked myself one question:

This question changed my life. From that moment on, I startedLearning for Myself—not to please anyone, not to prove anything, but simply because Learning itself brings me joy.

Great at collecting, but completely unable to use it

After studying business for two years, I realized a problem—I read so much and took so many Notes every day, but I couldn't remember where the key points were. I became very good at "collecting knowledge," but completely unable to "use knowledge."

During that period of anxiety, I encountered Heptabase—a tool for organizing thoughts using whiteboards and cards. The first day I opened it, I felt like "Ah,so this is what my mind can look like」 feeling.

Things you can't learn even after watching 100 courses

In the second half of 2024, I discovered something interesting—among my friends and students who had taken several PKM courses, not a single one had actually gotten their Second Brain running.

I went through their vaults: the card granularity was too coarse, tags were scattered, the inbox was never processed, and writing articles started from scratch instead of growing out of cards—these are problems you can’t learn from a hundred online courses. You need someone whocan watch over youto point them out before things change.

So I started offering 1:1 PKM consultations. I accompanied individuals one by one, reviewed their vaults, refined their workflows, and tracked their progress. I established Caitopang Co., Ltd., and my monthly income grew from 35K to 300K. I gave 25 talks across the strait, from Taipei, Shanghai, and Hangzhou all the way to Suzhou and Jiangsu.

Prioritize warmth over scale

In March 2026, I launched the first cohort of the SHAPE Knowledge Management PKM course, enrolling 30 students. It’s a bimonthly program covering everything from tool selection to workflow implementation, with me guiding you personally. The participants included product managers, freelance consultants, scholars, creators, and psychotherapists.

Real testimonials from the first cohort's students will appear gradually after mid-May. For the second cohort, I upgraded it to"AI Mind Upgrade 321": The first brain for thinking, the Second Brain for nurturing your knowledge base, and the third brain for managing AI employees—nurturing three brains together. Classes start on 10/22, with live streams every Thursday at 8 PM.

This path is slow, deep, and expensive, and cannot be scaled—but this is the format I have chosen.Prioritize warmth over scale。