One folder, three companies
My entire operating system is plain text in a folder I own. Every new AI tool just reads the same files. That's the whole trick.
People assume running three companies means a stack of dashboards. It doesn't. It means one folder of markdown files on my laptop.
Everything is in there: the companies, the decisions, the numbers, the goals, the daily log. Not in Notion. Not in a SaaS tool. Just text, in a folder, that I own.
Every note in the vault, linked. This is the whole operation in one view.
Why text, why a folder
The tools change every few months. A new model ships, a new framework gets popular, the app you depended on pivots or dies. If your business lives inside one of those tools, every change is a migration and you are a hostage.
If your business lives in plain text in a folder, the tools come to you. When I switched AI tools, I didn't move anything — I pointed the new one at the same folder. When a model upgraded, my notes didn't change. Different tool, same data layer.
I once moved 700 video ideas out of Notion and into my folder in about three minutes — copy, paste, done. Try doing that out of a closed tool two years from now. You can't. You're stuck. Text in a folder you control is portable forever.
The second brain
That's what I call it: a second brain. A single place an AI can read to understand my whole operation — what each company is, what I value, what I'm trying to do this week — and then actually help, because it has the context.
It's not about chasing the newest AI. It's the opposite. Own the layer that doesn't move. Let the commodity tools serve your structure instead of the other way around.