In a recent LinkedIn post, Linas Beliūnas explores a fascinating concept: the architecture of our own minds and how we organize knowledge. Beliūnas highlights a project by developer @poetengineer__ who created a 3D map of their mind, visualizing the relationships between ideas using embeddings and LLM labels. This visualization, Beliūnas suggests, reveals that our thinking has a distinct ‘shape’ that is often more fragmented than we realize.
Beliūnas shares the developer’s findings on different thinking structures:
“Centralized
Everything orbits one core idea
Looks coherent. Breaks easily.”
This ‘centralized’ model, as described by Beliūnas, appears organized but lacks resilience. He contrasts this with other observed patterns.
Understanding Different Thinking Architectures
Beliūnas details two other prevalent structures observed in the mind-mapping project. The ‘decentralized’ model, he explains, is characterized by distinct clusters of knowledge, such as those for AI, design, or systems. While this structure can feel productive, Beliūnas points out that it often leads to knowledge remaining siloed, hindering cross-pollination of ideas.
“Decentralized
Clean clusters (AI, design, systems)
Feels productive. Stays siloed.”
The third model, ‘distributed,’ is described by Beliūnas as a complex, messy web of connections spanning across different domains. While this structure is harder to manage, it is precisely where novel ideas tend to emerge. The developer’s demo, as Beliūnas notes, visualizes these relationships, with nodes like “perceptron controversy” acting as gravity centers and clusters being auto-labeled.
The Illusion of Networked Minds
According to Linas Beliūnas, the mind map’s revelations challenge the notion that most people possess a truly ‘networked mind.’ Instead, he argues, many individuals operate with organized silos that have weak connections between them. This, in Beliūnas’s view, is a primary reason why intelligent people often feel intellectually stuck.
“Because insight doesn’t live in notes. It lives in the connections between them.”
Beliūnas emphasizes that the value lies not in the quantity of information we possess, but in the quality of the connections we forge between ideas. He draws an analogy, urging readers to shift their perspective:
From Knowledge Storage to Knowledge Architecture
Linas Beliūnas proposes a fundamental re-framing of how we approach knowledge. He advocates for treating knowledge not as a passive storage system, but as an active architectural endeavor.
“We should stop treating knowledge like storage and start treating it like architecture.”
This perspective shift, Beliūnas suggests, means that accumulating more notes is less important than consciously shaping how these notes and ideas relate to one another. The ability to visualize and understand the structure of one’s own thinking is crucial, as it opens the door to redesigning it for greater cognitive efficiency and creativity. Ultimately, Beliūnas concludes, true intelligence is fostered by the effective collision and interaction of ideas.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Linas Beliūnas on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on April 6, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →