Re: Is outlining the best free form database organization?

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 1890

Posted by jonathan.probber
2004-05-12 14:27:24

Greatly enjoying the discussion, though as a non-Steve, I feel reluctant to contribute. Some randoms:

*I’ve used (and paid for) ADM, because there’s a great idea lurking back there somewhere. I’ve been completely unable to integrate it into my working life, maybe because it’s high-concept and I’m not. I agree the interface is gaudy and a bit cheap-looking; that can be fixed.

*Outlining doesn’t represent the best free-form database organization. I think they’re antithetical. That’s why, I guess, I’ve had little success with products which combine the two approaches (like ADM) and loved passionately focused software including Ready! and GrandView (outliners); Tornado Notes (DOS predecessor to InfoSelect) and MemoryMate (free-form text database program).

*Some of this stuff strikes me as so eccentric as to be unusable (Literary Machine springs to mind). I enjoy speculating about the mind behind the software, but give up quickly when I try to work with it.

*Maybe searching for the unified field theory of info management is a waste of time. A good outliner helps me write, textbases can store all kinds of random stuff I need, and a paper address book with a nice leather cover smells better than a PIM.

Best,

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