Processes not tools

Posted by Pixelpunker
Sep 25, 2018 at 07:13 PM

> Stephen Zeoli: I would like to know your definition of “mainstream.”
> It seems to me, on a PC, that means you’re using Microsoft products
> exclusively. If not, then your definition of mainstream is looser than
> mine.

I am thinking about the usual, Office, Sharepoint, Exchange, but also
Lotus/IBM Notes would fit the bill.

> J J Weimer: Respectfully, I think some of the depth of your message
> may get lost in the abruptness of your opening statements.

I certainly don’t want to rile anyone up over their use of finely
crafted software tools made by passionate developers. It is great news
for example that after years of monopoly blandness in the last ten years
serious alternatives to Microsoft Word have sprung up. I also get that
with all the customizing and adaptation of one’s personal workflow one
may get deeply attached to a particular program or platform.

So let me postpone the discussion about the merits of indie programs vs
mainstream programs and talk about the **process** of personal
information management again:

First, what is my objective?

I am talking specifically about personal information management and a
finely curated collection of information rather than a large database
that can only be mined with computer tools.

What I have right now is a hard drive that degenerated into some sort of
black hole. I only collect and rely on search to find anything. I
postpone organizing, pruning and processing the information I’ve
amassed. I also won’t just dump it all because time and time again if
found nuggets of gold in there.

Did you know that Michael Jackson had a full-time archivist that would
categorize, label and archive everything he wrote or recorded? Since I
don’t have the funds for a personal librarian would a tool help that
could organize the information for me?

And even if that tool could at least categorize my information would
that solve the problem of assessing the personal value of each piece of
information? Would it prompt me if the information is time-sensitive?

What method of organization will I use? Put it in a traditional folder
hierarchy? Use aliases so that items can live under multiple headings?
How do I name the headings? Do I tag items (there’s the problem of
synonyms or inconsistent use of tags). Do I use one- or two-way
hyperlinks to make it into a web of associative connections?

Whittaker and Bergman tell me that, surprisingly in light of all the
advanced approaches, the traditional folder or outliner hierarchy is
best and they have some empirical data to back that up. The explanation
for this is that a fixed folder hierarchy leads to retrieval by
locational cues and does not tax the verbal system. It’s sort of like
why the method of loci works as a mnemonic aid. They also determined the
optimal number of items per folder and hierarchy depth that would
optimize the search time by using linear regression:

> “The model suggests an optimization for the trade-off between folder
> size and depth. ... Each additional folder step increases retrieval
> time by 2.235 seconds and each new information item added to a folder
> increases retrieval time by 0.106 seconds. The trade-off between depth
> and size is therefore 2.235/0.106 = 21,0849 21.09 ... We can recommend
> that users avoid storing more than twenty-one information items per
> folder, they should create an additional level of subfolders
> instead.”

As far as naming folders goes everything that helps you remember is
enough, no taxonomy required. This is very different to a public
information space that is shared by many users.

So I will still have to do the digging manually, including trying to
open and convert old file formats. (I noticed that I then loose the
original timestamps, but I want the date preserved I last edited a
document, not the date I converted it to a new format.)

I once stumbled upon in a German book about time management from 1983 on
a checklist for perfect time management. This is Point 4 (my
translation):

————————————————————————————————————-
| I have a system of notes that gives me at any time an overview of all
| my thoughts, plans, commitments and tasks.
————————————————————————————————————-

That is exactly what I want to achieve.

Next up in my reading list: “The Organized Mind”