Tagging Thoughts
Just a few more ideas about tagging in relation to Evernote in the previous post.
Most "modern" computer metaphors are still anchored in the model of a "desktop." Both the operating systems and applications have propagated this scheme. You have folders which can contain content or other folders in a hierarchy. They may be dressed up with tabs, but they are still tied to physical ordering.
Getting used to tags opens a new paradigm. Imagine being able to throw some scrap of information in a file that is tagged with a number of attributes.. "idea", "psychology", "think about", "project x." With tags it's like you made multiple copies of this scrap and put it in several folders. This metaphor breaks down, however, because you can also have a set of virtual folders that is the intersection between tags. You can look for all your "ideas" or you can look for "ideas" to "think about" or "ideas" for "projects" or "projects", "home", "next steps" and slice and dice what you want to be looking at/for. I have a tag called "Why Not Do This?" that just captures fun things to explore more deeply if I'm looking for diversion.
I can't say I've mastered this yet. I'm still discovering ways the old physical model makes my classifications more rigid than they need to be. It's also a fun exploration of your own taxonomies of thought and structuring something more akin to how your mind organizes things in its own unique way.
I'm finding it useful for a whole bunch of things. One of its major advantages is for any sort of research, especially casual research. With the ability to easily capture a page or selection, tag it with where it relates to my current interests, projects or musings, I also feel better that I'm not just wasting time on some transient information that will never make it past my short term memory stores. Kinda cool.
Most "modern" computer metaphors are still anchored in the model of a "desktop." Both the operating systems and applications have propagated this scheme. You have folders which can contain content or other folders in a hierarchy. They may be dressed up with tabs, but they are still tied to physical ordering.
Getting used to tags opens a new paradigm. Imagine being able to throw some scrap of information in a file that is tagged with a number of attributes.. "idea", "psychology", "think about", "project x." With tags it's like you made multiple copies of this scrap and put it in several folders. This metaphor breaks down, however, because you can also have a set of virtual folders that is the intersection between tags. You can look for all your "ideas" or you can look for "ideas" to "think about" or "ideas" for "projects" or "projects", "home", "next steps" and slice and dice what you want to be looking at/for. I have a tag called "Why Not Do This?" that just captures fun things to explore more deeply if I'm looking for diversion.
I can't say I've mastered this yet. I'm still discovering ways the old physical model makes my classifications more rigid than they need to be. It's also a fun exploration of your own taxonomies of thought and structuring something more akin to how your mind organizes things in its own unique way.
I'm finding it useful for a whole bunch of things. One of its major advantages is for any sort of research, especially casual research. With the ability to easily capture a page or selection, tag it with where it relates to my current interests, projects or musings, I also feel better that I'm not just wasting time on some transient information that will never make it past my short term memory stores. Kinda cool.
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