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Last post Author Topic: Awesome article re: organization and notetaking  (Read 49262 times)

jack99999

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Re: Awesome article re: organization and notetaking
« Reply #50 on: February 01, 2009, 01:55 PM »
well, it seems to be a cross between a research tool, a mindmapping tool, and a Getting Things Done tool.

it is quite interesting.

personally, for saving stuff from the web i really like zotero, and for GTD i'm using ThinkingRock. but i might have a bit of a ply with personalbrain, just to see whether i can make it work for task-oriented stuff.

jack

J-Mac

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Re: Awesome article re: organization and notetaking
« Reply #51 on: February 01, 2009, 02:39 PM »
I installed Personal Brain, the free version, but to be honest it's not a tool I can use. Pretty esoteric; I do consider it to be a mind mapping tool. It's not identical to mind mapping but it is the same general concept - to visually/graphically layout you thoughts and ideas rather than using a tabular format. Here's the developer's one-line description of their version 5 release:

"PersonalBrain 5 pushes the boundaries of visual information management and mind mapping yet again."
-Personal Brain 5 Feature List

Personal Brain is not exactly affordable though at $150 for the Personal version and $250 for the Pro version, IMO. And if you want Outlook integration, reminders, and permission to install on two computers you must purchase the Pro version. Sure, they have a free version but it is pretty limited. E.g., you cannot attach any files nor print any reports from the free version. As a matter of fact you can't do much more than look at it!

Like I said, not for me, though it apparently has a decent following.

Jim

Paul Keith

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Re: Awesome article re: organization and notetaking
« Reply #52 on: February 01, 2009, 05:47 PM »
well, it seems to be a cross between a research tool, a mindmapping tool, and a Getting Things Done tool.

it is quite interesting.

personally, for saving stuff from the web i really like zotero, and for GTD i'm using ThinkingRock. but i might have a bit of a ply with personalbrain, just to see whether i can make it work for task-oriented stuff.

jack

Thanks for that jack but I think you'll have to find a single term for that to convince other people. People who don't know better tend to lump all those apps into mindmapping tools. 

Believe me I get that semantic annoyance too when people refer to Compendium as a "mindmapping" tool but then I equally get annoyed too when they call Freemind a "mindmapping" tool.  ;D

Case in point, Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.co.../search/mindmapping/

GTD can definitely be done on The Brain although I would consider a GTD'd PersonalBrain as still a "toy" in the context of how David Allen uses it unless that program is your sole system and you have a very powerful machine to handle the kind of load PersonalBrain will eventually put on you.



Source: http://www.notesonpr...e-brain-technologies

I installed Personal Brain, the free version, but to be honest it's not a tool I can use. Pretty esoteric; I do consider it to be a mind mapping tool. It's not identical to mind mapping but it is the same general concept - to visually/graphically layout you thoughts and ideas rather than using a tabular format.
-J-Mac

http://www.davidco.c...howthread.php?t=8422

http://www.davidco.c...ndex.php/t-7243.html

In a sense, Personal Brain is a true "Mind Mapping"program, although not in the sense that you may think of (e.g. it does not do Buzan-style mindmaps). I plan to use this as yet another tool in my productivity tool box.

Well you have to understand some people take issues with calling every diagram tool a mindmapping tool especially a Buzan-style mindmap or even worse an inferior tool that is basically just a mind map and very few other things at all that pushes the concept further.


The subtlety is no more different than you feeling that Ultra Recall isn't a notetaker because of it's capabilities. Sure, you wouldn't die head over heels trying to defend that to someone with a different opinion (although if I were in your place I'd definitely start an argument  :P) but it takes getting used to and almost seems laughable although "mindmaps" the term, due to it's vague general adaptation can be considered a more valid argument but at the same time more unfair one.


More valid because unlike notetaking, anything with map-like qualities of anything you would normally write on a note can fall under mindmapping. More unfair because unlike notetakers, not only do many applications like Compendium and PersonalBrain shun away from the mindmapping term because of it's limitations and only sometimes use it to market and make things easier for new users to digest what it is, often times these applications have more roots on the term concept mapping and have an altogether different vision in life than merely mindmapping because mindmapping in reality, based on most people's understanding, isn't suitable for notetaking at all much less the load applications like PersonalBrain are supposedly made to handle.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 05:53 PM by Paul Keith »