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For Serious Research: Cadillac of "ClipBoard Managers" vs. "Info/Data Manager"
dr_andus:
These are some power articles.
Per these articles, years ago I got fascinated by that kind of high level theory. But if the "Implementation" has a fatal flaw, in real life you lose months of your productive life. (Speaking from experience!)
-TaoPhoenix (February 18, 2014, 08:16 PM)
--- End quote ---
BTW, it's not necessary to adopt the Luhmann approach in its entirety (I'm not even sure I completely understand it). Instead, I've just adopted some of the basic principles, such as:
- bite-size notes (c. 200 words on ave., 500 words max. per note). One major idea per note.
- no hierarchical organisation (flat alphabetical or chronological list). I keep them in a chronological order.
- make it easy to find the notes by:
-- having descriptive (long) titles, inc. date and time note captured, author's name, year of publication, main topics
-- having categories, labels.
- link related notes together by:
-- using categories and attributes in CT (which create meta-pages, if you click on any of the marked-up terms)
-- using direct (wiki) linking.
The advantages of using CT for this is that there are all kinds of other sophisticated annotation and search tools, plus the software is highly modular, so you can arrange it to suit your idiosyncratic needs. But the above principles can be also adopted for use with a variety of other Zettelkasten or database software that don't require you to define a hierarchical position for your notes upfront.
TaoPhoenix:
...
Instead, I've just adopted some of the basic principles, such as:
- bite-size notes (c. 200 words on ave., 500 words max. per note). One major idea per note.
- no hierarchical organisation (flat alphabetical or chronological list). I keep them in a chronological order.
- make it easy to find the notes by:
-- having descriptive (long) titles, inc. date and time note captured, author's name, year of publication, main topics
-- having categories, labels.
...
-dr_andus (February 19, 2014, 09:10 AM)
--- End quote ---
We're def. getting into personal prefs.
My answer to tags would be a bit like an Excel/clone page with extra "sort columns". So then if "shuffling data" is your thing, with a medium amount of work up front, your data can be presented hierarchically in X ways.
I'm pretty big on at least fluid hierarchy because I believe almost all data exists in *some* hierarchy. Even if you're not sure if you want to deal with it as Compounds/Molecules/Atoms or Symptom/Causes/Suspected, purely flat data just feels wrong. I think I'm hearing there's need for flexibility in organization, but not all notes are created equal! So even if you "tagged" three different sort methods, it's like in Excel "sort by Column G, or F, or B".
And for Note size, I haven't done word counts (though I'm almost the type to do that!!), but I'm a "Completeness Maven". Short notes bother me because they tend to feel they are not complete. The only unclear part is whether it should all go into one big note (length) or subnotes (structure). So I def. see some style prefs going on!
As a friendly comment, I'm barely able to even imagine how you deal with stuff without either longer notes or structuring! Someone please give me a PM example of a minor-mini data-set for chatting! I basically can't even handle 500 words before it becomes a tree! But ya know, this might be because I merge "Getting Things Done" (GTD) themes into my notes.
So holler at me!
Cheers,
--Tao
TaoPhoenix:
Heh that means you, Mr. Kormanik, you of the "giant unsorted data chunks". You're the thread opener! Let's play!
:)
nkormanik:
I bookmarked the various leads provided by the esteemed panel here. Thank you! But I've yet to read 'em. So am still naive.
Maybe the sites mentioned will answer a new question I've come up, but I'll ask it anyway:
Dr_andus earlier mentioned a "lifetime" of notes possible, that it would be nice to have saved all, somewhere. Well, I totally agree. An entire life's worth of notes and 'snippets' would likely fit on one of our 'thumb drives', together with lots of programs for slicing and dicing, mixing and matching, analyzing, synthesizing, creating all sorts of output.
Then, supplemented by the Internet, multitudes more possibilities spring forth for our expression, manifestation, whatever we want to do with the collection.
I'm setting up the question....
In my humble opinion, every paper -- scientific, academic, etc. -- and book I download and add to my Library really deserves to be in my grand personal database as well. Yeah, I didn't type it in, or even copy a 'snippet', but still. It all deserves to be included.
Just as with my 'notes' being in a single shoebox (=folder), thousands of pdfs, epubs, etc., are in a single shoebox as well. A huge mass of carefully selected (cough) pdf files, all jammed into my Library folder. Each item chock-full of valuable insights, findings, information.
At some point soon the technology of personal indexing and instant-searching capabilities will allow us ready access to all that information we've accumulated. We're not quite there yet. But soon. Suppose: a dedicated hyper-fast solid state drive for Library and huge index -- probably at least a terabyte in size..., twelve gigabytes of memory, a screaming multi-core CPU, 64-bit operating system. And incredible indexing/retrieval software.
The question is: (let's just say) If we include all of our lifetime of notes, plus all our carefully selected literature, and have truly instantaneous access to all of it (by way of super-indexing/retrieval), how will that affect our creation of output?
Getting back to my original question at the outset. With the above being said, no need for Cadillac of Clipboard Managers. Skwire's Clipboard Trap is fine -- one long text file of heterogenous snippets is not a problem. Don't bother parsing out into various categories and topics. Keep all notes in one single shoebox (=folder). The Grand Indexer, regularly run, and the Info/Data Manager would be the way to go.
Right?
tomos:
^Yeah, I think the thread moved away from the clipboard fairly quickly :D
Read the Manfred Kuehn link from dr_andus - that was very informative I found - and helpful in it's suggestions as to *how* to take notes. He's not so into the idea of simply copying quotes - more into your opinion of, and comments on, the quotes.
The basic strength of any IM is that each note is separate and can be moved around/"cloned"/copied/connected/tagged/filtered.
So when you say:
one long text file of heterogenous snippets is not a problem. Don't bother parsing out into various categories and topics. Keep all notes in one single shoebox (=folder). The Grand Indexer, regularly run, and the Info/Data Manager would be the way to go.
-nkormanik (February 21, 2014, 03:08 AM)
--- End quote ---
makes me think: would it not be better to have each "snippet" as a separate note? Mouser's CHS uses a database for clips. I've never really taken advantage of that in any menaingful way, but it might be worth looking at it's capabilities and export options.
OTOH, InfoQube -- and probably many other IM's -- allow the option to separate a pasted text into individual 'items' (with a new item after each carriage-return). Also importing a text file in a similar manner is oten a possibility.
Re the indexing of your PDF's -- I think there are IM's that will allow search of linked files (maybe they're indexed?), or even store a copy within it's own db (that is gonna be dangerously big though imo). But not an option I need/use so I'm not well informed there.
But just index/search is not enough, hence the Info Manager. And I think that's where/what you've got to follow up on.
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