It takes too much work to create structure
In current tools, structuring ideas in real-time is an extraneous task that takes you out of the flow of the work you’re doing. Often, people don’t even know how to predict how they will reuse the note in the future!
- Deciding what to name something in the moment has a cost; people are removed from the current train of thought.
- In a file-folder format, deciding where to place a note adds another layer of friction.
- This occurs again when trying to retrieve past thoughts through search or block references.
For some experts, the primary concern is speed. As described in Synthesis is hard to do with people who don’t share context with you, experts prefer to work on their own or with people who already share context because their ability to move fast depends on omitting the basics.
Programmable notes, as described by Maggie Appleton, Gordon Brander, and myself in A DSL for a discourse graph with information entry, visualization, and retrieval, can enable people to create structure in bulk in hindsight, and create logical rules for structure from present inputs.