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Thanks for caring that I get this. I've long considered and wanted a system like you've described. It seems like it would have incredible long-term value. Is e

by Bjartr 8y ago

Thanks for caring that I get this. I've long considered and wanted a system like you've described. It seems like it would have incredible long-term value. Is everything for yours self-hosted? What wiki do you use?

ColinWright 8y ago
For years I've used the wiki I wrote. That has the feature that links are auto-created from free text, so if a pagename happens to turn up in the text anywhere, a link is made. This requires a little discipline - you don't want to create a page called "And". But recently I've been experimenting with zim to see if I can use that instead. It saves pages in markdown in a directory structure, so my external scripts can be adapted to run over them and create the augmenting pages. It could possibly insert the free-text links as well in the background. Just an idle thought. It's all running on my home machine, but I can connect to it from (nearly) anywhere. It's effectively unusable on my phone, so I have a staging area in which I make notes, and then transfer things later. The act of transferring implies a review of the material, and that's of value anyway, so it's not wasted effort. For years, decades, I've been thinking of polishing, bundling, and releasing it, but it would be one of a gazillion organisation systems and no one would find it. If they did, I'd then be committed to supporting it, so that's not going to happen. I might, one day, convert these replies into a blog post, but again, limited value.
- Bjartr 8y ago
  Well I appreciate you sharing this with me. It's moved me a little closer towards putting something like this together for myself. The free text linking is an interesting idea. I worry about not having the discipline to regularly curate such a system. That's probably my biggest roadblock towards just going for it.
  - ColinWright 8y ago
    What I found is that it was important to (a) not over-engineer what I was trying to do, (b) do something that worked for the document I had in my hand[0], and (c) be able to extend what I was doing. If I then "fell off the perch" I could come back to it later, look at the thing in my hand, and put that into the system, thus climbing back on the perch. Quite quickly the system was useful, and I had fewer decisions to make by using than by not using it, so it saved me effort. That was the key. [0] ... or file/email/document on the screen

by Bjartr 8y ago

ColinWright 8y ago

For years I've used the wiki I wrote. That has the feature that links are auto-created from free text, so if a pagename happens to turn up in the text anywhere, a link is made. This requires a little discipline - you don't want to create a page called "And". But recently I've been experimenting with zim to see if I can use that instead. It saves pages in markdown in a directory structure, so my external scripts can be adapted to run over them and create the augmenting pages. It could possibly insert the free-text links as well in the background. Just an idle thought. It's all running on my home machine, but I can connect to it from (nearly) anywhere. It's effectively unusable on my phone, so I have a staging area in which I make notes, and then transfer things later. The act of transferring implies a review of the material, and that's of value anyway, so it's not wasted effort. For years, decades, I've been thinking of polishing, bundling, and releasing it, but it would be one of a gazillion organisation systems and no one would find it. If they did, I'd then be committed to supporting it, so that's not going to happen. I might, one day, convert these replies into a blog post, but again, limited value.

Bjartr 8y ago
Well I appreciate you sharing this with me. It's moved me a little closer towards putting something like this together for myself. The free text linking is an interesting idea. I worry about not having the discipline to regularly curate such a system. That's probably my biggest roadblock towards just going for it.
- ColinWright 8y ago
  What I found is that it was important to (a) not over-engineer what I was trying to do, (b) do something that worked for the document I had in my hand[0], and (c) be able to extend what I was doing. If I then "fell off the perch" I could come back to it later, look at the thing in my hand, and put that into the system, thus climbing back on the perch. Quite quickly the system was useful, and I had fewer decisions to make by using than by not using it, so it saved me effort. That was the key. [0] ... or file/email/document on the screen