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This all sounds very exciting. I've tried out mind mapping software in the past for various things, and it has always seemed nifty, but I never really stuck wit

by jpadvo 14y ago

This all sounds very exciting. I've tried out mind mapping software in the past for various things, and it has always seemed nifty, but I never really stuck with it. Maybe the qualitative difference in experience the author talks about will actually show up, in which case I certainly hope to stick with it.

Alex3917 14y ago
"I've tried out mind mapping software in the past for various things, and it has always seemed nifty, but I never really stuck with it." I'd definitely recommend FreeMind, because as I alluded to in the article basically all other mind mapping software is designed for creating presentations and pretty graphics rather than for organizing and condensing enormous amounts of information. So if you've been using other software then there would be no way for you to get the full experience. (It's free open source software that's licensed under GPL, and it runs pretty well even on 5+ year old computers.) Anyway it took me a few years to really learn how to use it properly. I think this is partly because there haven't really been many good examples of people actually using it well online. Most of the examples are just people using it the same way they would use other mind mapping software. So that's why between the python.mm file, and also the video, hopefully that shows two really substantive for the software and then people can kind of learn the best practices for themselves through osmosis. I should mention also that the python.mm file includes the documentation for not just Python, but also for Jinja and Less: http://www.alexkrupp.com/files/python.mm http://www.alexkrupp.com/files/python.mm I would have included my sections on JavaScript and HTML/CSS, but unfortunately they mostly come from various published books so I didn't think the publishing companies would be thrilled with that.
davidarkemp2 14y ago
It's worth taking some time to learn how to use FreeMind with just the keyboard, and to learn how to do a mind map (see [1] for an overview). It can be used exclusively from the keyboard, so you can get pretty quick with it. I've not used FreeMind for (personal) documentation, but I've used it as a specification tool, where I think mind-maps excel as they get you to focus on all the component parts of the project - and drill down to the finest level you can. This use seems similar to using tiddlywiki[2]. [1] http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/articles/view/how-to-create-a-mind-map http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/articles/view/how-to-create-a-m... [2] http://tiddlywiki.com/ http://tiddlywiki.com/
clueless123 14y ago
I started using mindmaps (freemind) to organize complexity and to have "cheat sheets" to new technologies (rather than googling again and again). By itself this was worth the effort of constructing the mindmaps, the big payoff came when I started sharing them with the team. Give it a shot, nowdays I pretty much take all my notes in some sort of mindmap.

by jpadvo 14y ago

Alex3917 14y ago

"I've tried out mind mapping software in the past for various things, and it has always seemed nifty, but I never really stuck with it." I'd definitely recommend FreeMind, because as I alluded to in the article basically all other mind mapping software is designed for creating presentations and pretty graphics rather than for organizing and condensing enormous amounts of information. So if you've been using other software then there would be no way for you to get the full experience. (It's free open source software that's licensed under GPL, and it runs pretty well even on 5+ year old computers.) Anyway it took me a few years to really learn how to use it properly. I think this is partly because there haven't really been many good examples of people actually using it well online. Most of the examples are just people using it the same way they would use other mind mapping software. So that's why between the python.mm file, and also the video, hopefully that shows two really substantive for the software and then people can kind of learn the best practices for themselves through osmosis. I should mention also that the python.mm file includes the documentation for not just Python, but also for Jinja and Less: http://www.alexkrupp.com/files/python.mm http://www.alexkrupp.com/files/python.mm I would have included my sections on JavaScript and HTML/CSS, but unfortunately they mostly come from various published books so I didn't think the publishing companies would be thrilled with that.

davidarkemp2 14y ago

It's worth taking some time to learn how to use FreeMind with just the keyboard, and to learn how to do a mind map (see [1] for an overview). It can be used exclusively from the keyboard, so you can get pretty quick with it. I've not used FreeMind for (personal) documentation, but I've used it as a specification tool, where I think mind-maps excel as they get you to focus on all the component parts of the project - and drill down to the finest level you can. This use seems similar to using tiddlywiki[2]. [1] http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/articles/view/how-to-create-a-mind-map http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/articles/view/how-to-create-a-m... [2] http://tiddlywiki.com/ http://tiddlywiki.com/

clueless123 14y ago

I started using mindmaps (freemind) to organize complexity and to have "cheat sheets" to new technologies (rather than googling again and again). By itself this was worth the effort of constructing the mindmaps, the big payoff came when I started sharing them with the team. Give it a shot, nowdays I pretty much take all my notes in some sort of mindmap.