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This is very true — if your scope only encompasses a couple dozen pages' worth of data. If your data is actually desk-able, then that will probably work well be

by chc 13y ago

This is very true — if your scope only encompasses a couple dozen pages' worth of data. If your data is actually desk-able, then that will probably work well because it comes very naturally to most people. But if you have a large dataset (say, 100 pages), my experience is that the computer is going to do a lot better both at retrieval and at processing. So basically, this is another example of things that are great but don't scale.

adestefan 13y ago
I find the opposite. I can handle a couple pages on the computer, but after that I want to print it out and tape it to the wall. It's much easier for me to find relations when looking at everything on the than trying to scroll around on the computer. I regularly print out large amount of code across dozens of files to mane sense of someone else's mess.
- chc 13y ago
  I might have overgeneralized a bit. I feel like things like messy code are a different matter, though, and both kind of suck for those problems. Some kind of computer-assisted visualization† would often be more helpful than either scrolling around or manually drawing lines through 80 sheets of paper, especially as that number grows. Inevitably, retrieval gets to be really prohibitive in the real world. † Heck, even just stepping through the code in a debugger often helps me make sense of spaghetti faster than anything else, though obviously not by itself.
rayiner 13y ago
I think it depends on what you're doing with the documents. My current job involves writing 10-20 page legal memos based on a couple of 30-50 page briefs, and maybe a few hundred pages of supporting cases. I have to get comfortable discussing all the material orally. I print out everything because I find it to really help with recall (particularly verbal recall). On the other hand, if I'm looking for some particular quote I highlighted, its a very slow process to shuffle through dozens of printouts looking for what I highlighted. If I'm trying to sort and categorize my annotations, say by legal issue, dealing with paper highlights is obviously a bit cumbersome. What I really want is to be able to write on and mark up paper and have it automatically digitized and indexed for sorting and retrieval.

by chc 13y ago

adestefan 13y ago

I find the opposite. I can handle a couple pages on the computer, but after that I want to print it out and tape it to the wall. It's much easier for me to find relations when looking at everything on the than trying to scroll around on the computer. I regularly print out large amount of code across dozens of files to mane sense of someone else's mess.

chc 13y ago
I might have overgeneralized a bit. I feel like things like messy code are a different matter, though, and both kind of suck for those problems. Some kind of computer-assisted visualization† would often be more helpful than either scrolling around or manually drawing lines through 80 sheets of paper, especially as that number grows. Inevitably, retrieval gets to be really prohibitive in the real world. † Heck, even just stepping through the code in a debugger often helps me make sense of spaghetti faster than anything else, though obviously not by itself.

rayiner 13y ago

I think it depends on what you're doing with the documents. My current job involves writing 10-20 page legal memos based on a couple of 30-50 page briefs, and maybe a few hundred pages of supporting cases. I have to get comfortable discussing all the material orally. I print out everything because I find it to really help with recall (particularly verbal recall). On the other hand, if I'm looking for some particular quote I highlighted, its a very slow process to shuffle through dozens of printouts looking for what I highlighted. If I'm trying to sort and categorize my annotations, say by legal issue, dealing with paper highlights is obviously a bit cumbersome. What I really want is to be able to write on and mark up paper and have it automatically digitized and indexed for sorting and retrieval.