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I've found that all browser based solutions have been nothing more than a nicotine patch for me. The root of my issue is that I'm occasionally bad at managing

I've found that all browser based solutions have been nothing more than a nicotine patch for me. The root of my issue is that I'm occasionally bad at managing my 'working memory' and worry too much about letting things go from it. I worry that if I let this cool new thing leave the forefront of my consciousness that I will never see it again. This fear causes worry and sadness. I've been working recently to overcome this knee-jerk tendency. At Work. I limit myself to one browser for the internet. This includes work research, news, and also HN (cant' quit). It is closed completely at the end of the day. If there really was some work related site i need to follow-up on. I simply leave myself a note to follow up on the task and not the specific website. If I need to find that, i trust my future self to remember, or look it up in the history. At Home I'm less strict but still try to maintain one Chrome instance. I won't necessarily close it every night but I will review my open tabs before leaving. I try to make reasoned decisions to keep open, bookmark, or let go each tab. It's been a pretty successful project so far. I consider in-built browser bookmarks to be all I need. If I bookmark anything, I assign it to some logical grouping of sites so I feel better about finding it later. If I had some sort of magic button to whisk away my open tabs, I feel I would be missing out on a crucial activity; letting each thing go from my mind. I need to trust myself that if I really need this new framework for a future project, i'll find it if it's actually useful. I need to make decisions on whether to buy this thing or not instead of waffling and letting the tab rot. At it's root, this is a human psychology problem and not a technical one. -my 2cents

mattkennedy 13y ago
Thank you again, for such an articulate response. On principle I agree with your perspective, especially when the tabs that accumulate are 'to reads'. I find there are times though, when gathering tabs is inevitable. Like when you're researching solutions to a problem and need to explore widely, before being able to filter your sources down. I think our focus will be more about helping users filter tabs stemming from research—the letting go you speak of. These tabs tend to hang around because you're not sure whether they're relevant or not, until you've conducted further research.

mattkennedy 13y ago

Thank you again, for such an articulate response. On principle I agree with your perspective, especially when the tabs that accumulate are 'to reads'. I find there are times though, when gathering tabs is inevitable. Like when you're researching solutions to a problem and need to explore widely, before being able to filter your sources down. I think our focus will be more about helping users filter tabs stemming from research—the letting go you speak of. These tabs tend to hang around because you're not sure whether they're relevant or not, until you've conducted further research.