Hi there,

I want to start a thread discussing the Dos-based outliner Maxthink.

From my perspective, the two-level default interface and navigational system of this outliner are peerless in terms of
their adherance to human perceptual abilities and limitations.

Working in list views or with just one superordinate and its subordinates at one time enables me to easily zero in on parts of an outline/thought structure without the cognitive strain I experience with other more `wide view' outliners'. In that regard I find Inspiration and all the others much more limiting and difficult.

At the same time, the inability to freely import and export information from other applicatons, and from the web, and the inability to link to other file types, is a severe constraint in Maxthink.

I've used Maxthink to assist in project and business management, NGO and social organizing, and to write a book and many articles.

I'd be very interested to dialogue with other Maxthink users, both
regarding Maxthink itself, and regarding other outliners, such as PC outliner for windows or Inspiration, in terms of whether Maxthink users have made successful transitions to these other, more up-to-date products, and what the upside and downside of such change-over might have been.


Finally, I'll just mention in passing that in one of my `lives' I'm coCEO of Advanced Data Management of Vancouver, where my partner arne and I have coinvented and fleshed out a model for a much more powerful outliner/interface to replace both existing outliners and the windows interface. We need more capital for development, however, and I'm currently working in Asia as CEO of Asiajobs Recruiting service to garner the cash.

Cheers,
Eric

Personal page at www.worldstewards.com/http://www.worldstewards.com/id83.htm






-----Original Message-----
From: Myers, Kent C. KENT.C.MYERS@saic.com
Sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 16:21:54 -0400
To: eric@worldstewards.com
Subject: also a Maxthink user


I'll try Inspiration, but I was hoping that you would tell me whether I
should perservere!
(I use MaxThink every day. It is indispensible, and has surely affected my
thinking,
as it did Neil's, who always seemed to talk in tightly written paragraphs
with no transitions.)

Kent Myers

Hi there,

Given the greater speed and functionality of Maxthink for brainstorming and rapid data-entry, I think it would be great if
Neil Larson could develop a Maxthink version for Windows. Does anyone have contact with him?

Eric

MaxThink also works very well for lecture/speech outlines. There is a widely-accepted rule of thumb for thinking that suggests that a person's brain can only handle 7 +/- 2 "pieces" of information before things become confused and unwieldy. The brain can store an infinite amount, but if you are presenting new information to someone, rattling it off in sequential fashion becomes unwieldy after you hit the 5th to 7th item. In lecturing to college students, I have found five to be a good stopping point where closure or subgrouping is benenficial. Thus, if you are discussing the "14 funtions" of something or other, it is much easier to handle if the 14 things can be subgrouped into 3 major areas, each of which has 5-7 items. MaxThink is wonderful for this, as it allows rearragement to several subgroups in just a few keystrokes.

For more on the "Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two", refer to the work of George A. Miller (psychologist), go to ask.com and simply search for George Miller.

Jeff

Hello, I'm delighted to find this community of fellow Maxthink users and especially to hear that Neil's finally releasing a Windows version. It's a wonderful DOS program and I'm looking forward to the windows translation. Apparently, given the dates of these postings, Neil's schedule has slipped a bit. If anyone has news of a scheduled release date I'd like to know.

Thanks, Joe

P.S. Max94, which I still use, has the only Millininum Bug I've seen. Typing Alt S to post todays date in a line yields: 100/12/11 Mon.