Cyborganize launched - the ultimate outliner productivity system

Posted by JBfrom
Aug 23, 2011 at 05:01 PM

“I?m a bit confused here though. If actionables are managed in Emacs then where does someone start to use the T1,T2,T3 transition of blogs. Or by actionables, do you mean small actions? It can be confusing because pure GTD stresses everything to be actionable where as the more GTD becomes summarized, actionable can mean the dictionary definition which is not so related to next action except by the first entry. (but this can also depend on interpretation)”

Yes, I keep my actionables to about one sentence almost always. “Actionable” refers to grammer - can this be done as an action. The Longform Loop is about complete thoughts. It contains rich connected thoughts, plans, ideas, projects, etc. Actionables are embedded in that text but they are not managed there.

“Again you lost me since GTD stakes the same claim. Mind you it may be because many GTD apps (at least by my consideration) are not true GTD apps but closer to to-do lists with modified categories so could you clarify ?deferrable until the moment of need??

No in GTD you have to do classification and sorting as soon as tasks are entered into the system. Otherwise you have no way of finding them again. In Cyborganize you just throw them into BrainStorm and sort only to the degree needed to surface your next action. In GTD you have to assign priorities, projects, statuses, etc etc etc. In Cyborganize you just have to clear your inbox and sort the time sensitive to the “day” level. The rest you can ignore without giving it further classification until needed. It’s an improvement on GTD.

“I think another vague point that your site doesn?t seem to address is on how to do ?proper headlining and categories?.”

Just give it a name that summarizes the content and makes sense to you. Ditto with categories. You’ll get a sense of the big ones by maintaining your T3 blog. Try to avoid overlap.

“Even GTD with static ?stated as needed? categories such as In-basket and Weekly Reviews get composed into extended books by David Allen.”

Inbox and Weekly Reviews are not Longform Loop categories. Longform Loop categories are unique to the individual. It’s whatever you write about a lot.

“Your system appears to say that the T1, T2 and T3 transition of blogging is what produces the proper headlining and categories but that still doesn?t make it clear how it can differentiate from simply using two different software. I?m using a variation of dual category transitioning myself (less so much T1 as my software is my brain dump) but you seem to say the T2 transition from a blog to a T3 transtiion to a wiki would have special effects beyond just producing slightly better categories from drafting but I find that hard to understand.”

T3 is the bottom, T1 is the top, T1 is the wiki. There’s no special effect. It’s just a transition from single unconnected posts to a comprehensive interconnected work.

“Not so much in the context of wikis or search based notes as I know some users prefer things like TiddlyWiki, Evernote, Ultra Recall although I could never narrow down the category for them; but more on how this generates a frictionless transition that produces great results in terms of both category generation that matches perfectly with search based tools to produce a far superior search based productivity system than softwares like Evernote or Ultra Recall especially as the line blurs between when the system is going to use Brainstorm, a chron tape system, a blog service and the actual sorting and doing of tasks.”

What?

“I guess that?s the heart of the question. My reply could be summed up as a repeat question of what is Cyborganize except I tried to read the topic and the video which helped me expand my question but it seems to get more and more confusing.”

Cyborganize is a workflow for using the most advanced computer tools available to manage text and facilitate execution.

“When I originally read this topic, I had never taken into account touch-typing and Emacs usage as even something like org mode can be already productivity draining to many general users because of the need to learn or at least be productive from a simple outliner. I had assumed that most of the brunt of the complexity would stem from understanding how BrainStorm works alone.”

You don’t have to use Emacs; a normal multi-tabbed text editor will work. As long as it can handle large files.

“Here however it seems the friction point lies not just in the tasks but in skills like touch typing speed, multiple complex program hotkey memorization (Brainstorm to Emacs) and even things like a locally hosted blog seems to be a requirement yet the initial theory of the page doesn?t appear to hint any of these.”

This is about high volume info processing. If you use substandard programs, installations or the mouse instead of hotkeys, you’ll get a slower result, which may be fine for people who are less info-intensive. There’s nothing complex about BrainStorm’s keywords.

“Could you define high output here? Often times I find high output requires a mastery of the subject matter itself.”

It doesn’t. I’m talking about the amount you type, the amount of results you generate, the mental iterations you undergo, the amount of info you consume and process, etc etc etc.

“Like if I want to use Cyborganize to learn how to touch type or learn Emacs, I have to specifically know the commands. (as you listed).”

Don’t start out with Emacs, use a text editor.

“Then things like Supermemo might enter here depending on whether a user knows or can figure out Supermemo.”

SuperMemo is mostly unnecessary because Cyborganize has excellent search and encourages spaced repetition in several ways. If you really need to memorize something, then you would turn to SuperMemo.

“Yes, that?s true. I guess I was looking at it from the perspective of any general user. No offense but not every power productivity user is a master of blogs and searches.”

I’m confident that Wordpress is not the bottleneck for Cyborganize.

“Although you lost me at the longform loop. Wouldn?t the longform loop also encompass tasks? or are you using a specific definition of tasks here like actionables earlier on where tasks have a certain length or have undergone a specific amount of incubation?”

Of course you would have tasks and projects embedded in your long documents saved in the Longform Loop, however they would just sit there, an inert part of the text. The actual processing of tasks occurs in the Snippet Loop. As you can see I did not make up these terms just to please myself, but because a name was needed for communication and none existed.

“I also want to add a separate question. Do you believe that a (searchable) outline is the end be all of a frictionless productivity system?”

The human biological mind has many limitations. Cyborganize is the best workaround to those limitations given the computer tools currently available. As intelligence amplification and computer technology progress, the optimal productivity system will change in unpredictable ways.

“Not to make the question sound rhetorical but I often find that many software developers seem to unconsciously treat productivity that way. It can be an advanced outline like a bunch of outlines in a wiki or a blog or a super database like Ultra Recall and even GTD apps seem to go that way but often for to-do lists only.”

I prefer outlines to non-hierarchical webs and tags and saved searches and lists, yes. I discuss the reasons why on the site.

“I guess I?m asking this last question because I find there are many productivity users that not only work poorly with outlines but the finish organized ?task list? is never their productivity road block and you do reference lots of guys who have said in their small ways different things that are unrelated to an organized database but at the same time Cyborganize?s finished product seems to be a case where if you want to do something now, you search for it, you see it and then through seeing that task itself - you execute it or defer it and execute something else.”

No, if you want to do something in Cyborganize, you open a scratch file, write down your objective, and start doing it. If needed you mine your info or organize your info resources.

Also, there is no “deferred” GTD setting in Cyborganize. There are only different levels of urgency and priority. Deferred is an extremely obnoxious GTD invention, since it must be changed at least twice - once to set it and once to unset it.