Reducing my PIM/Knowledge/Writing Tools

Posted by Ike Washington
Apr 3, 2007 at 11:54 AM

Graham, Alexander

I’m not sure that jumping from one program to another is just a bad case of CRIMP or an act of self-indulgence or procrastination or an ultimately frivolous delight in novelty etc. It may be these things. But it must also have something to do with the huge changes in tech that we’ve all experienced in the last couple of decades.

While most of us developed into knowledge workers in one culture, we now find ourselves in another culture altogether. We play a game of catch up. As we climb up to the next tech level, we find new levels appearing ahead of us. Hardware and software, both outstrip wetware.

So, 15 years ago, I researched and wrote articles using pen and paper. Sure, I messed around with different pens, different notebooks. But I didn’t have to think too much about how I was going to go about my work. I’d grown up in a pen and ink culture. I was educated into a particular tradition of scholarship which went back, I suppose, to the early universities, to Plato’s Academy etc.

Today, it’s all very well to talk about sticking to your craft, but, actually, we don’t have any tradition of digital craftsmanship. Not only do I have to figure out what it is I need from the software, but both my needs and the software and the hardware continually change.

So, we spend so much time in these forums. So, we spend too much time installing and uninstalling software. Something similar, though not as dramatic, must have happened - oh, the arguments about which parchment to use - after the introduction of the moveable type printing press in the 1450s…

Sadly, software that does the job today may be inadequate tomorrow. Which is why I’m ready to chop and change software, won’t let myself become too enamoured with any one transcendental, meta application.

Ike

Graham Rhind wrote:
>Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>They also helped me realise a key issue in my long search
>for the holy PIM
>>grail, namely that one’s consistent use of a tool makes that tool
>ever more useful.
> >I agree completely. I have a terrible tendency to keep shifting
>from program to program as each one develops and leap-frogs another in its abilities,
>and it leads to disorganisation and far too much work. If I could force myself to stick
>to one program for n months or years, I’d probably find I would achieve a great deal
>more, even though the program concerned didn’t do all I required of it.
> >Graham