Personal Memory Manager

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 31, 2011 at 05:43 PM

Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>The thoughts, concepts and the philosophy behind such tools may isgreat but they
>require a lot of efforts from the user. Perhaps these developers forget that maybe
>nobody else on this planet thinks and acts they way they do. Therefore I prefere tools
>like UltraRecall, Zoot, PersonalBrain or MindManager where I can develop a
>structure which suits best to my brain. Another experience is that the way I think and
>work changes constantly over time so a fixed paradigm or system does not really
>work.

I agree in principle, but after watching this tutorial http://www.crpa.co/Consultants.htm (just the first 3’ are enough for the essence) I believe that the software is actually quite straightforward and does not impose itself on the user. In fact, I’d say that it imposes itself much less than, say MindManager, which allows for only one kind of structure.

At its core, CRPA/PMM is like a combination of two tools: (a) a very simple note collector and (b) a concept mapping surface where one can arrange those notes.

Like with other tools such as UltraRecall and Surfulater, notes can be re-used (e.g. as clones) which means that they can be combined in various alternatives perspectives. However, unlike an outliner, one has the full two dimensional surface to combine the notes in relationships.

Each combination can be maintained as a separate sheet. There are various tools to help identify interesting points, like highlighting which notes are common among two sheets.

I see some issues with the present incarnation of CRPA (some mentioned by others here already), but I like its approach—even though I have not read all the underlying philosophy yet…