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A critique of tagging
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 5, 2023 at 02:19 PM
Dellu, agree with your last statement. Forte’s statement on tag use is very arbitrary. Interestingly, in the bonus chapter dealing with tags, of his Second Brain book he makes a case for using tags, and his concern about them is more nuanced than what he wrote in the medium article. Where I still have an issue is with his concern that tags require so much effort, etc.
While that may be true for him and some others, my experience is that working with a tag list, and the fact items can exist in more than one place, is easier, faster and more precise, than using folders. Forte’s experience has obviously been different and that’s cool.
At the end of the day day I find using tags
- Daly
Dellu wrote:
I think Forte’s attitude about tags is expressed in the book:
>
>
>>I don’t recommend using tags as your primary organizational
>system. It takes far too much energy to apply tags to every single note
>compared to the ease of searching with keywords or browsing your
>folders. >However, tags can come in handy in specific situations when
>the two previous retrieval methods aren’t up to the task, and you
>want to spontaneously gather, connect, and synthesize groups of notes on
>the fly
>
>In other words (my understanding of Forte is):
>- he opposes using tags as a general organization tool (replacing
>folders, or some other means).——I personally agree with this point
>- But, he still thinks they can be used effectively for narrower cases:
>for the PARA system where you can use tags to collect documents that
>belong to a specific project——again, I agree with this one.
>
>The problem with the medium article is he seems to mostly discourage
>people to use tags.
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 5, 2023 at 02:28 PM
Thanks Steve, that’s helpful to know that date. I should have thought of looking for the date. Rather than changing his perspective on tags to a more limited view after his Second Brain book came out, Forte was taking a more nuanced approach in that book’s bonus chapter on tagging.
- Daly
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Actually it was from 2015… something I hadn’t noticed at first,
>because Medium usually doesn’t show me articles that old.
>
>Amontillado wrote:
>I’m out of free Medium articles, so I can’t check.
>>Wasn’t that anti-tagging article written in something like 2017?
>>
>>Seeing the value of tags is not as intuitive as it would seem. I
>>didn’t use them at first, and as of a year or two ago the author
>>of Taking Control of Devonthink didn’t use tags.
>>
>>Many paths to enlightenment. If I had to choose between tags and
>groups,
>>I could live without groups or folders. Seems weird, but look at the
>>folks who use The Archive. No folders there, just links and searches.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Nov 6, 2023 at 11:50 AM
I think it’s good that he’s changed his mind – or at least, as you say, modified his stance.
I have plenty of respect for people who are prepared to change their opinions. Much less (close to zero) respect for people who believe their opinions are ALWAYS right and should NEVER be modified (many, many right-wing politicians immediately spring to mind, although many of them are deliberately taking this extreme stance as a political manoeuvre rather than because they actually believe it).
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 6, 2023 at 02:11 PM
I agree.
MadaboutDana wrote:
I think it’s good that he’s changed his mind – or at least,
>as you say, modified his stance.
>
>I have plenty of respect for people who are prepared to change their
>opinions. Much less (close to zero) respect for people who believe their
>opinions are ALWAYS right and should NEVER be modified (many, many
>right-wing politicians immediately spring to mind, although many of them
>are deliberately taking this extreme stance as a political manoeuvre
>rather than because they actually believe it).
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 6, 2023 at 02:15 PM
I agree with you - I could also live without groups or folders.
Amontillado wrote:
I’m out of free Medium articles, so I can’t check.
>Wasn’t that anti-tagging article written in something like 2017?
>
>Seeing the value of tags is not as intuitive as it would seem. I
>didn’t use them at first, and as of a year or two ago the author
>of Taking Control of Devonthink didn’t use tags.
>
>Many paths to enlightenment. If I had to choose between tags and groups,
>I could live without groups or folders. Seems weird, but look at the
>folks who use The Archive. No folders there, just links and searches.