Cyborganize launched - the ultimate outliner productivity system

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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.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Aug 23, 2011 at 05:32 PM

JBfrom wrote:
>Behold the power of Emacs… invoking its arcane language causes the very fabric of
>the internet to rip

Indeed :-)

On a different subject:

Given that this forum is dedicated more to software than to systems (though, as discussed elsewhere on the occasion of CRPA, most software has some kind of background philosophy) it is perhaps not the most suitable place to discuss the intricacies of the Cyborganize concepts. This is not a criticism, merely an observation, and may be in fact wrong. I just find that, for myself, I frequent this forum to discuss software tools that are more or less ready-to-wear.

At the end of the day, this might be an illusion. In practice, some of the more powerful tools, e.g. Zoot, require substantial investment in their mastery. Nevertheless, one can usually make out their basic operation quite quickly.

JB, I suggest the following: focus on explaining the full Cyborganize system within its main site and/or through a dedicated Wiki. This way, each question will directly contribute to clarifying the system and be immediately accessible by its prospective users. In addition, you will have no issues with copying useful contributions from elsewhere, since it will be posted under Cyborganize from the very beginning.

By contrast, I would suggest that you use this forum to discuss more the practical employment of each piece (not necessarily all) of the Cyborganize collection of programs in specific steps of the system’s workflow. This way you will probably gain more valuable feedback from this forum’s frequenters. An example is the discussion of the BrainstormWFO presentations (by the way, I was rather surprised to see that the http://brainstormsw.com site has reverted to the old version).

Again, as noted above, my observations and suggestions may be misplaced. Yet I note that some members of outlinersoftware.com, myself included, have in the past opted to discuss broader workflow systems (i.e. above and beyond specific pieces of software) in other forums rather than here.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Aug 23, 2011 at 05:44 PM

Responding to my own suggestion above, I would note that, in respect to the Blog component of Cyborganize, a program such as TheJournal http://www.davidrm.com would probably fair just as well IMHO.

The benefit for the user is that they don’t need the technical know-how to install a blog webware locally.

Posted by tightbeam
Aug 23, 2011 at 07:14 PM

I agree with Alexander.

Though I’ve ignored the recent exchange about Cyborganize, it’s reminds me that a system meant to lighten my life shouldn’t freight it with so much detail!

Posted by Foolness
Aug 23, 2011 at 08:33 PM

“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.”

This may be a case of differing interpretation but GTD does not have priorities or statuses. This is more of the extension of most GTD apps being to-do list software and also because users tend to ask for these features to feel comfortable with sorting tasks.

The book goes into the same process as you mentioned except you are not limited to throwing things into a specific software like Brainstorm. It can be software, paper or anything including memory. The only thing GTD stresses is that you record and write down almost everything (or visualize writing it if you don’t have a gadget or paper around) and then you just clear it and put it into “contexts”.

Context here can mean time of day, location, priority… the important thing is not the category but what is it that you need to do when you need to do it.

For example, if you need to do something with your wife, it’s “@Wife’s name, give her gift at 10 am”.

The distinction GTD has for contexts vs. categories is that you should always phrase categories in terms of @who or @where as a sort of anchor to your brain that if you see the location/person, you will remember it and also to reduce the friction of even thinking up of a category. You just instinctively fill in @ and forget about it.

“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.”

Again I’m sorry if I’m sounding like a defensive GTD fan now. I’m not really a user of GTD.

Weekly Reviews and Inbox are unique to the individual also. That’s why Allen can write an extended book about these despite these being just one or two words is my point.

Longform Loop seems to be unique but unlike GTD terms, Cyborganize doesn’t appear to teach a user how to make Longform loops unique to themselves where as Inboxes are unique based on where you put your items and Weekly Reviews is unique in that you not only set the week you review your items, it can be a fail safe task when you are overloaded.

“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.”

My mistake. I guess if there’s no special effect then the question falls into what T2’s importance is. Why wouldn’t a 2 step transition be as effective as a 3 step transition?

“What?”

Well some users prefer search based style notetaking and this was related to the special effect of transitioning and I didn’t want to discount that and I wanted to focus on the implications of frictionless.

If there’s no special transition wouldn’t the switch to T3 to T1 be very friction heavy? Many users could barely be able to start blogs but for them to convert random blogs to a wiki…well that seems like a task in 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.”

So let me just rephrase to check if I’m understanding correctly. Cyborganize is a productivity system based on speeding up the method of manipulating any productivity system by utilizing the fastest applications around?

As an analogy for example, Cyborganize would be a person who goes from using the mouse to browse the web to going full keyboard. It’s specifically dealing with the task of speeding up say… notetaking and outlining rather than dealing with the delivery and reception of the actual tasks.

“Deferred is an extremely obnoxious GTD invention, since it must be changed at least twice - once to set it and once to unset it.”

Again this may just be based on differing interpretations but as far as pure GTD goes, I don’t think GTD uses the term deferring. The Someday/Maybe system is more of a recycle bin. You’re supposed to clear the current tasks first and then focus on say dreams or projects without deadlines like choosing whether you want to go back to school or not. It’s more of a scrapbook that for inferior softwares to claim they are GTD apps became something like a category where you have to double back on two lists to get to a master list.

>>Alexander

“By contrast, I would suggest that you use this forum to discuss more the practical employment of each piece (not necessarily all) of the Cyborganize collection of programs in specific steps of the system?s workflow. This way you will probably gain more valuable feedback from this forum?s frequenters.”

I think it’s okay now. It started out like a complete productivity system overview but with JBFrom’s last post, unless I’m mistaken, Cyborganize could essentially be just BrainStorm + a collection of other items that just specifically need a blog.

I’ll wait for JBFrom to correct me if I’m wrong but Cyborganize can be summarized into -> Left Brain = Brainstorm; Right Brain =
Inbox to Blog to Wiki and the loops are talking about the blog and how Brainstorm works and it’s not like GTD and other productivity system where GTD is exclusive and GTD app means an app that tries to follow the principles of GTD.

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