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Proust
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Posted by reverendmartian
Sep 6, 2012 at 10:40 AM
Hi,
I am new to this forum and was hoping to get some advice about outliners and related information managers. Instead I read a really long—-I mean unbelievably long and rambling—-post about Proust. Was he some sort of famous outline expert? Even if he was——and I could not tell from the post which I could not figure out——-does he warrant an essay? I mean I thought essays were reserved for personal blogs, rather than a special interest forum in which you should make your points about the topics, without droning on and on with irrelevant commentary, and then stop.
Like I said, I am new here and perhaps “Outliner Software.com” does not have much to do about outlining software. That would be a pity since I rely on that software to do business—-to make money.
Posted by Eduardo Mauro
Sep 6, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Popcorn, please. That will be interesting to see.
Posted by Foolness
Sep 6, 2012 at 02:15 PM
I don’t know Proust myself but the rambling wasn’t focusing on Proust as Proust but on the french style of capturing order from outlines.
Notable statement in the topic - “I’m speaking of getting “law and order” into your previous associative thinking, and I say, look upon these endless French essays in order to have fine examples how reading is hampered when authors do NOT bother to sectionalize their thoughts after thinking, for the recipients’ sake.”
The Python Joke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwAOc4g3K-g
The Google of Proust: http://www.proustguide.com/ProustSITE/Pages/Summarizeproust.htm
The idea does worth warranting an essay IMO as it pertains to “outliner theory” as it may. In fact, it cannot be said that the rambling was close to a French essay I assume though I have no knowledge of it.
Mind you, this is my own guess on the subject either and you’ll have to wait for the actual recipients to respond.
If it’s still confusing, you can think of it from the idea of outlining a grand fictional novel on par with the Bible only without the time skips and the allowances of modern novel writing.
If you were trying to make such a lengthy summary of such a novel using a particular outliner software, how would you “design” your outline to that particular outliner software in such a way that in actuality what you have is a file whose sections make sense not only to you but to other people hence the point being that the outliner design does help you with your outline on a falsifiable basis rather than on a subjective desire towards a particular outliner software: two-pane, one-pane, etc.
Posted by reverendmartian
Sep 6, 2012 at 03:23 PM
The dissertation on Proust had nothing at all to do with book-organization theory, much less book-organization software; remember this forum supposedly has to do with s-o-f-t-w-a-r-e. If someone wants to discuss the principles underlying Scrivener or StoryBook, that discussion would be relevant to this forum. If someone else wanted to share tips about the use of book-writing software, I would welcome such posts here. If someone else wanted to compare and contrast the merits of book-writing software or outliners that can be put to that use that also would be salient and helpful. For example, Steve Z has written a series of articles which he has posted on his B-L-O-G that rate outliners. He could have easily posted those articles here, but since Steve gets it, since he is courteous, and since he is thoughtful, he posts links on this forum to his B-L-O-G when he has completed a new rating.
It’s called manners. (Thoughtfulness goes hand in hand with comprehensibility which is why I never ever have to scratch my head about what Steve writes.)
If someone has the compulsion, owing perhaps to a prolonged manic episode of a bi-polar disorder, to pick up the stratocaster and indulge in a really long 60’s heavy-metal guitar riff, I would implore them to record that performance on their own blog. It would save me from scrolling past the twaddle to arrive at the relevant.
Posted by Foolness
Sep 6, 2012 at 06:32 PM
Yes, it had nothing to do with book-organization theory but it partially had something to do with outlining of which all outliners must conform towards to before it can lay claim to being a software for an outline.
In that aspect then, and I’m not a mod/admin so I’m not saying this is gospel, it fits into the topic about software. Saying it isn’t would be akin to saying the file that your software created cannot belong in a forum about an outliner software. That would be silly. How can one debate outliners well if they are kept from debating the output of that software?
Which is the case here.
You are mistaking the mention of Proust as if it’s the header. It’s not. Proust is the sub-branch of a sub-branch if the discussion thread was shaped like an outline.
Think of it like:
-Workflowy
—Outliner
—-Associative Thinking
——Proust
Book organization theory on the other hand is a subject you yourself brought up.
True the branch could be “associated” with that but it isn’t about that except to serve as the weakest of weak metaphors to link the conversation back towards the more general branch of the conversation trail.
While we’re on the topic of blogs, in most forums I know, linking to blogs are not a sign of courtesy but a sign of blogspam.
True a long time forum member could be given the benefit of the doubt but in almost all cases, especially a blog article of which posters cannot empathize with, a blog link is seen as an insult.
In fact in most forums, even if you were to post a link with a proper title, many members would demand that you post a quoted summary of the blog article because many of them do not desire to click a link even on links that may interest them.
Plus, please remember the basis for your complaint. You are complaining about ONE forum topic. ONE. The Proust subject didn’t invade several topics in this forum. The appearance of the Proust statement when it finally appeared was made in such a a way that you are able to glimpse replies on Workflowy before you even read the Proust posts.