Collecting, organizing, and Mythbusters
I’m a collector. Or as some might call it, a pack rat. I can’t help it, it runs in my family. I come from a long line of celebrated pack rats. I like to think I’ve gotten better over the years, but a quick tour of my home and office will certainly argue otherwise. But there is a big difference between pack ratting physical objects and pack ratting digital resources and not until recently did I really think of them as different…and I should have known better.
Pack ratting real stuff is limited by physical space, so at some point you will run out of room. A pack rat’s dream is a bottomless pit where they can just throw their stuff and keep it forever. While that can’t happen in my attic, it can happen on my hard drive. Unfortunately, I’m pretty anal when it comes to file management on my computer. In the digital realm I am not a good pack rat…and I blame the internet. When I’m done with something I delete it, thinking I’ll just be able to Google it and download it whenever I may need. This might be true but why go to that effort?
A recent presentation from one of my favorite TV celebrities, Mythbuster Adam Savage, completely changed my mind about collecting digitalness. Not only is his talk wonderfully entertaining, it gives you a brief look into how someone else collects and organizes. I found the link over at Guamaso.com in a post about creative methods. One of the most important parts of creativity is inspiration. You can’t properly obsess over anything unless there is a seed. That seed could be a picture, a video, a song…whatever it is, you need to be able to collect it and keep it organized.
In the talk Adam talks about and shows his 20GBs of found resources on the topics he obsesses over. Twenty gigs is a lot of files. I have nearly 20,000 songs on my computer and it only totals little over 30GB, so 20GB of other types of files (most probably smaller) is a ton. But seeing his repository of files was a kick in the head…why don’t I save all the stuff I see on-line that I like?
I come across photos, icons, art, and designs all over the internet. I see them, say “neat,” and then move on. I don’t go that extra step and download it for quick access later. Even if it’s something in a book or magazine, I don’t scan it to save it. But I’ve decided to try and change that habit. There’s no reason not to save it. The only trick is how to organize it.
Organization is a pack rat’s nemesis. Unfortunately for me, organization is one of those nerd topics I obsess over. I frequently study and think about how to better organize information so it becomes easier to find and in turn be more valuable. One of my obsessions/flaws is a need for a system around everything I do. There has to be a workflow, a routine, or I’m at a loss and get completely flustered and stressed out. I hate exceptions. I’ll work extremely hard to organize seemingly simple bits information, usually overcomplicating the whole idea, but in the end it often pays off because the system has been designed to handle exceptions.
But this time I’m going against the grain a bit. My new solution for digital collecting is lots and lots of folders. I’ve created a desktop folder called “Found” and it in I will create a new folder for the various topics I come across. Then in each topic folder goes all the files I find. A very basic and simple file dumpster. I can’t say I’m too happy with this solution. I hate folders and they don’t do a very good job at accurately categorizing data, but it’s what I have so I’m going to try and make it work. I know before too long the sheer number of folders will piss me off, but at least at that point I will have amassed a good sized collection that I can play Mr. Organinzation with.
We all like to think that The Internet will always be there, but I think we sometimes forget that the internet is really just a big street with people that come and go all the time. There are no guarantees that they’ll be there tomorrow, so if you find something that strikes you fancy, save it. Google is great, but it only tells what’s there, not what was there.
I think the “Found” folder is a great way to go, especially if you love to have everything else organized. It keeps the rest of your life clean while leaving you with a stockpile of potential. I sometimes save things I think are important, interesting, or just kind of neat. I call my folder “Random” and it certainly is.
As I slowly accumulate ideas from here and there, I may realize that I have several on the same subject. At that point, I can make another folder just for that topic and move everything that pertains to it from the Random folder, thereby increasing my overall organization.
On an inspirational level, the Random folder is great. If I get bored I can just revisit the stockpile and browse through a collection of neat things I have found from a multitude of places. On any given day one of them might strike me as particularly entertaining, and I can then pursue that topic until I lose interest or become hopelessly obsessed with it. Either way, I’m not bored anymore.
Maybe that it is a better idea…just a single folder for all the files. Don’t even bother with organizing by folder. The promise of not knowing what’s in there is certainly entertaining, just as long as that folder doesn’t hold anything “important” that I may need right away, otherwise it’s hopeless.
And because I’m odd and just like organizing, should there be a point where I want to go through the found to organize files based on topic, that gives me something to do to…to play around with how to organize.
Adam Savage’s talk really was the most entertaining and most inspirational I’ve seen on TED. I downloaded it and now keep it in my mp3 player along with a few other inspirational speeches.
I was really facinated by his folder, too. It’s one of those concepts that are so simple and obvious that it’s amazing we never realized we should be doing the same thing.
I’ve started my own folder as well… I actually had a ton of stuff all over my hard drive already… but now it helps having it one place. I call it Ideas and Things. It works for now. :)
The only thing I wish I could do is to give files a tag. Like tagging pictures in Flickr, but for all my files. Then all the files can be stored in the main folder and all I have to do is type in whatever tag (the tags could also just be listed) and any files with that tag would be displayed. I just think it’s a lot easier than using a folder scheme, and you don’t have to keep the folder structure clean!
OMG you’re turning into a librarian. Welcome to my world.
I need someone to organize my desk at work. It is a disaster. I had it totally cleared off last month for about 2 hours. I don’t know how it gets so piled up and I don’t know what to do about it. I can’t change my ways, I guess.
You have improved a lot over the years. Luckily, we fill each other’s short comings. You can organize and I can clean.
@Erica: Library science fascinates me. It’s one of those things I’d just like to learn about. Not go all hardcore for an MLS or anything, but categorizing, sorting, and work behavior is what I do on a regular basis anyway, just in a web world.
@Juan: Funny because I was looking for how to tag files in Windows and there’s no easy way to do it without using a secondary app, which is not something I’m too interested in. I wish there was a GMail-like thing for Windows that you could use with files. Of course, then I get into the pain of trying to maintain constant tags.
Library science is the future!
As we collect more and more data (personally and globally), we’re going to have to have good systems to not only store that data, but be able to find the exact data we need when we need it.
-SF