Improvements to note portability support both LogSeq’s stated purpose and the natural underlying needs of users.
- Logseq is a knowledge base for private thoughts.
- Blocks are the smallest addressable and thus linkable unit.
- Pages are a special form of blocks.
- Knowledge base as capturing thoughts infers that it is emergent (think not just agile, but in complexity theory)
The term emergent entity essentially refers to complex systems or patterns that emerge from the interaction of simpler components. (blocks)
Blocks are the smallest addressable unit. Ideas could be small or in the form of systems or patterns. Emergent design necessitates blocks being easily movable and referencable (linkable). Nomadic but not wandering
So… the sticky pad and board. Blocks, pages & graphs for a hierarchy of knowledge. The other components are still part of the architecture and may be used differently for different use cases. What is novel writing? A hierarchy of story. Line, paragraph, chapter, and book.
Proposed sticky note a board use case: in pictures
So by “portability” and “sticky notes” do you mean “moving blocks from one page to another, without losing their identity”?
- Why to move a block around, instead of simply modifying its tags or properties?
- Moving a block around is:
- for when its previous position was wrong
- not for signifying a change of its status
- Blocks can have:
- multiple tags
- multiple mutable properties
- but only one direct hierarchical parent
- The various parts and sections of a story are hierarchical, while the knowledge within them is not.
- Logseq combines:
- the restrictive hierarchy of an outliner
- the unrestrictive connectivity of a graph
- If blocks become nomadic, they won’t always be found in some expected place.
- The user may need to hunt for them.
- In contrast, if blocks have a natural expected place, they don’t need to move.
- The user’s memory has an easier time navigating the graph.
- The importance of that increases quickly as the graph grows.
I mean move a block to a different hierarchical parent. Imagine you put one concept (block) under a concept (page). But you want to change that easily. You want to move it like a sticky note to another column because thought (block) creation is different than thought (block) organization.
As in the difference between relative database design and page database design. If you think your thoughts are organized, think again. They are chaotic, but you often lose them if you don’t note them. The organization of blocks is a secondary step to the ideation of blocks.
Does that make sense to you?
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You have until the end. Of course a huge disorganized wall of notes without organization is not helpful. Fixed positions is not the glue. The glue is the connections. Or moveable nodes and links. See how to make toast. Tom Wujec: Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast | TED Talk
People love recycling old ideas under new wrappings, then presenting them as groundbreaking.
- There has been sticky-notes-like diagram software since the 70s (more or less).
- Whether it can solve “wicked problems” is up for discussion.
- Such an approach is acceptable for 16 up to 32 notes.
- After this number it quickly deteriorates.
- That is about notes.
- You can still draw huge circuits and other big diagrams of physical connections among thousands of nodes (though with increasing difficulty), but not meaningful graphs of associated notes.
- The notes on a mile-long wall are:
- fun to see after finished
- but horrible to work until reaching there
- You can play if you like, but you cannot do real work.
- And the more people working on the same wall, the bigger the mess.
- Now add the fact that 2 dimensions are not enough to model anything more than flat systems and you are left with a tool that cannot even address such problems.
- Various things need extra dimensions, e.g.:
- discovering solutions through higher-order associations
- solving non-trivial problems, because it needs abstracting them
- Movable notes don’t scale, because of constant disorientation.
- And knowledge problems often need thousands of notes.
- It doesn’t help much if the wall is digital.
- Digital makes the process:
- easier
- Meaning to re-arrange, undo and generally modify.
- not less error-prone
- It is equally difficult to organize.
- Connections
- support organization
- but they don’t enforce it
- You may as well end up with multiple disorganized links.
- Neither Logseq prevents that.
- Organization is about combining things into organisms.
- Organisms are not made of movable nodes.
- Movable nodes rather resemble members in societies.
- They are nodes, but they are not notes.
- They form multiple loose graphs, not a single organized one.
- They change their goals and set new destinations themselves.
- They are going after meaning, they don’t follow one since the beginning.
- The overall result is truly chaotic.
- In contrast, organisms are made of cells that:
- are nodes in tissues etc.
- but also contain a note which both describes and performs the points below
- have preset meaningful roles
- undertaking them early
- not during their lifetime
- if they move, they do it:
- to fulfill their role
- not to get more organized
- across predetermined paths
- not to new directions or destinations
What is the solution to your own “wicked problem”?
- To keep track of some ever-changing situation? Sticky notes may fit.
- Just don’t expect organization where it is missing.
- If that involves multiple persons, you may have each one move their own note.
- Think of pieces on a board-game.
- To model some ever-improving understanding? Sticky notes don’t fit.
- Each piece of knowledge is either grasped or still elusive.
- Think of the rules of a board-game.
- The problem with sticky notes is the false sense of sticking.
- Think of a puzzle-game, but with every piece fitting to every other.
I guess design thinking is a skill I thought was at everyone’s fingertips. My solution? Oh, I found the Move Block plugin. For now, that is sufficient. In the quagmire of PKM tools, nothing quite fits the bill.
