Sure as shootin', even to this day, I still have a messy computer.
I do find that software is beginning to do a good job of automatically organizing content when it has enough metadata to do so.
Photos are the best example of this I’ve see. I use Apple Photos, and from the effort I put in (none), it’s just a large shoebox full of pictures. However, the software organizes everything by date, location, type, subject, etc, all at the same time. This makes it pretty effortless to find anything very quickly. Trying to create this level of organization manually would be borderline impossible, and require a person devoting to their life to organizing this one specific aspect of their life.
There was recently a death in the family and everyone was looking for photos. I was able to pull up every picture of this person I had, spanning nearly 20+ years, in seconds. Others who didn’t use the software effectively spent hours and days manually scrolling through their photo grid. I attempted to tell them how they could make it easier, but they weren’t in the mood to deal with technology lessons, understandably so, so I didn’t try and press it.
Others who didn’t use the software effectively spent hours and days manually scrolling through their photo grid. I attempted to tell them how they could make it easier, but they weren’t in the mood to deal with technology lessons, understandably so, so I didn’t try and press it.
For example, I clicked a button 16 years ago for face detection, and in 16 years they didn't do that and didn't want to. I use iCloud photo library so I have access to all my pictures everywhere, while they have fractured libraries on various hard drives (that I don't think are backed up anywhere else).
Turning on face detection any time in the last 16 years and keeping their library together, solves the problem and creates less work. And sure, I end up paying $2.99/month for extra storage, but that seems cheap when factoring in the time they spend trying to avoid it, not to mention the calls I've gotten when they think a drive isn't working and they are crying, because they think they just lost everything. I'd pay the $3 for them if it meant never getting a call like that again, where I'm bracing to hear someone died, because they are crying so much they can't get the words out.
Several times when I pulled up pictures they have asked me how I'm able to do it so quickly. It's not exceptional organization or effort on my part, I'm simply using the software. I took 10 minutes, one time, to play around with the new Photos app when they revamped it, instead of just complaining that it changed, like most of the internet. There is no magic. Learn how the tools work, and use the tools. When you do that, the organization can often take care of itself.
Off Topic: one other thing I really like about Apple Photos is that I get to see my photos on the Apple TV when screensaver kicks in.
Specifically, Photos has facial recognition and has had it since iPhoto ‘09. Instead of using this to do the work for them, they manually scrolled through thousands of thumbnails looking for a certain face. When I mentioned I used the facial recognition feature, the others said they didn’t enable it and were fine scrolling for hours.
The software has different tools for different jobs. In this case, the facial recognition was the efficient way to cull down thousands of random photos to something manageable, but they weren’t interested.
Similarly, I constantly use the map view to find pictures from a trip, or that I know were taken around a certain location. People have seen me use it, they’ve asked and I’ve explained it to them, and yet they never seem to commit it to memory to use it for themselves.
I’ve also spoken to people who talked about scrolling through their pictures to delete old screenshots. There is a Utility filter to view just the screenshot. A few minutes looking around the app and it’s right there, but I see people scrolling their whole library.
All of this is not using the software effectively or efficiently.
I’m generally considered by peers to be somewhat paranoid when it comes to computer/mobile privacy and big ad/tech but I find these features to be very useful and I’m surprised your peers wouldn’t make use of them when they’re available – particularly when the software is so intuitive.
Thanks for the clarification.
That's why Google and GMail got so successful. Don't sort; search.
Some apps I've tried and liked: Apple Notes, Simplenote, Bear, Obsidian and Craft
Just like my bogo sort. It’ll get there eventually.
I figured after that much effort I needn’t exercise ever again. I sold it the next week at a loss (cheapest hobby I’ve ever had). Although to be fair I didn’t realize at the time that I needed to buy the barbell and weights too. Lesson learned: stick to the monthly gym membership that I will never use.
The second most exercise I’ve ever had is solo raising my Grizzly 14” bandsaw to standing. Also never used, but at least I never had the heart to sell it.
Those cards are no replacement for literal grep, of course. They were a search across a tiny summary of the contents, albeit a fairly structured one (which is helpful for some searches).
Trevanian had an anecdote in shibumi about how he had to remove the description of a museum robbery from later editions of an earlier book - the eiger sanction.
I own the first edition of both, obviously.
Then download the catalog in PDF form.
Compare the speed with which you can page through 100 pages or more at maximum physical speed which is useful enough visually for you to get enough of a grasp to stop exactly where you need to, when you wouldn't know exactly what to search for in text form anyway.