Comment by blippage
4 months ago
I have set up a Zettelkasten, which alternates between letters and numbers.21a5 is for my Alcatel 3085 mobile. So it's a similar idea, I think.
Classification is a vexing problem I've tried to grapple with.
The Dewey Decimal system is a really good example of people trying to get a handle on it. It's not easy. "Arduino Cookbook" is in the Electronics section (621.3810285536 to be precise, although the decimal system doesn't usually get that crazy in its specificity), whilst "Getting Started with Arduino" is in 005.133, more that half a library apart.
As one commentator put it, a book is rarely about one thing. People have criticized the Dewey system, so they throw the baby out with the bathwater and declare their bright shiny new wheel to be the solution.
Except, of course , they skip over the same fundamental problem that Dewey had: books don't really fit into a taxonomy.
One solution which may work for small personal systems is to not bother to use a hierarchy. Put car insurance in one folder, then file all folders alphabetically.
Getting more sophisticated, if you have a hierarchical system, consider indexing. I found an old address book that I had lying around. Add entries into that. Sure, entries won't be in strict alphabetical order, but hopefully you won't have a system so big that you can't find anything.
Indexing is "the" solution, because you don't have to try to figure out where in the taxonomy something is. You just look it up. Indexing also allows you to construct different "views" of a subject, thereby allowing you bypass taxonomic choices.
Being a computer geek, you could keep an index file on computer. You can then simply grep it.
I was surprised to learn what an awful person Melvil Dewey was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey#Controversies