The Outboard Brain Backlash Starts Here
5:23 am, February 9th, 2009, Giles Turnbull
Twitter engineer and minimalism enthusiast Alex Payne writes with some passion on the subject of “everything buckets” – by which he means those apps into which you can throw pretty much everything.
You know the apps he means: the likes of Yojimbo, Evernote, Devonthink, and a dozen or so competitors. Database-powered shoe boxes into which you can chuck PDFs, web archives, bookmarks, plain or rich texts, anything really. And then search through the lot.
Alex thinks “everything buckets” aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The proprietary databases they use might break; they add little that the OS X filesystem doesn’t offer:
“Everything Buckets are selling you a filesystem, and removing the step of creating and saving a new file within that filesystem. That’s their primary value. Whatever organization scheme they may claim to offer, you can replicate on the filesystem. I promise. Even tags (symlinks, aliases – look ’em up).”
I suppose he has a point, but I suspect there are many OS X users and Cult readers who will disagree with him. Yes you *can*, with a little effort, replicate most of what Yojimbo does by fiddling around with Automator actions, Smart folders, Spotlight comments and Finder windows; but let’s be honest, who has the time for all that, when Yojimbo (or any of the other apps Alex mentions) will do it all for you in an instant?
But that’s Alex’s point: the convenience of the app is what you’re trading your freedom (and particularly your *data structure*) for.
Over to you then, Cultists. Does Alex have a point? Or will he have to prise your Yojimbo archive / Devonthink database / Evernote note collection from your cold, dead hands?
Me? I’ve still got a Yojimbo bookmarklet and I’m gonna use it.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in News, Opinions, Software, Top stories | Comment on this article
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I don’t think that a bucket is good for general things – there are folders and the desktop. Where programs such as Devon Think come into there own is in research. A database with a wide range of articles and notes is indispensable. The search functionality enables me to tease out connections in the data that may have otherwise been missing. So in all Alex may have a point but it is context specific.
Adam, on February 9th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Just another Terminal geek who thinks that everything would be better from the command line… He’s very wrong when he compares symlinks and aliases to tags, though. I’ll stick with Yojimbo; it makes a lot more sense than tons of text files.
Kirk, on February 9th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I agree with Mr. Payne, in that you end up with piles of information (of questionable use) that needs to be sorted, which would have been probably better served by creating a few folders and a less voracious appetite.
Mr. Payne’s article was a wake up call for me when I red it a few days ago. I jettisoned the “everything bucket” tool that I was using and went back to keeping what I need, where I need it, rather then everything, Spotlight does the rest.
In Defense of “Everything Buckets†by Dan Grover developer of ShoveBox is a good counter argument. http://tinyurl.com/cbnl5c
Claudio, on February 9th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I scan all business documents so I don’t have to take time (and physical space) to file them. Over the years this has built up to a LOT of PDF files. I’ve tried most of the applications, bought several, but in the end all of them take more time than simply naming the documents appropriately and moving them to the correct folder in OS X. I’m with Alex, just wish I’d known what a I know now a few hundred dollars ago!
GeezerGeek, on February 9th, 2009 at 8:17 am
fair enough. however, one ability not covered by any native filesystem is the functionality provided by evernote to index and search against the graphic content of images.
secretsquirrel, on February 9th, 2009 at 10:27 am
For the longest time I thought it was me. I never found one of these that made my work easier. I figured it was one of those “age differences” – that I was too old to change the way I worked. But except for these tools, that’s not true.
Like Payne, I’ve always taken care of this with well organized folders – except using Finder I don’t need any symlinks. My thesis folder held nearly 10GB of data, organized by either subject or type (or both). Some files used more than once started out as duplicates, but I got smart and changed those to shortcuts. The only limiting factor is that I had to copy “general use” files. I needed local versions so I could do complete backups to CDs. Since this was my thesis I was healthily(?) neurotic about keeping multiple copies.
The only thing I needed any sort of tool for was organizing a bunch of cryptically titled technical papers. I created a very simple FileMaker database listing their filename, subject, and brief abstract. That ran in the background constantly, and when I needed something I just clicked on a file link and it opened right up. It worked so well I almost spent the time to do it for all my files (just like these apps), but figured out I already had 95% of that with my file system. Add Spotlight notes to this – not available back then, and it works even better.
I’m not saying these aren’t useful tools. If they work for you get one. But don’t assume they’ll automatically make you better organized or more productive. In fact, learning their paradigm will take some time and effort, and may force you to abandon some productive habits. And I’d still only recommend them on a project-basis. Using this replace your entire OS X file mess will probably just result in a giant Yojimbo mess.
imajoebob, on February 10th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Just finished reading the articles as well as his rules for computing.. If he’s found a system that works for him and he wants to “help” people sort out their computing mess, that’s great. But to be honest, he comes off as a snob. And he contradicts himself by using Macjournal for his journaling, GoogleDocs for soem of his workflow and Dropbox for his syncing, as well as several other software tools that also go directly against what he is preaching.
I’m with the author of this article. I use Evernote to dump my ideas, thoughts, and (some of) my work into regardless of where I am (iPhone, Macbook, etc), so I can sync it and have it all (on my desktop iMac) when I get home.
I just don’t get why he should care either way what everyone is using to manage their data, track their ideas, and ease their workflow. Seems like there are other things to be concerned with.
Shell, on February 14th, 2009 at 4:45 pm