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H-m-m: Hackers mind map

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Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#81
post #28

I keep trying mind maps and getting frustrated because my mind works differently. Anybody know of ones that let you start out non-hierarchical? For me, key nodes are often obvious long before relationships are. E.g., if I'm working with post-it notes, I might write a bunch of notes, cluster them, winnow, and only then want to start locking in relationships between items. Has anybody seen something that's pretty strai…

I'm the same as you. Obsidian[0] is non-linear and has worked for me. 0. https://obsidian.md/

Looks great is this Free Software? I want to hack on this thing, where is the code?

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#82
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the same as you. Obsidian[0] is non-linear and has worked for me. 0. https://obsidian.md/

Looks great is this Free Software? I want to hack on this thing, where is the code?

If you want opensource and local storage look up Dendron. It is a VSCode extension in a similar vein, uses markdown so easily track changes in git/etc as well.

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#83
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks great is this Free Software? I want to hack on this thing, where is the code?

If you want opensource and local storage look up Dendron. It is a VSCode extension in a similar vein, uses markdown so easily track changes in git/etc as well.

Or Foam.

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#84
post #28

I keep trying mind maps and getting frustrated because my mind works differently. Anybody know of ones that let you start out non-hierarchical? For me, key nodes are often obvious long before relationships are. E.g., if I'm working with post-it notes, I might write a bunch of notes, cluster them, winnow, and only then want to start locking in relationships between items. Has anybody seen something that's pretty strai…

The best tool I've ever used for this no longer exists, as far as I'm aware. It was circa 1991, a spectacular lightweight Macintosh application called "Inspiration." There currently exists software in the same lane with the same name - but if there's any blood relation between the two, the current bears little resemblance to its progenitor. I will mangle the terminology since it's been so long, but the basic idea was…

The software is still around and old vintage software sites have the earlier versions that you can run in a MacOS8 emulator. I last played with version 6 I think about 4 years ago; at that time you could have both an outline view and a mind map and switch between them.

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#87
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a mind mapping tool cause such a reaction? Are diagrams considered not serious where you work? Was the tool heavily ornamental/stylized? Or was it seen as writing down things that are obvious?

If the boss can't see what is being done on the iPad, it just looks like someone playing candy crush.

He was sitting right next to me. He was just a control freak, who also projected on other people. His ego took out a whole office. Best layoff I ever had.

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#88

There are no stupid questions, except maybe this one: Q. Why is a wide horizontal tree superior way to work with a mind map that’s a pure outline (not a DAG) than a simple outline? See the Data Format here, it’s an outline. Keystrokes are about moving nodes and descendants, that can work on an outline. And then why not have a portable outline format. I do understand this is terminal/text. Yet there are plenty termina…

I haven’t tried this yet, but from the look of it, it expands both horizontally and vertically, and one of the more important features is collapsibility/expansion of subnodes. Note that in the image there, they’ve got some subnodes expanded deep horizontally, while their sibling nodes might be even deeper but are collapsed. The difference with a simple vertical outline is that this format is focused on pruning/unprun…

OK, makes sense. I think most "outliner" tools I know of do exactly those adds, with the benefit of also being relatively flush left.

As I help our firm select knowledge management tools, I'm just trying to understand the use cases that differentiate this approach from a fully fledged outliner.

Note that I ask the same thing of people who do outlines in MS Word manually as plain bullet lists instead of using, you know, the outliner. :-)

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#89
post #28

I keep trying mind maps and getting frustrated because my mind works differently. Anybody know of ones that let you start out non-hierarchical? For me, key nodes are often obvious long before relationships are. E.g., if I'm working with post-it notes, I might write a bunch of notes, cluster them, winnow, and only then want to start locking in relationships between items. Has anybody seen something that's pretty strai…

Scapple is what you are looking for. Its from the same crew that made Scrivener. You can use it free for a month I think or pay like 20 bucks for a lifetime license. It lets you start anywhere and is very simple and intuitive. The only thing bad about it is exporting data out of it. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple/overview

Re: H-m-m: Hackers mind map

#90
post #86

I made a video overview of this tool if you want to see it in action. I also compared its philosophy to my tool TaskTXT ( http://www.tasktxt.com ). Hmm video overview: https://youtu.be/mRbaXHlhwUI

Thanks for the video really clear, not sure why but my mind just couldn't figure out what this project was from the github.
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