What about paper?

It seems as though there is a substantially larger collection of stuff in the world these days. Take for example all of the things that have been invented just since 1995, the year I graduated high school. Cell phones were used by construction workers and rich folks, no one had the Internet at their house, personal computers were just coming into their own and the list goes on and on. Moreover, it seems that the rate at which new stuff hits the scene is double or triple the speed as which it used to hit the scene. With that in mind, how does one keep track of all this stuff? And what about your own stuff, it needs to be tracked too.

Notes. People used to take notes; regularly. We don't anymore, at least not most of us. I subscribe to a magazine called WIRED. Some of you may have heard of it, others not so much. It is a magazine devoted to technology. Not just computers, iPods and other new age gizmo's but good old fashion technology. Engineering, medicine, energy, etcetera etcetera. WIRED has a regular occurring piece called Play that in this months issue (July 2008) entitled "The End of Science" is devoted to Richard Buckminster Fuller and his files. These files as it turns out are wonderfully elaborate notes. Sketches of what "Buck" thought the future to be. As is was, Mr. Fuller was quite the Renaissance man and as such noted just about everything he though of. He held his notes in such high regard that he created and named a system just to manage them called the Dymaxion Chronofile.

Mr. Fuller is dead now, but at least to some his notes live on. Now here is the kicker. In an age dominated by megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes those notes live on on paper. Astounding. Both of my parents have chosen professions that rely, if not exclusively, certainly heavily, on writing. I my self have tried to become a more avid note taker. I have at least 3 notebooks that I routinely take notes in. I must admit that I prefer paper to anything else. It just seems suited to the task.

When taking notes I struggle to have any consistent style or method. Mostly just ideas and randomness jotted down line by line. This causes some angst when I ponder why it is I am doing this in the first place; which is to keep track of things. I ran across this blog post on a blog I regularly read called Signal vs. Noise that speaks to this very subject. Rather than ruin it with my dibbling thought, check it out for your self. I hope you will be as surprised and amazed by the creativity at which this one indiviaul observes life and then notes on it.