[Tfug] More "pie in the sky"... :-/

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

Hierarchical file systems (i.e., hierarchical *name spaces*)
seem well suited to "technical minds" but seem to pose
problems for "casual users".

Sure, you can use the (lame) analogy of "file folders" to
help get people to relate to "directories", etc.  But, it
seems like people can't generalize this to a *hierarchical*
system (perhaps because people don't think of putting file
folders *within* other file folders to arbitrary "depths"?)

So, I've been trying to think about how we (as humans)
organize our thoughts and our *things*.

And, I guess I've come to the decision that we *don't*
organize things hierarchically -- or, at least, if we
*do*, it is a very *shallow* and *broad* hierarchy.

It also seems like we rel heavily on "associations"
(relationships?) between items/thoughts.

E.g., my address book (a piece of software) implicitly
acknowledges this:  I can "find" someone who's name I
may have forgotten by, instead, remembering the relationships
that person has with the people that I know.

So, for example, I can look up a friend and, from his "record",
access his childrens' records.  From one of those children,
I can access their *spouse*.  And, from that spouse, get the
name of the company that employs them.  And, from that, search
for all people (in my address book) that work for that company...
[thereafter, I have to rely on brute force "recognition" to
get the right individual  :< ]

This suggests any naming scheme should generously support
aliases (symlinks, etc.).

My question, then, is how can you organize information in a way
that makes it easier for people to *remember* where it is and/or
*find* when they forget it's "location" (i.e., name)?