For a long time, this was certainly true, and still is to an extent.

I do find that software is beginning to do a good job of automatically organizing content when it has enough metadata to do so.

Photos are the best example of this I’ve see. I use Apple Photos, and from the effort I put in (none), it’s just a large shoebox full of pictures. However, the software organizes everything by date, location, type, subject, etc, all at the same time. This makes it pretty effortless to find anything very quickly. Trying to create this level of organization manually would be borderline impossible, and require a person devoting to their life to organizing this one specific aspect of their life.

There was recently a death in the family and everyone was looking for photos. I was able to pull up every picture of this person I had, spanning nearly 20+ years, in seconds. Others who didn’t use the software effectively spent hours and days manually scrolling through their photo grid. I attempted to tell them how they could make it easier, but they weren’t in the mood to deal with technology lessons, understandably so, so I didn’t try and press it.

We (at least I) compensate for that by having 10k photos on it, which again makes it impossible to find anything. And if you decide to cull them because it's just too much, it's a chore.

I agree with you but still not using it. The challenge when I first tried Apple was, the photos all disappeared into iTunes. I wanted to pull out a jpg to do some photo editing and it was difficult. So I gave up and never went back. It must have improved in 15 years, but they will now be training their AI on my photos. So not gonna use it now either. I'll look for an open source app after I retire.

My previous manual organisation of digital photos into directories on my home server was quite time consuming. I got an iPhone a few years ago and started using Apple Photos. Like you, I put no effort into organising the photos – other than adding some descriptive metadata to a few photos. Apple’s organisation and their user interface allow me to quickly find any photo that I remember taking. However, I’m curious about what you mean by “didn’t use the software effectively”.

Off Topic: one other thing I really like about Apple Photos is that I get to see my photos on the Apple TV when screensaver kicks in.

> However, I’m curious about what you mean by “didn’t use the software effectively”.

Specifically, Photos has facial recognition and has had it since iPhoto ‘09. Instead of using this to do the work for them, they manually scrolled through thousands of thumbnails looking for a certain face. When I mentioned I used the facial recognition feature, the others said they didn’t enable it and were fine scrolling for hours.

The software has different tools for different jobs. In this case, the facial recognition was the efficient way to cull down thousands of random photos to something manageable, but they weren’t interested.

Similarly, I constantly use the map view to find pictures from a trip, or that I know were taken around a certain location. People have seen me use it, they’ve asked and I’ve explained it to them, and yet they never seem to commit it to memory to use it for themselves.

I’ve also spoken to people who talked about scrolling through their pictures to delete old screenshots. There is a Utility filter to view just the screenshot. A few minutes looking around the app and it’s right there, but I see people scrolling their whole library.

All of this is not using the software effectively or efficiently.

The facial recognition has been enabled by default since I started using an iPhone in 2020. I find it to be useful but not as useful as the map view: as a bird-watcher and wildlife enthusiast, I’ll remember where (but not necessarily when) I took interesting photos. The geo-tagging also makes it easy to delete old work-related photos of computers from my workplace.

I’m generally considered by peers to be somewhat paranoid when it comes to computer/mobile privacy and big ad/tech but I find these features to be very useful and I’m surprised your peers wouldn’t make use of them when they’re available – particularly when the software is so intuitive.

Thanks for the clarification.

  Others who didn’t use the software effectively spent hours and days manually scrolling through their photo grid. I attempted to tell them how they could make it easier, but they weren’t in the mood to deal with technology lessons, understandably so, so I didn’t try and press it.

Doesn't that demonstrate the point?

They spent years actively avoiding letting the software do its thing in several ways. In many cases putting forth more effort to avoid letting the software make their life easier. Their rejection of technology is what led to the struggle.

For example, I clicked a button 16 years ago for face detection, and in 16 years they didn't do that and didn't want to. I use iCloud photo library so I have access to all my pictures everywhere, while they have fractured libraries on various hard drives (that I don't think are backed up anywhere else).

Turning on face detection any time in the last 16 years and keeping their library together, solves the problem and creates less work. And sure, I end up paying $2.99/month for extra storage, but that seems cheap when factoring in the time they spend trying to avoid it, not to mention the calls I've gotten when they think a drive isn't working and they are crying, because they think they just lost everything. I'd pay the $3 for them if it meant never getting a call like that again, where I'm bracing to hear someone died, because they are crying so much they can't get the words out.

Several times when I pulled up pictures they have asked me how I'm able to do it so quickly. It's not exceptional organization or effort on my part, I'm simply using the software. I took 10 minutes, one time, to play around with the new Photos app when they revamped it, instead of just complaining that it changed, like most of the internet. There is no magic. Learn how the tools work, and use the tools. When you do that, the organization can often take care of itself.

> Don't expect a computer to organize you. If you have a messy desk, you will have a messy computer.

That's why Google and GMail got so successful. Don't sort; search.

I love using note-taking apps for this reason. They are a bottomless bucket into which you can throw unlimited unorganized thoughts. When you need them later, simply search.

which do you recommend? I do "note to self" in messaging apps and the search is alright but I guess there are better alternatives

I've tried tons and ended up on Notion. Works on every device, syncs well, supports rich embeds and easy publishing to the web. It really depends on your preferences. Anything works as long as it has cloud sync and half-decent search.

Some apps I've tried and liked: Apple Notes, Simplenote, Bear, Obsidian and Craft

I use Notes.app on Mac & iPhone. Haven't found anything I like that would also work on Linux/BSD.

And there's Everything for Windows

Reminds me of the lottery… “If you aren’t happy before the money, you won’t be happy after”. Most people interviewed are not happy after relatively large wins, almost all report being isolated from family in the best cases and deeply resented and resentful more often than not.

"You know you won't win — but you might!" — Terry-Thomas on playing the lottery

Nevertheless, I go through life with the persistent unconscious belief that if I buy products-for-organizing I will become organized. :p

In a similar way, buying exercise equipment gets you in shape.

If you buy enough equipment then the act of carrying the equipment inside will get you in shape.

Just like my bogo sort. It’ll get there eventually.

The most exercise I’ve ever had is solo assembling a 295 pound Rogue Fitness Monster Lite power rack and raising it from the horizontal position I assembled it in to the vertical position.

I figured after that much effort I needn’t exercise ever again. I sold it the next week at a loss (cheapest hobby I’ve ever had). Although to be fair I didn’t realize at the time that I needed to buy the barbell and weights too. Lesson learned: stick to the monthly gym membership that I will never use.

The second most exercise I’ve ever had is solo raising my Grizzly 14” bandsaw to standing. Also never used, but at least I never had the heart to sell it.

And buying books makes you smart and knowledgable. It’s all so easy!

True, however, anything not digital gets lost. And I may have many messy backups but I will find that one 15 y/o photo or doc when I need it.

That's true. But at least you can do a search on a computer.

After reading pdfs for a few years one day I bought a physical book. I remember looking at the corner of the page for time and thinking about CTRL-Fing for something.

> You can't grep dead trees.

The world's librarians at least gave it a good effort. Do you still remember all those card catalogs at the library?

Not just that, I remember learning all of the different systems and being told how invaluable it was for research.

I caught what must have been the last itty bitty tail of that. I was a 3rd grader in 1993 and were taught all about the card catalog and the Dewey decimal system and taking notes on note cards and organizing them in notecard boxes and how important it all was for research. I'm glad we moved on from that. For me, it was a drag.

IIRC from when I visited a library earlier this year, they were still being used in the genealogy section.

Yes, I remember them but also observe that we’ve moved on from those trays of cards in narrow drawers systems (and good riddance!).

Those cards are no replacement for literal grep, of course. They were a search across a tiny summary of the contents, albeit a fairly structured one (which is helpful for some searches).

Thy this, get the real massive paper copy of the Grainger catalog from your local outlet.

Then download the catalog in PDF form.

Compare the speed with which you can page through 100 pages or more at maximum physical speed which is useful enough visually for you to get enough of a grasp to stop exactly where you need to, when you wouldn't know exactly what to search for in text form anyway.

dead trees dont change your search results and insert ads, add tracking and profiling

Or get updated content! Had a Lawrence block book where pages were added or removed from a kindle device.

Trevanian had an anecdote in shibumi about how he had to remove the description of a museum robbery from later editions of an earlier book - the eiger sanction.

I own the first edition of both, obviously.

Most books where that is important have an index.

More often than not they are a bit lackluster, unfortunately.

I can't find/grep on my desk. My messy computer is much easier to handle!

i find my computer is better organised than my desk.