Comments on: Create offline, analyze online

By: David Wolever

David Wolever — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:59:37 +0000

@Gene: I really like LyX as a LaTeX editor (in fact, I type all my math in LyX, even when I’m just “tinkering” or taking notes… It’s faster and more accurate than my writing by hand)

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:52:59 +0000

I usually use WinEdt to edit LaTeX files.

By: Gene Harris

Gene Harris — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:49:12 +0000

Do you use a LaTex editor? I’ve been looking at LeD.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:27:11 +0000

I envy your ability to provoke responses.
In general, I agree that getting away from the computer is a good thing (very much related to your GTD post) — however — I do think that tools like Freemind can be very useful in certain circumstances:
* Analytically breaking a complex and unorganized mass of something (for me, often this means client goals or requirements from multiple people) into a meaningful structure. I can create the tree true to its original non-structure then move, simplify, expand, etc.. until it starts to make sense to me, then re-present to validate or clarify. Paper is good, but it doesnt have cut and paste (which I use quite a bit).
* Related to the above, taking notes from people who ramble. I prefer paper for organized and clear speakers (especially because I can quickly draw diagrams), but for people who touch on a topic, jump to something unrelated, or simply lose their train of thought, the ability to move things around helps me make sense of people less blessed in the public speaking department. If I dont know which its going to be, I usually err on the side of caution and stick with a mind map (Freemind in my case as well).

I should also say that whiteboards can be similarly effective if they’re large and convenient enough. I once worked for a woman who carried one with her the way most people carry a notebook. Writing it down was enough to commit it to memory (or so she would say).

By: Jon Swanson

Jon Swanson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:06:59 +0000

I find this to be true for me, too. I need to move away from the keyboard to mindmap.

By: Maria Droujkova

Maria Droujkova — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:53:07 +0000

“But the very act of sitting down at a computer puts you in an analytical frame of mind.” John, it may be true for you, but it’s not a universal phenomenon. Twittering, Photoshopping, tag hopping on Flickr, searching Google Images by colors, playing World of Warcraft, using Visual Thesaurus and, yes, mind mapping are just a few examples of my computer-based right-brain activities. It is true that the history of computer is heavily text-based, the inheritance that is hard to overcome in general architecture and application development. But it’s getting much better with time. For me, the left-right threshold was crossed about three years ago.

We still have to be vigilant to the issue you raised, though. Some mind-mapping software is certainly too linear.

By: David Wolever

David Wolever — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:36:15 +0000

A computer may not be as good at fostering creativity as a piece of paper… But I’ve found that doing “things” on the computer can help me focus on “what I’m doing” rather than “how I’m doing it”. For example, if I whip up a tree in FreeMind, it’s easy for me to reorder things until it’s “right”. To do the same on paper, though, needs a pair of scissors or a whole lot of scrap.

To me, that process of “cut it out, move it around, rearrange everything so it fits” is very distracting.