From emv@umich.edu Mon Jun 29 23:28:51 1998 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 23:10:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Edward Vielmetti To: Christopher Locke Cc: Edward Vielmetti Subject: Vacuum #4q: The "question mark" node ? Chris, (and the rest of Vacuum), You don't like paper but I swear by it - the only tangible reminder that I have of the last 6 years in the business is ink or pencil on paper kept in bound notebooks. Web sites and email tend to get scattered to the winds or moved around beyond recognition, but my lab notebook from 1993 still looks like it did back then. I think the "question mark node" that you mention below has a lot to do with the other message I'm sending out tonight about "transformational moments", though in the way that I find happy about the net it comes to the problem from a totally different angle. Ed ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 10:11:04 -0600 From: Christopher Locke To: Edward Vielmetti Subject: RE: Vacuum #4: Mindmapping Ed, interesting list of contacts! thanks for including me. and of course, thanks for the pointer to the 4work "paper"... as to the mindmapping technique. I have done this to good effect in the past, but I really am a computer junky. problems with paper include the usual: storage and retrieval (i.e.: where the hell did I put that?); editing and updating; cutting and pasting (reuse in other contexts); expansion off the base ideas, etc... I have been looking for years for something that would would help me flesh out and connect ideas, but I still use a text editor, email, etc. -- with all the (often worse) problems that go along with those. There is a s/w tool called Inspiration that I checked out for a while, but I never really used it. the mechanics of these things tend to get in the way more than they help. hell, what I'd really like is a good ASCII-based HTML-aware OUTLINER -- Word is NOT it. I hate Word. anyway, yes, this is a subject in which I have a lot of interest. I even have some (quite old now, but I think still valid) thoughts on knowledge acquisition (learning) and semantic networks. most important is the "question mark node" -- something you don't understand yet, but has the potential to "complete the circuit" on an emergent idea -- or constellation of ideas. American education teaches kids they must not allow these question marks. horribly binary: you either "know it" or you deny "it" exists. this is why we have a population of near-idiots. best chris/RB Entropy Gradient Reversals All Noise - All the Time http://www.rageboy.com (303) 413-9583 (303) 413-9588 fax