The way to make sure you don’t lose ideas is to write them down. The trick is being able to remember that you’ve got it down and where you’ve got it, when you need it, whether you’re aware you need it or not.
Three types of situations:
(1) You’re aware you need information and you’re able to retrieve it.
(2) You’re aware you need information but you’re not able to retrieve it.
(3) You’re not aware you need information so no effort is made to retrieve it.
Most information-needed situations seem to be type 1. Most type 2 situations can be converted into type 1. It’s the type 3 situation that is the real problem. How can you make yourself aware of needed information when you aren’t even aware you need it?
A good (comprehensive, accurate, well-organized) source of primarily theoretical/ideological information is textbooks and almanacs. A good source of primarily mood-evocative information is glossy magazines.
Sometimes it is quicker just to address a question yourself, than to try to find the answer by retrieving it from some sort of information storage system, such as a library, or group of libraries.
Subjects should not be grouped by area in a global catalog, because the areas will always have a degree of arbitrariness and overlap.
Snag subjects: dummy subjects used to guide you into the subject network.
A lot of information can be gotten more quickly from my memory than from books.
Advantages of searching memory (and using logic) to get information, over searching a library:
(1) Faster. It takes seconds or minutes rather than hours.
(2) Cheaper. No expenditures for gas, photocopying, lost times, etc.
(3) Not contaminted by false and/or irrelevant information.
Recurrent questions when evaluating a binder or file arrangement:
(1) Do you use/access it?
(2) If not, why not? What’s the problem?
(3) How can you solve the problem?
It’s most natural to search for information by subject, instead of by author or title or notetype or whatever.