Students and Their Files

It's time to get organized, folks.

Another episode in my section, Weekly Diatribe

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Have you ever looked for a needle in a haystack?  Stupid question?  Why would there be a needle in a haystack?  OK, then, have you ever Googled anything?  Well, of course you have.  That’s a little bit like a needle in haystack.  Out of the countless billions of files (the haystack), there is the one file you want to find (the needle).  No problem.  Google can handle that.

So what’s the problem?  Well, can you find YOUR files?  Never mind the internet, can you find YOUR files?  Where do you look?  Simple. You put in the appropriate keyword, and there it is!  Like magic!

But what if you don’t have an appropriate keyword?  What if you remember saving this really great article by ‘what-his-name'.  Well, no name, no file access.  Sorry.  What if you saved some really great posts, and then completely forgot about them?  How will you find posts that you have forgotten exist?

All of the above is to get at this:  I noticed, about five years ago, that my computer was saving files when I pushed the save button, but didn’t ask me where to save them.  Back in the day, you HAD to save to a directory and/or files.  There was no such thing as just clicking save, and relying on the computer to put it someplace safe.  Now, I have to outwit my computer to get it to save files to where I want them.

 Where do I want them?  In the proper folder, that’s where. I have folders for pictures of family events, by year.  So when I want to see pictures of Christmas 2014, there’s a folder that has all my pictures of that.  I have folders for progress photos of projects I do.  Some of those projects span years, stop and start style, but EVERY picture I ever took of it is in the appropriate folder.  No scrolling.  And I will easily find EVERY picture.  I take pictures of the plants in my garden each fall.  That way, each spring I can look back at photos from previous years and plant/replant the newly emerging plants based on what I did or didn’t like about the previous season’s look.

I have written more things than I can remember, and I certainly can’t remember all that I have read.  Without a filing system, most of it would be lost forever.  This diatribe is ensconced in a folder dedicated to Substack diatribes.  I don’t have to remember this post’s name.  I don’t even have to remember I wrote it.  It’ll be there, any time I want to pursue my Substack posts.  All of them.  Together.

The attached link has a great article from the Verge Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever - The Verge that considers the disconnect between the way we old-timers save files, and the way today’s students do.  Today’s students use the needle in the haystack approach, and rely on software to find the needle.  But you have to be able to name that needle.  What was that author's name?  What was the name of that song?  Name them correctly, or you’ll never see your file again. And of course, if you’ve forgotten about that writer or that song, well, that's that.

So, I’m a fan of organized files, files within files, files that contain my favorite songs, others with favorite authors, files with project photos, files with things I’ve written, files of what I’ve written but haven’t published, files of what I’ve written and HAVE published.  That's right. This piece will be moved to the ‘published’ file at the appropriate time.

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But I have another thought.  My files discipline me to think of how things relate.  I don't have just a bunch of pictures, I have family pictures, garden pictures, project pictures.  Other people have just a bunch of pictures.  It’s not that my pictures are fundamentally better pictures, it’s that I see a relativity to my pictures.  They relate.  Over time, they tell stories.

Isn’t that desirable, not just in computer folders, but in life?  Shouldn’t we observe ourselves and the world around us as not a bunch of unrelated incidents, but as a cohesive, related whole?  Think of some of the things we take as being unrelated to each other, when in fact they should be in the same ‘folder’.

How about two of the big ones; abortion rights and gun rights.  They are both rights, and are both considered under the constitution, and legislated by the state and federal governments.  How on earth can we debate them one at a time, and not together?  This is not about what side of anything anyone is on, it’s about they are RELATED.  I’d guess that whatever side you are on (if you are on a side), you are a defender of the one right, while inconsiderate of the other.  How can you do that, and not even contemplate the dichotomy?

You’ve noticed the inflation.  You’ve noticed the housing shortage and the related high rents and mortgages.  Have you noticed that inflation and housing availability are very closely related?  They shouldn’t be considered one at a time, they must be considered together.  They are part of the same reality.

How about the big kahuna, climate change?  Do you want windmills and solar panels, in order to save the planet?  Ok, do you want nuclear power, in order to save the planet?  Why one, but not the other?  Of the two, nuclear is the more direct, quicker path to eliminating man-made CO2.  Oh, but nuclear is so dangerous.  How dangerous is it, in reality?  Not that bad. Only Chernobyl has resulted in direct deaths.  But this diatribe is not about the desirability of nuclear, it is about considering related items together, not separately.  Just as a car must be designed in its entirety, not just as wheels and motors and suspensions designed and built without regard to each other; our energy systems must also be designed and built as an entirety.  But that’s not the way it’s happening, and it shows.

I find that today's fads and “urgent” issues often fade into forgotten memory, to be replaced by some new ‘latest’ thing.  Little to no comparison, connecting of dots.  Each issue its own thing, intellectually unrelated to anything else.  No before, no after, only right now.  Get those files in order, folks.  Consider how they relate.  Let one thing inform the other, and yet another.  Things work much better that way.

p.s. I thought I had moved this piece to the appropriate folder, but (Surprise!) Microsoft failed to do it.