Information R/evolution (Paper: it was here all along)
Merlin Mann, esteemed web-celebrity and thinker, linked to this impressive and inspiring video I had forgotten about.
It suckered me in to reading the rest of his post more intently. Wherein, he “defends” paper, for those who may have erroneously reported its demise:
See, the key is to use paper for what it’s great at and to avoid relying on it for what it famously sucks at — the second part of which I think this video does handsomely.
Still, for thinking, capture, and live collaboration, paper is one of the best friends you’ll ever have. And as long as we use it properly, it’s going to continue to enhance the creation of all downstream media. Even the shiny, embeddable, Web 2.0 kind.
When we rely on a paper document as the final, unique destination for information, we create physical and cognitive limitations that seem crazy once you’ve spent a chunk of your life living on Google. No one disputes that.
But as an intermediary medium between thinking and a final draft, I still just love what you can do with a stack of index cards and a little spare time. No content types. No taxonomy. No typefaces. Just you and your ideas — in a bunch of little piles that make sense to you.
In this, as in so much else, we must seek the Middle Way. =)
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