langreiter.com plain, simple: comment-2002-04-22-3

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comment-2002-04-22-3

CREATED BY chris • LAST EDITED BY chris 8002 days AGO

Please keep in mind that my "effective use" may well be your "waste of time". For my part, I find visualizations like this almost always useful and inspiring in some (sometimes somewhat weird and unexpected) way.

I haven't ever used Google's "Related Pages" feature before, but now that Martin has built this kind of interface, it did already open interesting avenues for further research and exploration — and all that only by following URLs that somewhat caught my interest. The true coolness behind it is of course Google's (or rather all the contributors that make this kind of "Collective Filtering" possible at all).

Pseudo-Mindmaps probably don't help much when doing repetitive, measurable work — but because they help broaden my short-term memory "horizon" while looking at them, they help me discover relationships I wouldn't have thought existed and let me discover patterns where none were expected. In that context, I consider them to be tools to increase the chance of serendipitous discoveries to happen.

Certainly all of those experiences can be greatly improved and the features made more useful, e.g. by color/size/shape-coding several snip or link attributes (age, popularity etc.) — and I plan to experiment with this as time permits.

Visualizations inspire me, and besides, they make for pretty pictures (that alone being a goal well worth pursuing, in my not-so-humble opinion ;-).

Would you say that taking notes increases your memory? Would you say that drawing maps to relate your thoughts helps you thinking? If you do — I do —, then it's not unlikely to find enjoyment in visualizations like those.

YMMV.