What’s Your Tribe?
It’s funny how tribes develop around different note-taking apps and styles.
For years the Folders and the Taggers were the dominant tribes. They always had an uneasy peace but were able to work together. They had different ways of governing but shared a belief in law and order. Everything has its place. For a long time, life was good.
But life doesn’t always go the way you plan.
Some of the Folders and Taggers started to rebel. They got tired of the organization. They formed their own tribe.
The Linkers have become the upstarts. They’re gathering a vocal and growing following and its making the Folders and Taggers nervous. What if some of their citizens leave and join the Linkers? They’ll never find anything again!
The Linkers, free spirits that they are, can’t be contained. They have blind faith that they’ll stumble across what they need when the time is right. Serendipity is their friend. No matter how much they squirrel away, one nut will lead to another, they believe.
It all sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it?
Why is it one or the other? Maybe it can all work together. Maybe we’re smart enough to understand the benefits of both. Can we learn to be honest enough to admit that each method has its pitfalls?
Folders and Tags can get out of hand. You can have too much organization and, yes, sometimes you can get bogged down trying to figure out where to put something.
The faith of Linkers that the trail of breadcrumbs will lead to the next big idea, the creative spark that will light the world on fire is a bit misplaced. First, consider just how many of these random combinations there are. If you have just 100 notes, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of combinations between any two. The chances that you’ll stumble across any two combinations get slimmer with each additional note. And, yes, sometimes falling down the rabbit hole of connected notes is a time-waster in itself.
The individual tribes still exist but new combinations are sprouting up. The Cals are somehow able to coexist with everyone.
How to Find Peace
There are a growing number of people who are starting to understand the real answer here. It doesn’t lie in the tool. You are the answer. And that is precisely why it’s so difficult to find. Self-reflection isn’t something most people are keen to do.
Confronting your biases, your tendencies, both good and bad isn’t always fun. We have trouble identifying exactly what it is we want.
Before you declare your fealty to any one tribe, take some time look inward. What type of person are you? How do you learn? What is your purpose for taking notes?
Are you looking to build a PKM or complete specific projects? Maybe you need to organize your day better.
Once you know your purpose you can choose which tribe suits you best. Or maybe you can make any of them work. Hell, maybe you can make all of them work.
Once you know your purpose, when you’re clear on the why, you’ll find the tribe where you belong.