Notes as maps or boxes

In The Different Kinds of Notes, Baldur concludes that there are essentially two organizational strategies, Boxes and Maps. Baldur deduces the two strategies differ only in what must be internalized.

Boxes

A box is a context-external organizational unit. A cardboard box, a digital folder, a binder and a desk drawer might all qualify. Anything which matches the context label of the box can be found inside. In my system, tags are a type of box.

Boxes relieve the mind from sorting items by context, freeing one to visualize relationships.

Maps

A map is a relation-external organizational unit. A mind map, a table of contents, etc. Anything that has a relationship to another thing might be found on the map. A simple map only supports one node out, a wheel-and-spoke model, while a complex map might develop wider relationships and even consist of multiple spokes.

Maps relieve the mind from relating items, allowing one to review context. Although honestly, I’m not sure how this helps.

TODO: Turns out this is fairly difficult to internalize. Gonna have to sit with it a bit and see if I can make sense of Baldur’s work.