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Reason
I write. I paint. I cook. I build stuff. I raise a family…
For years, I have been trying to keep track of everything. I want to recall details of something I’ve done in the past, or plan out steps I need to do in the future. Unfortunately. I’m to scattered brain for my own good. Add to that, a moment of silence will cause my brain to fill with ideas, of which some are worth pursuing. I need an external method to keep track because it is more than what one person can remember.
I’ve tried a lot of different methods to keep track. I’ve used folders, clipboards, and filing cabinets. I’ve tried sticky notes and white boards. (The former failed miserably when my toddler became the sticky note bandit.) I’ve even tried several software solutions. All of the methods were sort of successful, but they all fell short in some critical area. Most were not shareable with friends and family. A large number were inconvenient to access or maintain. Almost all of them only allowed you to look at the data in the same way using the same format. None of them provided exactly what I needed.
Therefore, I will create it myself.
Application Wish List
Allow the documents (any piece of information) to be used in multiple presentations.
A simple example of this is a task or to-do item. By itself, it could be the action that needs to be taken, whether is it completed or not, and some additional notes or instructions. That task might be part of a list tasks needed to complete a more complex task or project which could be a part of another more complex task or project. The goal is to use the same task information in multiple formats. Displaying the task web as a mindmap, a gannt chart, today’s task list, kanban board, or any other format that might be useful. Different presentation emphasize different aspects of the information. A mindmap would show how the tasks relate to each other. A gannt chart shows order of completion and parallel activities. A to-do list shows what needs to be done next. How it is shown is as important as the item itself.
Documents should be able to link to other documents.
Experimental data would be an example of this. There would be a hypothesis that would link to several different experiments. These experiments would link back to the hypothesis, contain instructions and expected outcomes, and link to a form for collecting data. The collected data would be a separate document that links back to the experiment. That data could then be used in creating charts and graphs that then get linked to analysis page links back to the hypothesis. Any of these could then be linked to tasks or other document.
Version control edits
There is a problem with trustworthiness right now. One of the ways of addressing that issue is openness. Therefore keeping a publicly accessible listing of all changes made to a document and why will help promote trust.
Automatic Language Translation
Not everyone speaks and reads English. The application should respond to the user in their native language. Yes this does mean the use of Large Language Models (LLM), which most people refer to as AI; however, it should only be used as a place holder until a human can do a proper translation.
LLMs are used for pattern recognition. That means that it finds information like this list of words in English match to this list of words in Japanese 95% of the time. An LLM translator recommends the list of words that match the highest percentage. That is why LLMs miss context clues at best, or produce incorrect garbage at worst. The latter is commonly referred to as hallucinating. Since the application will primarily be dealing with technical information with limited context clues, I believe that LLMs should be useful. We will have to see as the system develops and gains users.