Pile of Index Cards

「ホンゲル係数」。

収入に占める、書籍代（本、ホン）の割合。
エンゲル係数からの造語。

算出方法は以下の通り。

　ホンゲル係数 = [書籍代 / 収入] x 10

基本的には、1ヶ月ごとに算出する。
「パーセンテージ」で考えたい時は、x 10 の部分を x 100 にする。

本家のエンゲル係数は、消費支出（一ヶ月にどれだけ消費したか）に対する係数であるが、
ここでは簡単のために収入としている。
給与明細と1ヶ月に買った本の値段の合計が分かれば簡単に算出できる。

書籍代に月どれだけ使っているかを知りたい。
そうすると、月どれだけの収入があるかを聞かなければならない。
収入というのはプライベートの情報であるから、これはなかなか聞きにくい。
ということで、ある程度ユニバーサルな指数を考えてみた。

さて、皆さんのホンゲル係数はどのくらいだろうか？

Google Earth-ed Tokyo. Example of the “Raindrop“.

相転移（そうてんい、phase transition）とは、化学的、物理的に均一な物質の部分である相 (Phase) が他の形態の相へ転移することの熱力学あるいは統計力学上の概念であり、それらを発生機構とする物理現象の総称でもある。相転移の発生は特定の原因に由来せず、原子あるいは分子間の相互作用を初めとし、結晶構造や局所構造あるいは磁場や温度・エネルギー分布など、場合に応じて複数の要素が複合的に作用して発生する現象である。

PoIC マニュアルの「再生産する」の冒頭で、私は「始めの頃は単なる日記の延長だった PoIC が、この頃になると知識のデータベースとして機能するようになります。」と書いたんだけれども、この現象は「相転移」として理解できるかも。つまり、ある点を境にして、それ以前とそれ以後ではシステムの「ふるまい」がガラリと変わると。水を沸かすと、100℃に達したところで、急にぽこぽこと泡が出始めるように。どうも PoIC にも、そういう点があるらしい。

I received an email from one of PoIC reader.

Hi,

I just read about your system and thank you for outlining it. I thought it was interesting that you set up your system to cover ALL aspects of life since I had recently started writing a book and unknowingly came up with a similar system (but only used it for writing the book).

My question: how often do you go through your cards to collate (bring together) your related “Discovery” cards (or even your “Record” cards - if one is tracking weight changes)?

Regards,

C. H.

Hi, C. H. Thank you for your question. Your question is about Task Force (TF). The frequency of organizing TF and the scale depends on person/occasion/situation. In my case, there are two kind of TF according to its scale.

• Medium Task Force (MTF) : The MTF is consisted by 5 - 25 index cards which is used for writing a blog contents, for example. The MTF includes just flip through dock. It is “medium” because I think writing index cards is already organizing “small” TF. Josh DiMauro uses 5×8 index cards for this kind of midium size reproduction called “Second-Draft“. The MTF index cards are returned to dock after task.
• Large Task Force (LTF) : The LTF is consisted by about 500 - 1,000 (or more) index cards. In my case, it is used for complementing PoIC wiki manual. The LTF index cards are not returned to dock after task.

Following is the results “how often I organize TF” via PoIC activity. The period is divided by organizing LTF.

• Case 1. 2006.08 - 2007.03 : In this period, I frequently organize MTF to write PoIC blog. It was main PoIC activity, since I didn’t have PoIC Wiki yet. As a resluts, I wrote 156 blog contents. At the end of this period, I organized first LTF to the complement PoIC manual (wiki). So the frequency of organizing TF in this 8 months is,

• Case 2. 2007.03 - 2007.12 : After organizing the LTF, my activity migrates to the wiki, rather than blog. I already finished basic development of PoIC until period 1. I had just kept accumulating index cards in dock, and leave them. I write 38 blog contents in this period. In 2007.12, I organized second LTF about PoIC, which includes 1,050 index cards. In this 10 months,

My analysis. The case 1 is better, because when I decide to build a house (wiki), I have already enough bricks (blog) and mortar (LTF index cards). The enough MTF helps to move on organizing LTF. At the same time, shuffling index cards, three times per week, is too much for me.

The case 2 is better, because I can concentrate to accumulate index cards without disturbance, that is shuffling cards so frequently. I can leave the system as it is. However, at the end stage of productivity, I have to make all bricks at once to build a house. It requires huge effort. It took 2 days for me to finish piling/grouping process of nearly a thousand index cards.

Our thought is nonlinear. So, it is better to leave system and don’t touch some time. Then we can see a certain pattern. I think two cases above are both extreme : Too much and too less. I still need to tune the frequency. I guess there is a “sweet spot”. Perhaps it will become “weekly review” in the GTD as a natural conclusion.

How often in your case?

Updated : 2008.01.27 14:57

I found simple law in PoIC. This is about scale of Task Force v.s. its frequency. I measured scale of task force for writing index cards, blog, and wiki, and how many time I organize Task Force (=frequency, f). I found the distribution of scale is nearly 1/f. The PoIC follows power law, one of fundamental law in nature.

You may hear about Long Tail somewhere, before. According to Wikipedia, the Long Tail had been proposed to explain business model of successful Amazon.com. An 80% of “less important matter” is much more important than 20% of “important matter” in internet shopping. This is also true for success of Apple’s iTMS.

Further, the Long Tail phenomena is understood as one of the “power law” case. So the PoIC and Long Tail is connected through power law, the language of nature. PoIC follower believe “less important is more important” intuitively as we capture and accumulate all “tiny”, apparently less important ideas using fieldnote and index cards. Or maybe remind David Allen’s “great habit of collection”. Now we can say this rules-of-thumb in PoIC is right as we see in the successes of Amazon.com and iTMS. Nature rules.

Not only about the Task Force, but also a distribution of Four Cards seems follow the Long Tail. I had written this article without paying attention to the Long Tail. The dots are connected now. The number of Discovery Card dominates 81.2% of my index cards @ home. This results can be understood as “80% of less important Discovery is more important in personal productivity.” This sounds somewhat paradoxical, but true. In fact, if I don’t have a tracking system like PoIC, all tiny discovery disappeared into darkness.

In this article, I showed only two examples of the Long Tail phenomena in PoIC currently I found. I think there are more such rules in index cards productivity. Have you found such curious “Mushrooms” in your system?

I found two kind of “chronological order (CO)” is possible. I had to define the meaning of CO in PoIC carefully. O.K. Let’s see the difference of possible two CO.

One is “absolute” CO, which is along universal, public, social, or common time axis. Let’s see the example. This morning, I saw roadside tree leaves just have turn yellow (R1). This evening, my friend visit my office (R2). In absolute CO, the event occur R1, then R2. This is trivial, of course.

PoIC adopt another CO. Here is example. Before go to bed, I write diary about today. I remind about R2 first, and next R1. According to PoIC, I write and stack index cards in CO. The CO here doesn’t mean “absolute”. I write index cards as it emerge in my mind. I define it as “relative” CO, which is along time axis in individual person’s mind. Important here is time of emergence. In relative CO, the event occur R2, then R1.

The difference of these two CO is shown in figure above. Absolute CO (bottom) and Relative CO (top) is not always equal. If we try to follow the absolute CO, we have to pay huge effort. Of course, we can coincide them though. PoIC says, “Don’t do that. Follow just your own mind”. We write index cards as it emerge in our mind, that is, along relative CO. This difference seems, however, not trivial. In fact, some people seems afraid of “chronological order” because maybe they imagine that they have to follow “absolute” CO.

Relative CO is possible thanks to piece-by-piece index cards. We can sort the order in absolute CO when we really need. No way to be default as far as we follow to relative CO. As a result of PoIC’s relative CO, what we see in dock is our “stream of thought”. And we will see there is certain “time axis”.

単純に「時系列」と言っても、「実際の社会の中の時系列」と、「自分の心の中の時系列」には違いがある。思い浮かんだ順に書く、「自分の心の中の時系列」で良いんだよ、というのが PoIC。

# I added this definition on Chronological Order and Task Force section.

(This hack is for people outside Japan…)

I have been using quadrille index cards from the beginning of PoIC. A difference between Japanese and U.S. quadrille index cards is relevance between cut and grid. Japanese index cards’ cut and grid is always fixed, and U.S.’ is not.

This is critical for PoIC’s tag. Soon I see U.S. index cards actually, I started small service to send Japanese index cards. But I stop it after 3 monthes because I don’t have time to do it. Also I found it won’t solve foundamental problem at all. Index cards is office suppliy. If it is expensive, it doesn’t make sense.

Recently, PoIC is introduced on Lifehack.org and 43 Folders successively. Many people visits flickr and wiki, and we discuss about index cards actively. And again, about the difference of Japanese and U.S. index cards.

This time, discussion with Matt gives me a new inspiration about tagging for U.S. index cards. It’s base is Jan Allsopp’s comment on my blog about her trick for tagging. She shows it on her blog. She uses pigment pen and ruler to make grid on top edge of plain index cards.

Here is a problem: I’m lazy person. If I have to make grid accurately all time, I will give up using index cards soon. The procedure should be more and more easy for me. It must be finished in 30 seconds. So I use 5 mm width highlighter instead.

1. Slide a pile of plain index cards.
2. Leave one pen head width as margin.
3. Make four lines with 1 mm spacing on the edge.

That’s all. The pictures right are the example. I use yellow highlighter because it is in my drawer. Perhaps blue color is better. I finish this experiment in 20 seconds.

Now you can use U.S. quadrille, ruled, and even plain index cards for PoIC. :)

I wrote entropy (randomness of information) in dock shows saw-tooth like cycle. I have been thinking same model is applied for every “discovery”. This time, a system is not a dock but a brain.

In a thinking process, complexity and randomness of information in a brain increase with time. Time span depends on the problem. Sometime it is in conscious, and perhaps most of time in subconscious level.

At certain point, a moment of “I see it!” comes : A bulb in a brain lights. This corresponds to peak of the entropy model. Then information in a brain are regulated and condensed. The entropy drops steeply. In chrisb’s words, a moment turn gas into crystal.

A point here seems that a bulb in a brain lights with maximizing entropy. Input information is a way to increase entropy.

「発見」はフラクタル構造を持っているようだ。

This week, I spend most of time in library. I escape from computer, like a children run away from home. Morning to night. I spend whole day by reading in library. Long time I forget this comfortable atmosphere.

I found some things good to keep reading, around desk and environment.

- High desk
- Footrest
- Fluorescent lamp
- High Roof
- People

High desk keep book close to eyes. Mine is too low for reading since it is optimized for typing keyboard. The footrest is good for long-time sitting. I found lamp is important for reading. Incandescent lamp in my room is dark for reading. High roof is good for thinking because one look up while thinking. Every people in a library are reading and studying. Sharing common experience in common place. This is good to motivate myself.

なかなか本が読めない時は、環境を変えてみる。

- Brain Storming
- Mind Map
- KJ Method
- GTD
and
- PoIC

I found they have something in common. What is that? :P