Entries On Paper

 Any system of entries on paper is different from any system of entries in a software.

 

The major difference is placement of in-between entries. These are entries of a date that you forget at the time when you were supposed to enter them but remember them later. Question is where to put them.

 

In a software you can always edit those entries in middle or start i.e. wherever they are supposed to be. On paper you cannot do that unless you have left space for them.

 

Entries on paper therefore can be done either (i) In Sequence, or (ii) In Portions

 

Why not just use softwares then? There is question about availability - a desktop computer or a laptop is not always in reach - although cell phones are in reach always but poor ergonomics and limitations of user interface on small screens are a problem. These are, however, technical problems which can and likely would be overcome soon by technological progress. For example, holographic displays can be used that solve both ergonomics and small screen problems. What cannot be overcome is psychological problem of finality. Let me explain in a bit detail.

 

As data is updated in between the lines in a software by a user, and with it all the calculations get updated as well, the whole data system appears more and more unreal and fluid to the sub-conscious mind of human users. Thinking is hard, as in it requires resources that we don't have plenty of. We cannot concentrate for a long time, research says its just 30 minutes in a day. We cannot avoid distractions for long, we are not built for that for survival reasons. Our short term memory cannot at all handle more than 5 times simultaneously and can barely handle more than 3. Our brains which already consume 20 percent of oxygen and thus energy (as oxygen is used for burning glucose to get energy, that’s the only purpose of consuming oxygen) are already consuming many times more than any other living thing and thus cannot be made to use even more.

 

So, thinking is hard, and therefore we cannot do a lot of it, both in intensity (we peak out at 5 items) and in duration (half hour limit per day). What we have to do, we must do, is to utilize this resource (the brain) intelligently. We have to think about thinking. We have to pick our battles so to speak.

 

We think on data. We tend to prefer that data for it that appears to be fixed. We ignore frequently changing data.

 

Biggest problem with softwares is we know its data can change. Even if it don't change at all just the knowledge that its fluid makes us inherently dislike anything thats a software. It not even have anything to do with computer screens. Even if the whole system becomes strictly mechanical and we can see all the gears and belts we will still put it in "unreliable" category in our minds.

 

This is why whenever we encounter something complex (even if its not complicated) we all pick up a paper and a pen/pencil. Its true for even the most tech savvy of us. We may be writing sequential rote data in softwares for easy typing and plentyness of space but for anything more than that we do what we always did, we make little symbols on paper, be them alphabets or diagrams or just pictures.

 

This is also why paper books are still popular. We keep things written on paper closer to heart than things written on a computer screen. The screen can come and go, in a flash literally, but whats on paper stays. This can be extended ofcourse, things written on leather would be considered more reliable by us humans than things written on paper. Reason is same: finality. Even further, things written embossed on bricks would have higher reliability to us than things written on leather. Stones would beat bricks. All these are ofcourse generally speaking. Material media is made of is not the only thing we consider obviously.

 

Stone is where the line ends. Metals wouldn't do because they can be melted. God gave us torah on stones. Think about it. "Written in stone" an idiom in english is another thing to think about.

 

So we tend to make entries on paper whenever a thing is a complex even if its not complicated. But whats a complex thing anyway.

 

A thing is complex if its made up of other smaller things and those things have relations between them. Thats to say when the total is more than sum of parts. An example of such a thing is a financial system where not only things come one after another (in a sequence) but they are combined in various ways such as cash-available (whats left), accounts, averages etc. Such systems have to be on paper for reliability reason too.

 

There are things that not have to be on paper. One example of those is ToDo lists. As long as you are not putting projects in it, i.e. not combining ToDo items in groups so that the ToDo items within a group have to be done strictly one after another, a software is appropriate.

 

Entries on paper are not without their problems though. The biggest of them rise from the biggest benefit: finality. If you are putting final entries, one after another, where will you put the in-between entries. As a human you are bound to forget. When you finally remember, and you have to remember or put some kind of other entry, in between what you have already put atleast in a sense. You cannot put them in between unless you have left space already for that.

 

That leaving of space for forgotten entries itself has its problems. In addition of waste of space and administration issues because of large empty chunks in your data space there is also the problem of deciding how much space to leave. So, its not actually a solution. Inspite of the costs it not actually solve the problem.

 

The Solution:

The only solution is to make multiple lists. As in accounting you always have double entry system. As in dynamic programming you make lists.

 

First you write in sequence i.e. one after another whatever you remember, in whatever sequence you remember. Don't worry about chronological sequencing here. Things you forget you put them whenever you remember them.

 

The target is to capture as much data as you can. Remember that you can optimize only for one variable at a time, generally speaking. You may be lucky to optimize for more than one variable simultaneously but its not a general, dependable situation. Moreover, its not a limitation of human mind. Its a natural limitation. Even if we somehow develop artificial intelligence it would still be facing the same limitation. There is a mathematical theorem to prove that.

 

Once you have made your first list you make your other lists. They are like accounts. The first list is like General Ledger. Its in the second and so on lists that you maintain chronology.

 

These account like lists ensure that you don't enter same thing twice because everything has a place to be in and go directly there.