• There is an ideology that hierarchical structures are not good.
  • On the other hand, hierarchical structures are often used
    • Book Table of Contents
    • Foldering of files
    • Ultimate 5 hat hangers] of information design.
  • for some reason - Books are a tool for finitization
    • Human cognitive abilities are limited.
    • I want to make you feel like you understand as much as possible in a limited amount of time.
    • We need a broad first, then a stepwise refinement of gradual detail.
    • Hierarchy is a structure that naturally emerges when a person with limited cognitive ability tries to handle more information than he or she is capable of.
  • So why does the “hierarchical structure is not good” philosophy arise?
    • A hierarchical structure of information that is beyond the capacity of a person with limited cognitive ability.
    • This hierarchical structure is often incorrect
    • Harmful if the wrong hierarchical structure is maintained
  • What to do.
    • When creating a hierarchy
    • If you do not create a hierarchy
      • Making a front card: making a card that summarizes what is written on multiple cards in the KJ method.
      • Create a page that brings together information scattered across multiple pages in Scrapbox and provides a general description of the information.
    • moderation
    • Even those who affirm the hierarchical structure have to “repeatedly review the hierarchical structure” in the process of a properly functioning organization.
      • The hierarchical structure is not absolute.
    • Even those who reject hierarchical structures have to work to create a “rough summary” of the process of properly functioning organization.
      • It’s not a clear hierarchical structure, but it does have step-by-step detailing.
      • The KJ method’s idea of “not doing hierarchical classification” is also said to be no good because if you prepare a hierarchy first and apply it to it, you will not “discover a new framework,” and it is nothing but a “hierarchy” that is created in the process of making and bundling tableplates.
    • Neither extreme, but a middle ground would be the right one.
  • Hierarchy and Perfectionism
    • Trying to put everything in a proper hierarchy.
      • This is bad perfectionism.
      • The harm may be greater when hierarchical classification and perfectionism are combined.
    • Assume that everything has to be put in some group somewhere.
      • Real world data says otherwise.
    • Forcing a subject into some group where you can’t decide where to put it at a quick glance.
      • If you do that, the next time you try to take it out, you don’t know where it went in.
      • (Some argue that you can just search for it when you want to retrieve it, but we’ll think about that another time.)
    • Don’t put things in the right place if it is not clear where they should be put.
    • Don’t classify things that can be listed without classification.
      • It only detracts from the list and hinders the use of information.
    • Tend to think that having an “Other” folder is a bad situation, an example of failure
      • Actually, there should be an “other”.
      • KJ Legal Considerations
        • First, lay it all out flat, to make it easier to list.
        • When you get close to the limit of what you can list, attach similarities.
          • At this time, a common hierarchical organization is to “create a folder, name the folder, and put it in the folder”.
          • The KJ method is the opposite: “group related things close together and name them” in that order.
          • In this order, so to speak: “Create an unnamed folder, put what you think is relevant in it, and then decide what you want to name the folder.
      • Huh? Don’t we need to put things in “other” that we can’t think of appropriate folders for?

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