2019-04-24

  • Iā€™m too good at Japanese. By that, this verse is written only in letters, but when I reread it in English in the process of translating it into English, I thought, ā€œWouldnā€™t it be absurd to explain this in letters only?ā€ I thought. Neither the author nor the editor thought it was a problem, though. This was because they were both too good at Japanese to notice.

So, illustration. image

  • First, there are 600 sticky notes (a)
  • Take out 150 pieces as enough to list (B)
  • The rest is 450(c)
  • Group formation for B
  • Letā€™s say 25 groups of about 5 pieces are created (D).
  • 25 pieces(e) remaining.
  • Bundling groups of 25 pieces, each with its own faceplate, gives an apparent number of 25 pieces (F).
  • E and F together 50 (G)
  • Replenish to get to 150 sheets, the amount that can be listed as space is available.
    • Take 100 from 450 C (H)
    • The remaining 350(i)
    • Join H to G to make 150 pieces (J)
  • In response to this, make the same grouping as you did for B

This method is not the ā€œonly best methodā€ but only ā€œone method the author used in making this book. In the process of creating this diagram, I came up with several variations, so letā€™s compare and consider them. For ease of reference, we will refer to this method as Method 1.

Explanation of Method 2 image Same as method 1 up to F

  • First, there are 600 sticky notes (a)
  • Take out 150 pieces as enough to list (B)
  • The rest is 450(c)
  • Group formation for B
  • Letā€™s say 25 groups of about 5 pieces are created (D).
  • 25 pieces(e) remaining.
  • Bundling groups of 25 pieces, each with its own faceplate, gives an apparent number of 25 pieces (F).
  • E is set aside.
  • Replenish so that the amount to be listed with F is 150 sheets.
  • In response to this, make the same grouping as you did for B

Since E is a ā€œsticky note that we tried to group together once and did not come together well,ā€ the idea of setting it aside is natural. Before discussing this method 2, I will also introduce method 3.

Explanation of Method 3 image Same as method 1 up to F

  • First, there are 600 sticky notes (a)
  • Take out 150 pieces as enough to list (B)
  • The rest is 450(c)
  • Group formation for B
  • Letā€™s say 25 groups of about 5 pieces are created (D).
  • 25 pieces(e) remaining.
  • Bundling groups of 25 pieces, each with its own faceplate, gives an apparent number of 25 pieces (F).
  • E and F are set aside.
  • Take out 150 sheets from C
  • In response to this, make the same grouping as you did for B

This leaves aside both E and F. It is easy to give a reason. Both E and F are stickies that have gone through the grouping phase once. It is not right to mix them with stickies that have not yet gone through the grouping phase. If you want, you can divide the 600 stickies into four groups of 150 stickies each.

The procedure is simple, and if you think about it in your head, using method 3 may seem like the best way to go. Why didnā€™t I use method 3? After thinking about it for a bit, I figured out why.

During the second grouping phase, you will say, ā€œOh, I saw a sticky note before that might be related to this sticky note. At this point, where is that ā€œsticky I saw beforeā€? If it is Method 3, it may not exist in the sticky you are currently listing. The feeling of ā€œI think I saw a sticky note that might be related to something, what kind of sticky note was it?ā€ is recorded by finding the sticky note and arranging it on the side. This ā€œfindingā€ becomes difficult.

Unlike computers, humans cannot process ā€œforget about the sticky note that has been processed. One might think, ā€œLetā€™s move aside what has been processed,ā€ but the human brain is not capable of such processing.

Therefore, method 3, despite its apparent simplicity, becomes complicated in practice because of the ā€œneed to refer again to what has been moved out of the way. For the same reason, the same problem can occur with method 2.

Letā€™s say, for example, that we interrupt this process and have some time to spare. In that case, the probability is high that you will have forgotten about the stickies you worked on, so a good option would be to ā€œleave aside the ones you have already processed and just do the ones you have not yet processedā€ as in Method 3.

In this light, it may be a good idea to ā€œorder by most recently writtenā€ even when taking out the 150 sheets in the first place. This is because the more recently written, the more likely it is to be remembered.


This page is auto-translated from /nishio/付ē®‹ćŒč†Ø大ćŖꙂ恮č”Øęœ­ä½œć‚ŠåŠ ē­†ę”ˆ using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. Iā€™m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.