Hierarchy Doesn't Scale
Hierarchy Doesn't Scale My thoughts on the short-comings of the use of hierarchy to organize data and a plea for something better.
Some time ago I read something about the BEOS filesystem (ignore the usual TheRegisterMicrosoftBashing) that was related with this, and I think it's very cool.
Their idea was that you should be able to have 'queries', not folders (even if you can have folders in BEOS). You could have a shortcut for an 'emails from my boss' folder on your desktop, which really maps to a query in your inbox. When you open it, you have the data there. When a new email arrives, it automatically appears there. All of this as fast as if you had a real folder opened.
Google has showed the world the way to look for information. I have a lot of documentation in my hard drive but I never use it. Compare the time it takes to find the docs for System.Data.SqlClient in Google or in the MSDN library that ships with VS.NET. We need to have something as good as Google to look for information in our hard drives, and that's it.
Yes, I know is not that easy ;).