11 Searching Specific Formats (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
11 Searching Specific Formats (Information Research)
On the second year of his training, Shakh began to piece together the
many rules and guidelines to understanding hieroglyphs. He had thought
the lessons would end once he learned the glyphs but no, there were
long and convoluted rules governing the translation of sounds into
glyphs. Simple rules govern the placement of glyphs on the wall -
certain glyphs lose their meaning when placed apart.
Then, there was the art of writing. The glyphs had to be the right size
and shape. If you were about to finish the line, you could squish
certain glyphs just a little to make room for the next glyph. If you
did not plan well, you would leave the line hanging, a word unfinished,
a sentence incomplete.
Then Shakh started to learn hieratic - shorthand glyphs for less formal
situations.
It was all very complicated and cumbersome. Shakh did not like the
technical nature of writing. So much to learn and still so far from
writing clear, interesting results. His seasons in training went very
slowly. The Nile rose then fell then rose again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A great deal of dull information must be comprehended, absorbed,
internalized. Nothing spectacular. Nothing of particular interest. Just
a mass of rules and guidelines to help you move within the world of
information.
On the third year of medical school the aspiring doctor begins to
memorize a vast linked-array of drugs, symptoms and afflictions. The
next three years are spent developing this mental array; refining,
building, adding experience, so that one day a doctor may look at a
symptom, think of possible afflictions or drug reactions, then
proscribe drugs or call for further tests. The whole process of
learning this array is intensely dull.
In the first part of this FAQ we explained in detail how an information
search involves first selecting a suitable format (book, webpage, news,
interview ...) then searching a few important tools that help us find
information in that format. The first format we will look at is the
humble book.
Continue to:
My Books
