My Documents

Every computer I see up-close has the same sad story. A mess of files sit on the desktop. In 'Pictures', random pictures sit (the user downloaded them before making a half-hearted attempt to organize) with a few folders, some marked 'holiday' (which one?), and others given names by the computer. Renaming the lot would require an unknown amount of time, none of it rewarding.

But it's not the users' fault. It's like moving into a house with a 'room for small things', containing books and a toothbrush rack on the wall, and a 'room for wet things', containing the toilet, shower, and kitchen sink. The place comes with an in-built ontology, a default way of thinking, and all of it's wrong.

People cannot organize their own basic files, and the blame for this horrifying mess lies entirely with Windows 98. People were told to have a 'My Documents' folder, and a 'My Music' folder, so that's what they used.

These documents were created by engineers, who think in terms of filetypes. The .pngs and the .jpgs and .gifs into 'My Pictures', while the .mp3s and .wavs go into 'My Music', and .doc and .pdf documents use 'My Documents'.

But people don't think like this. They don't organize their head or activities by filetype. They think in terms of work/ home, or friends/ family, or maybe pidgeons/ home-renovation, because people can be strange. These file structures are too important to have a default. People should make their own.

I deleted my defaults documents and rebuilt slowly, finding my own structure.

├── arc
│    { "Archives" for picturese, and other things I don't want to lose.
├── dl
│    ⎧ Downloaded items, to be sorted.
│    ⎨ Currently this sits at 541MB, so I really should think
│    ⎩ of a better way to handle downloads, that doesn't involve house-keeping.
├── img
│    { Art, memes, and surrealism.
├── kn
│    { "Knowledge Bases" mostly full of PDFs.
├── pro
│    ⎧ This chonky folder contains every git I've taken an interest in over the
│    ⎨ last five years, all my own writing, and a boat-load of forgotten dreams
│    ⎩ which I will never fully realise.
├── rec
│    ⎧ "Records" of bills, bibliographies, and any other list-type information. 
│    ⎩ Some are automated, like the list of all WiFis I've connected to.
├── sync
│    { Files synchronized with phone, like pictures, podcasts, music and notes.
├── vids
│    { "Videos" I want to watch later.