#tags #archiveapp-demo
Tags are another way to make connections between notes. They are not the main way to organize knowledge. They give you an unsorted list of notes for a particular subject. The Archive supports the #hashtag convention to make tags clickable, but you can use anything to denote a tag. Remember that at the core, it's all just text.[[201705120913]]
We have to mention their limitations first because of the wide-spread misconception that tags are the way to go. Connection is a big thing in knowledge work: Every attempt to go from raw data to information to knowledge depends on connecting parts to form a new whole.
Example 1: If you craft an argument, you put together statements in a specific manner so that at least one is the premise and another is the conclusion. The new wholeness and its structure are now capable of serving as an argument. There statements are not independent anymore.
Example 2: If you have collected a lots of data you look for patterns that connect the data points. If the patterns turn out to be meaningful, you will have created information.
The more rigor you apply to the connections the better this process works. Imagine you ask someone for directions. He roughly waves his arm to the north as a response. This is not very useful information although it is something to work with. But if he points exactly to your destination and gives you a brief overview of the path ahead with his smartphone -- now we are talking.
Tags are similar to waving an arm in a broad direction. Direct links are precise pointers to specific locations.
But don't disregard tags completely. They are super useful when you don't want specific directions. [[201705180756 How to tag properly]]