Storage Is Retrieval

A little piece of work and life wisdom

Now that I have close to 1,000 distinct pieces of writing, just here at this newsletter, I’m running into the problem of “where did I write [some general idea]?” How do you make a body of internet-based work findable and searchable? I do have a spreadsheet where I record headlines and links. But I don’t have offline, searchable text of every piece. I’m at the point where I risk rewriting the same exact thing and thinking I’m doing it for the first time!

It’s the same sort of question as how to organize your pots and pans. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I’d be told to clean my room, so I’d stuff everything into the closet. An avalanche waiting to happen as soon as you try to get or move any particular thing thrown in there.

Maybe this is something I’ve read before and forgotten the source, but it makes me think of a phrase: storage is retrieval. Putting something away is no good unless you can get it back without a whole lot of concealed work waiting for you.

This is something I think about with work, but also at home. It’s one of those high-level bits of wisdom (I despise the term “life hack”) that helps you design frustration out of your everyday life. Another bit of wisdom, for example, is always use the right tool for the job. It’s fascinating how much friction and frustration can come from having a work boot a half-size too small, or not wearing a hat when you think you’ll be in the garden for 10 minutes on a sunny day but it ends up being an hour. Or trying to use the pointy bottom of a broken garden solar light to dig out the dirt between patio bricks. Or not clearing the counter before starting to cook. Or leaving the dirty Pyrex in the oven and forgetting it’s in there when you crank up the broiler the next evening. (Yes, I know from experience.)