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Lesson Plans


[Fwd: Can do/Can't do]

From: Heather Leal (rayleal)
Date: Wed May 17 2000 - 15:25:08 PDT

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    Here is the original hummock post from Tom in Potter:


    attached mail follows:


    Charlotte Griswold wrote:

    >
    > > Some of us create files, and some of us create piles.

    Piles are subject to gravity which create desk hummocks. These can be
    multiple or single, though eventually multiple desk hummocks become single
    hummocks. Burrowing, digging, and lateral shifting are necessary to reveal
    files and this contributes to the single hummock effect. Also the airborne
    sift method of information retrieval contributes to the flattening effect
    often seen in older, single hummock styles of vertical filing systems. True,
    vertical filing methods are often signs of genius. However, this genius does
    not appear to transfer to methods of information retrieval without a great
    deal of experience and supernormal meditation techniques. A characeristic of
    information retrieval in the vertical filing technique is that it is
    essentially a delayed response: one finds what one was looking for months
    after the need and in inverse proportion to the imperative: the more you need
    it now, the later you will find it. Only in rare cases is one able to slip
    from the hummock needed information immediately, as the great Fields was able
    to do in The Bank Dick. The presence of desk hummocks, especially the single
    desk hummock is a sign of not only genius, but of personal forebearance,
    acceptance of mortality, a deeply ironic sense of humor, and a quiet,
    relaxed, intensity. These people are artists.

    Tom in Potter 

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