Docs @ Life

Primary axis: Function

Recall

  • What it is: Short context-restoration artifacts that help future-you decide what to do next.

  • What it is not: Storage of full content, transcripts, or obligations.

Thinking / sense-making

  • What it is: Workspace notes capturing reasoning, confusion, exploration, or self-observation.

  • What it is not: Authoritative answers or fast lookup material.

Reference / lookup

  • What it is: Curated, stable artifacts optimized for fast, correct retrieval.

  • What it is not: Explorations, transcripts, or “maybe useful later” content.

Narrative / communication

  • What it is: Coherent, end-to-end writing intended for an audience.

  • What it is not: Personal scratchpads or evolving thought.

Decision log

  • What it is: Records of choices (past or forward-looking) with rationale and revisit triggers.

  • What it is not: Freeform planning with no explicit intent or criteria.

Secondary axes

Volatility

  • High-volatility:

    • Likely to become outdated or superseded

    • Thinking notes, explorations, temporary conclusions

  • Low-volatility:

    • Should remain correct or useful for years

    • Fundamentals, derivations, principles, stable references

  • High-volatility content should be easy to write, easy to abandon

  • Low-volatility content should be harder to publish, more curated

Other axes

  • Domain: tech / non-tech / personal / career / health / etc

  • Time horizon: immediate / short / long

  • Status: draft / active / archived

Classification questionnaire (use in order)

  • Is this primarily recording a choice and its rationale, to avoid re-litigating later? → Decision Log

  • Is this written primarily for an audience to read end-to-end, with a coherent throughline (including “reader-mode” future-me)? → Narrative / Communication

  • Is the goal fast retrieval of correct information or a reusable framework/checklist? → Reference / Lookup

  • Is the goal to capture reasoning, exploration, confusion, or a line of thought to continue? → Thinking / Sense-making

  • Otherwise: it’s a context handle for future re-entry (including “read later” intent)? → Recall