Question
Why does tag taxonomy fail?
Quick Answer
Creating a tag taxonomy before you have enough atoms to need one. You design a careful hierarchy — #work/meetings/retrospectives — and then spend more energy maintaining the structure than writing the notes. The system collapses under its own organizational weight. The opposite failure is never.
The most common reason tag taxonomy fails: Creating a tag taxonomy before you have enough atoms to need one. You design a careful hierarchy — #work/meetings/retrospectives — and then spend more energy maintaining the structure than writing the notes. The system collapses under its own organizational weight. The opposite failure is never tagging at all, leaving your atoms as isolated fragments that cannot find each other.
The fix: Open your note system and pick 10 recent atoms. For each one, add 1–3 tags that answer this question: 'If I had this same insight again in a different context, what word would I search for?' Do not overthink. Do not build a taxonomy first. Tag by instinct, then review your tags as a batch. Notice which tags recur. Notice which atoms are now connected that were not connected before.
The underlying principle is straightforward: A tag is the simplest way to declare that two atoms share something in common.
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