# Dewey Decimal system **URL:** \ **Category:** The Johnny.Decimal system\ **Created:** [October 3, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864 "2024-10-03T21:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/21 "2025-01-16T19:55:55Z")
> Whether all the above classes, and possibly more, are required, or whether the number may be reduced to two or three, must depend entirely on the size and nature of the business; but too much emphasis cannot be laid on the necessity for deciding this question at the very outset, setting forth the decision in writing and clearly defining the limits of each class. (p. 17) AKA Johnny Decimal, the Workbook. ---
**Author:** ![Jayde20](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jayde20](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Jayde20)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/22 "2025-01-17T10:00:45Z")
Shall we rename this thread to the dull men’s club? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/23 "2025-01-17T17:33:52Z")
How could rescuing decimal indexing from Melvil Dewey’s terrible behavior be dull? ---
**Author:** ![clappingcactus](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/clappingcactus/32/502_2.png) [@clappingcactus](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/clappingcactus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/24 "2025-01-17T18:54:27Z")
> [@Don\_F](#): > > ![SwiftScan Jan 13, 2025 3.28 PM](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/uploads/default/original/2X/4/493743b613c21f96212f5ced78c4def64d977736.jpeg) This one can also be found on IA: [Progressive indexing and filing : Various : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/progressiveindex0000vari) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/25 "2025-01-18T17:29:01Z")
A filing system: [An Elaborate Climbing-Desk Filing System from the 1930s - Core77](https://www.core77.com/posts/135027/An-Elaborate-Climbing-Desk-Filing-System-from-the-1930s?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title) ![1623709_81_135027_AZBgqWSPO](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/uploads/default/original/2X/a/af1b3f51e00b273ce0e7f281e26b874e150b72dd.jpeg) (a) Like I said, how could this topic be dull? (b) Why do I feel like this is a peek inside my head? ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/26 "2025-01-18T22:54:29Z")
WHOA! We’ve found some pretty cool images as we search for background material, but I’ve never seen this one. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 7:24am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/27 "2025-01-21T07:24:46Z")
aaaaah! That is incredible. I want one. Imagine, though, if a card ended up in the wrong drawer … ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 3:05am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/28 "2025-01-22T03:05:36Z")
Simply put an RFID tag on each index card. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/29 "2025-01-22T07:46:02Z")
actually, in all seriousness, I want that, but for the opposite reason. I dream of every digital file having a physical representation that I can order with my hands, on a shelf. Not every file, of course, but the entrypoint to each fileset. So when I take a sheet of paper off the shelf and lay it on my desk, an RFID sensor (or overhead camera) identifies it and loads the relevant files on my monitor. Just think, never navigate directory structures with keyboard and mouse ever again. I’d gladly take a motorized librarian’s ladder over a keyboard and mouse. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/30 "2025-01-22T07:54:33Z")
This is a really interesting idea … use the JD ID as this anchor. Have it on the paper thing, scan it, computer reconfigures to present that JDex entry and file system and whatever else you last had open. That’d be really cool. ---
**Author:** ![clappingcactus](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/clappingcactus/32/502_2.png) [@clappingcactus](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/clappingcactus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 7:55am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/31 "2025-01-22T07:55:03Z")
> [@hans](#): > > So when I take a sheet of paper off the shelf and lay it on my desk, an RFID sensor (or overhead camera) identifies it and loads the relevant files on my monitor. So for labeling the documents, a label printer and QR code generator. This is the easy bit. Maybe pasting the label on the back of each document? For reading the label a small Raspberry Pi with its camera? If we want it to be cutesy, maybe even it’s all integrated into some kind of desk paper-clipping mechanism? So the document gets anchored to the reading space on the desk and then the QR code is read at the same time? Finally, the medium difficulty bit, some kind of computer orchestration layer that takes the RPI output and actually sets up the workspace? ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/32 "2025-01-22T12:55:30Z")
@johnnydecimal @clappingcactus My reply got long and off-topic so I put it here: [20-29 Community/Physical and Digital Work Environments](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/physical-and-digital-work-environments/2065). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/33 "2025-01-23T03:24:25Z")
That sounds like an office version of the idea about stores that get rid of checkout. You scan your mobile payment (card, phone) on your way in and then the store tracks RFIDs on whatever you walk out with. As far as I know, it’s never actually worked - I think Amazon’s physical stores have a version of it that requires human intervention, but I could be remembering that wrong - but it’s an intriguing idea, linking the physical and digital like that. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 6:47am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/34 "2025-01-23T06:47:33Z")
interesting comparison. There definitely are technical hurdles to implementation. But, a bit of friction is a feature here, because the whole point is to slow data manipulation down to the speed of cognition. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/35 "2025-01-24T04:05:18Z")
Friction is good. At work we have two separate and parallel software systems\*: billing and CRM/calendar. That wasn’t really planned, but it turns out that we (my partners, our office manager, and me) like it that way because it requires a moment of thought when setting up a new client or a new project rather than having the electrons move around entirely automatically. And we’ve found that work goes better when we occasionally think. \*BigTime and Daylite, if anyone cares. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 6:24am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/36 "2025-01-24T06:24:37Z")
Nice. Care to share what exactly it is about setting up a client or project that goes better when you have a moment’s pause? I’m imagining that just having to wait for another application to load, and maybe entering data in duplicate, literally gives you a moment to reflect on the new project and think of things that might be important. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Don\_F](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Don_F)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864/37 "2025-01-24T14:15:13Z")
Something very specific to our firm: we often work on apartment renovations in co-op and condo buildings, mostly 1920s and 30s high-rises. We might be working for an apartment owner, the building, the apartment owner’s architect, the building’s architect, a contractor, or sometimes someone else. In some buildings, we’ve worked for all of those people on different projects. Taking a moment to say “who’s our client _this time_, how does that affect our admin, how does that affect our work” is a good idea. In general, I think nuances get lost in repetition. Not every project in a given class is the same as every other one - for example, identical physical renovation work is quite different if performed in an empty office space or in an occupied hospital - and there has to be a moment when you stop and say “I know this project is a this class, but how is it different?” [Previous page](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/dewey-decimal-system/1864.md?page=1)