Finding links between thoughts

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Originally Posted by cwoodgold

I hope you find a computer program that does what you're talking about.
Let me know if you do, because I'm interested in that kind of thing.

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Two suggestions:

Look at how big companies like Amazon and Netflix program the see also or you might like parts of their search. I know when I buy something at Amazon I will get a list of related and possibly interesting things to look at. Some are related via words I use some by use. Netflix is getting better and better about accurately guessing how we will rate any given movie based on our ratings from the past.

Both I believe are using some form of heuristic programming software to do that.

I haven't loked at heuristic programming techniques in decades but I would expect that it has gone a bit further than when I last looked. Might be the search term to get you there...

http://www.thebrain.com/

There's a free version you can download and use.

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Originally Posted by haleyma

http://www.thebrain.com/

There's a free version you can download and use.

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Thanks. In how far is that different from mindmanager and in how far does that find links between thoughts I haven't thought about yet?

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Originally Posted by Tanz der Nacht

Nice.

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Danke.

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Which question are you answering here?

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I was answering this: "What could a search system look like that finds links between thoughts ...
How would you approach this task?"

In other words, I would probably approach the task using the human brain rather than
a computer program. However, I'm also interested in computer programs to do similar things, and perhaps in writing such programs myself.

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1. Can you elaborate the connection between my task and Hypothes.is?

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There isn't much connection. Both involve computer programs that process large amounts of data and that work with interconnections among that data. Both are computer programs I feel excited about.

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2. You seem competent, can you exert your wisdom in your day to day job?

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Thank you for the compliment, and thank you very much for asking the question.
Yes, sometimes. I also find interconnections among large amounts of data in my work; for example here http://bssa.geoscienceworld.org/content/89/1/165.short

This page about statistically significant phrases may be quite relevant: http://alias-i.com/lingpipe/demos/tu...s/read-me.html

Your question to me helps me increase my focus on how to arrange things so I can do more of the type of thing that's really satisfying in the long run: higher horizons-of-focus stuff. That's why I really appreciated you asking.

I also like Mark Jantzen's signature question: "How did you capture that thought?" I'll sometimes get things done immediately so I don't have to bother putting them into any system, for example. That's one way of capturing a thought, and that question can help remind me to do stuff like that.

Here's a computer method:

Step 1.
Someone analyses a lot of text (e.g. a huge number of web pages and/or books)
and publishes a data file like a dictionary. The entry for "orchid" might list about
a hundred or more related words and phrases, with a score beside each one to
show how closely connected it is. Maybe there's something like that out there
already.

Step 2.
Someone writes a program that uses that list along with their own private input.
It starts with words from their own input, finds related words using the list,
and maybe does more steps, finding words related to those words and so on.
At each step it can choose the highest-scoring words or phrases, or choose
words and phrases at random with higher-scoring ones more likely to be chosen.

At the second step it might assign negative weights to the original words (and so on).
That's counter-intuitive but I think it's similar to how the human brain works and may
be worth a try.

Here's a different method, using the human brain:

Select two phrases from your input, at random. Think up an idea that
is connected to both of them. Repeat this exercise many times over a number
of months. At first it may seem mechanistic, but eventually it gets you
thinking in a different way (the way solving cryptic crosswords does),
as well as increasing the salience of the input. Later, interesting ideas
may bubble up from the subconscious at odd times.

If you have difficulty thinking up an idea, lower your standards:
the idea is allowed to be silly and useless and is allowed to be only
loosely connected to the input. Lowering the standards in this way
is an important step in creative thinking. Sometimes a silly idea
turns out to actually be useful, or else to lead to another idea that's
useful.

The guys over at Nisus are working on a sweet new search product that does synonymic searches, similar to what you're looking for. Should release a product in early 2013. I forget the name of it, but it looks really good. I found out about it from their latest newsletter.