Outlines as Study Notes (2019-03-09)
Context
The original idea behind outlines was that they could be a good way to study and commit information to memory. The nodes could be structured in such a way that each parent would be an implied question with the answers in the child notes. This is a little abstract, so an example is provided below.
Over time, I started moving away from this idea in an effort to streamline content creation and have the outline associated with an article echo the structure of the article, diminishing its utility as a study mechanism.
Separating the Outline from the Article
If we separate outlines from the article, and have outlines in their own section and content type, we will have more freedom in structuring the nodes in the outline to be useful study notes. Not all nodes of an outline can be structured to be implied questions and answers, but many can.
Migration and Beyond
For now, as I migrate the articles, I'm archiving their associated outlines into a separate namespace called, you guessed it, "outlines." Once the articles are migrated, I hope to restructure the outlines to become useful study tools. Some outlines, like the one associated with the Introduction to Veganism, will be broken into smaller outlines.
In addition to restructuring, there are some technical needs as well. The optimum situation would be the ability to export outlines to OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language), and import outlines from OPML. This way, the outlines could be edited and manipulated with external outlining software such as Dynalist and Omni Outliner. This can be done now with a manual process, but it is cumbersome.
There are other challenges as well, but I'm not inclined to take the time to discuss them here. I think they are solvable, and I'll be working on solutions. When these problems get solved, we can include them back into the main namespace as study notes.
An Example
I still believe that outlines can be very useful in helping us become better spokespersons for the movement, by facilitating learning and helping to commit information to memory. It may be a little vague as to how an outline works in this capacity, so I'm including an example here.
Assume for the moment, that you wish to be more conversant about how large established medical organizations embrace a vegan diet as not only adequate, but advantageous to human health.
The first implied question is "What organizations?" If you study the first level of the outline below, you will have your answer. If you wish to quiz yourself, click on "Collapse All" then see if you can name the organizations. Then click on "First Level" to expand the outline to the first level and see how well you did.
This alone is useful information. If you tell someone that the major health organizations embrace a vegan diet, and they ask you who, then you can answer, "Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Public Health" etc—a pretty impressive list.
But you can go further and know what these organizations said and why what they said matters. By expanding and collapsing the nodes of the outline, you can continue this process and obtain whatever depth of knowledge you wish to obtain.
You will be well-prepared to answer questions and discuss the topic with confidence.
WIP
