I was browsing a Python mailing list – a discussion about best programs completely written in Python. Not sure how I wandered off that topic. I think I went into list of wiki engines and landed in this page. Then I read Martin Pools:
I think in some way it is the closest I have come to WabiSabi in code
I did not know what WabiSabi was. So I clicked on the link. And then another and then another. Here are a couple of steps of this journey. You can make your own.
It is timeless. Anything can be deleted at any time, but everything that has not been on RecentChanges for a while stands on equal footing. Nobody has done anything like this before. Wiki’s growth will outstrip any attempt to change it. Wiki is its own history. It is a good history, and it will guide growth over time because it is a living document of what Wiki is and has been.
In some respects, Wiki’s group mind works just like a human’s:
- RecentChanges represents Wiki’s conscious mind and short term memory – what it is thinking about right now.
- Wiki’s subconscious and long term memory is represented by all the past pages that are related to current topics, and connected to them by links/associations on Wiki as well as in the contributor’s/reader’s heads.
Sometimes, Wiki seems a little unconcentrated (several seemingly unrelated, “off-topic” pages on RecentChanges). But be careful not to judge prematurely – maybe it’s just Wiki’s subconscious mind at work, and these things are subtly related. If Wiki can’t make the connections, the thought will quickly vanish. — FalkBruegmann
There is something beautiful about reading this – a feeling difficult to describe. There is a wealth of information in this wiki. It is true wiki’s group mind at work. Explore it. Try Abstraction, for example.