"A, B, C," is not as easy as "1, 2,3"

And apparently "1, 2, 3" isn't all that easy for me! Skipping Module 2, I'm just getting entirely too ahead of myself. Tisk, tisk. So I will step back for a moment...
 
The alphabet: a tool of organization in our world where everything has a name and we  have the incessant need to put things in their "place". Prior to reading the chapter "Alphabetization and It's Discontents" from Weinberger's book, I had not really taken the time to analyze my relationship to alphabetization, but now I must admit that I am confounded by it.

(one of my bookshelves)

To a large extent, ordering by alphabet just feels natural to me because it's what I have always known from school seating arrangements, library organization, references, indices... the list goes on. But, I realize now just how little this arbitrary set of arrangement is a part of how I personally organize the things I interact with on a daily basis. You would think that I would keep meticulously organize my personal materials, but my bookshelves are organized by the size, subject, and in some cases author (and even that system breaks in places). This just works for me- for my awkwardly shaped shelves and my vast collection from sporadic topics. For the most part, this system has gone unchanged for years, even with moving between homes, college, apartments, and I always know where to find the books I'm looking for. I only wish I could say the same about my digital photographs and music stored on my computer!

While I know what works for me, I know for a fact that it is not the same as what works for my peers and their personal collections. In this way, I agree with the concept of tossing aside alphabetization and allowing individuals to order the collections around them, but I also realize that this is not the most rational approach to some things (such as indices or references) which require an overarching framework that all people can access and understand in order to find what they are looking for. This is why the library system works. We have a set structure, arbitrary or not, that reliably points patrons in the directions of materials they are looking for.

Adler's wish for organizing by connections was extremely thought-provoking and on an individual basis it does work, but I am highly skeptical that it can be applied in a more global system because it is unlikely that one system could suit every individual person's needs. Setting an arbitrary standard just seems to work- organizing information for people so that they have access without undue frustration. On the individual basis, in research or studying a variety of topics, we are all able to see beyond the organization and draw connections between subject-matter in the ways that Adler was talking about. All learned topics are inherently connected because they coexist in this world with us, but the context of how we relate to the topics inevitably varies from person-to-person.

For me, in my context, the topics of psychology, art, and library science are interwoven. Between all of these topics are connections by communication and translation of data/ information, similar systems of hierarchies and classifications, etiquette about how to interact with people, and differences in public and private presentation. Every time I learn something new it is integrated into my knowledge base by its association to the things I already know. I create metaphors for myself to bridge concepts so that I might better understand them. Quite possibly, the most prominent thread through my education on these topics can be summed up as it's own topic: Perception and Cognitive Processing. The information relating to this one topic appears in all three areas of my educational background. But, unless you (the reader) have the same educational background that I have, you probably are unable to cluster together Art, Social Science, and Information Science in such a way. Your context simply provides you with a different base of knowledge and a different outlook on topics.

Note: Pets are not conducive to maintaining organization. 

This is not what I had in mind when I told her it was time to "hit the books."