- In [[2024-10-29]]’s [[Forte, Tiago]]. - “Boiling the ocean” refers to an attempt to organize *alllll* of your data the same, treating each item as if they are equally important. - Like “Organizing *every* photo you’ve ever taken” or “Digitizing *all* your journal entries”. - I find myself approaching things this way; any change to my system has to be a massive overhaul or include a massive import of data. - This is overwhelming, and so it never gets done. - Digitizing journal entries is a big one for me! - Tiago suggests that the solution is to apply the 80/20 rule and focus on the 20% of items that will bring 80% of the value. - I honestly don’t find this super helpful; it requires my current self to make decisions about what my future self will find important. - I could just try to add things as I need them, but then it seems like the admin work of tracking what’s been organized versus what hasn’t can become a job in itself. - Maybe less of an issue with things that are already digital (throw everything in a folder to deal with later), but even then… I feel like I’m kicking the can down the road. - I also find the [[Pareto Principle]] to be annoyingly vague / arbitrary in general, but maybe that’s my own lack of understanding. - I think this is a helpful phrase in general, and something I want to ask myself as I iterate and expand on my systems in the future. - Are they things I’m trying to do actually impactful, or am I just trying to boil the ocean? - Is what I’m trying to do practical, or am I trying to boil the ocean? - Am I accumulating data for the sake of collection or curation? Am I just trying to make the ocean *bigger*? Remember that I’ll have more to boil. - [[2025-01-31]] after i read this, i found out this was a corporate buzz-phrase or something. don’t care too much, just don’t want to throw it around if it’s going to make people tune me out without me realizing it.