Read and write heads misaligned

[simont]

A thing that irregularly irritates me about my brain is that it appears to have different algorithms for answering the questions ‘where should I look for X?’ and ‘where should I put X so that I'll know where to find it next time?’.

The usual illustration of this is that I lose something, and after searching everywhere decide I'd better give up looking and buy a new one. When I get the new one, I try to think of somewhere good to put it so I'll be sure of being able to find it next time – and the place I decide on is often somewhere I hadn't yet looked for the old one, and guess what I find there when I do?

My brain doesn't seem to want to make it easy to solve this problem, because its where-should-I-put-this algorithm doesn't like being invoked counterfactually. If I pretend I've just bought a new one and ask myself where I should put it, I'm likely to get the same set of answers as I did from the where-should-I-look-for-it algorithm; it's only when I've really just bought a new one that the real where-should-I-put-it algorithm activates and I'm able to frustratingly find the old one after all.

It's terribly annoying and I wish it would stop it. Bah.

Comments

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Borrow a new one?

You have to find somewhere to store it while it's in your possession, so that's a genuine, not counterfactual, use of the where-should-I-put-this algorithm. But you haven't wasted any money, and can give it back once you've fooled yourself into finding your old one.

[simont]

It's an interesting thought, although I suspect that my where-should-I-put-it algorithm will turn out to behave noticeably differently when the item in question is borrowed, because the best place to put something does vary in response to that. (As a trivial example, a borrowed book should not be shelved in alphabetical order with the rest of my collection; instead it should go on a special pile of borrowed things, so that I'll remember that I have to give it back.)

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

Organised people label storage and make spreadsheets of where things are. Thrifty people don't buy $Stuff in the first place. One can only gaze at such people and marvel at the rich complexity of humanity.

Now you know that this happens, you can add a plan for dealing with it - like making a note of where you've put it. And then you just need a way of finding the note. ah[0].

[0] was about to make a muso-joke there but edited it out in time. sorry. lack of sleep.

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

I love the first paragraph of this comment :)

Kx

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could implement a policy of buying two things, one to use and one to go in a Box of Spares so you'd always know where to find at least one instance of your thing.

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

'always' until you have to use the spare...

[sparrowsion]

Ah, but after using the spare, you go to put it back in the place where the Thing Should Be Put, find the original there, so you can return one to the Box of Spares.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

How about reversing the problem?

1. You have lost a thing. You look for it in $places. These are the results of your "where-should-I-look-for-it" algorithm - WRITE THEM DOWN.

2. You buy a replacement thing.

3. DO NOT THINK ABOUT WHERE TO PUT IT (this would trigger the "where should I put it" algorithm. Instead, store it in one of the $places recorded above.

4. Next time you need it, you will activate "where-should-I-look-for-it", and as long as this algorithm gives the same results every time (if not, you're screwed) then you should be able to find it in one of $places.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I agree - you should stop storing things in places you'll never find them.

[gerald_duck]

At my previous job, one of the othee engineers had a nifty idea.

He clearly and boldly labelled one of the desk drawers in one of the lab benches "SOMEWHERE SAFE". Then, whenever we needed to put something somewhere safe, we put it there. Whenever we desperately needed something important, we remembered we'd put it somewhere safe.

Things still went missing, of course, but it did a really good job of stopping important things going missing.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. That's great.

Of course, you need to keep a limit on what's fairly important, or you just put *everything* "somewhere safe" and then can't find anything *in* it :)

A couple of times I emailed someone (CTS related, I think) about money owed, knowing there would be no response now, but would need to find the reference again, but none of the relevant words were distinctive enough to search for. I racked my brains for the best word to include I could find again by searching, and decided the obvious answer was "keyword" :)

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

I do this at home - although the drawer is labelled "*" not "SOMEWHERE SAFE" (*ponders re-naming it) & it works for me too :)

Kx

[timotab.livejournal.com]

I have a related problem. I look and look and look for something. I fail to find it. But I will often find the thing I was looking for last time I was looking for something and failed to find it.