I had this brilliant idea for a "non-linear" essay,
which is mainly inspired by mind maps.
The main difference is that nonlinear essays would
be more polished up with the expectation that someone
is going to actually read it, rather than just some
notes you're scribbling. So it's a different use case.
I think mainly I just don't like how annoying it is
to read a normal essay, trying to find the parts that
are actually interesting, and having to wade through
all the boring "glue sentences" necessary to transition
between and connect ideas.
It would be much better if you could just *see* the
connections and follow them in whatever order helps
you absorb the material best.
Plus it better reflects how people think. Never have I
ever come up with the content of an essay in the exact
order that I write it linearly. What if I could just get
rid of the overhead of ordering my ideas, and having to
write glue *on top of that*?
So yeah, I'm writing a non-linear essay now,
and I've got a few ideas on how to present it:
- A glorified mind map:
I write paragraphs and use them as nodes in a graph,
and connect them up like in a mind map
- A MUSH:
I make an actual map and you'd control a virtual avatar
to move around like in those old MUSH games. Each room
would have paragraphs in them, with little objects related
to the points I'm making
- Linear text with hyperlinks to other sections:
For screen readers, I guess. I want my essay to not break
if you don't have JavaScript or something, so I want it to
render as linear text with hyperlinks and have the JS sit on
top of that.
If you've got more ideas, feel free to send me a town email
or catch me on IRC or something.
