| Playwright
& Thinking
Consultant |
"Favorite
Software: Maxthink--the
best $89 bucks I ever spent." |
| Information
annealing |
"Neil
Larson is usually credited with inventing the term information
annealing, although I suspect the activity has been around for
some considerable time. Neil championed DOS-based hypertext
systems on a LAN, but the techniques are equally applicable to
e-mail and web conferencing . They are also present to some
degree in most face-to-face encounters." |
| Cognitive
Tools, Techniques, Training, & Technology |
"My
experimentation with participatory cywebs has been through using
Neil Larson's (MaxThink) software that facilitates the creative
side of composition and not the polishing side for commercial
production." |
| Lawyers using
computers |
"Perhaps
the most valuable reason for a lawyer to have a terminal on her
desk, is the outlining or thought processing program. It is
probably the single program that justifies having a terminal on
a lawyers desk." |
| Some
day I'll get organized |
"Next
I tried logic "outliners," such as Grandview, More,
and MaxThink. They are good tools for organizing a management
presentation or for structuring a business report. Outliners
take a subject and break it down into subheadings,
sub-subheadings and further sub-sub-sub-headings so that a
reader or listener can follow your sequence of
thought.
|
| PHD
Dissertations |
"An
Expert System Approach to the Evaluation of Hypertext
Engineering: An Experiment with Knowledgepro and Maxthink’s
(1992)" |
| Knowledge
transfer process |
"Try
Neil Larson, www.maxthink.com.
He has several outstanding products relating to knowledge
transfer, and is a passionate thinker on the subject. He
certainly got me hooked!" |
| Corporate
Knowledge Repository |
"The
MaxThink tools are obvious, quick, and get to the point, which
is words and structure. The MaxThink developer has some good
explanations of "annealing hypertext", where you put
it out on the LAN with strong instructions to represent what we
know, and the product becomes very rich and well-organized, as
each member adds and edits words and connections." |
| Teaching
International Relations |
"As
of now, it's been almost a decade since I undertook the process
of continuous improvement which W. Edwards Deming recommended in
a seminar I had the privilege of attending in 1991, and almost
eighteen years since I began learning the hypertext philosophy
and software developed by Mr. Neil Larson (founder of MaxThink,
Inc) in 1988. I owe them both a great deal." |
| Beyond
Notecards Synthesizing Information with Electronic Study Too |
"Computer
outliners and concept mappers make the study process concrete
and encourage students to analyze information." |
| One lawyer
and 9 Paralegals |
"One
of his favorite programs is "MaxThink" -- a program
that allows Smith and his staff to create an intricate,
organizational "tree" linking the numerous details on
each personal injury case. "I basically designed the master
tree and the paralegals plug into that," says Smith.
"I have (the client's) complete medical history and their
complete litigation history analyzed chronologically, date by
date, doctor by doctor, ailment by ailment." |
| Net-Lawyers |
"I
have tried Grandview and actually was not impressed; it appears
to have met a just demise. I have tried every Windows outliner
under the sun and am currently using Inspiration for some very
limited projects. Unfortunately, the very best outlining program
I have ever used in a Dos based application, Maxthink. Maxthink
is the one outliner I have used where literally any bit of
information I need to find is no more than 3 keystrokes away.
Highly recommended." |
| What you think
is what you get |
"I have used MaxThink
for some years now in writing my lecture notes, and am quite pleased with it.
Now I find myself trying to use it for literate programming as well. The idea is
to think through the ideas for the program or library modules, writing these in
as topics in the outline, adding source as appropriate as text attached to a
topic, then use the structuring features of MaxThink to work out an organization
for the web source, and finally have MaxThink write it out in a suitable form to
dump it into Emacs to finish the job."
I am also moved
to note a remark that Neil Larson, the designer of MaxThink,
included in the user manual, namely: "Word processing
focuses on WYSIWYG---what you see is what you get", but
"MaxThink focuses on WYTIWYG---what you think is what you
get". Later on in the manual, after remarking on the work
it would take to convert MaxThink from a text-mode DOS program
to MS-Windows, he explains his decision not to undertake this
thusly: "After all this, the intellectual processes for
better thinking, writing, and planning are not improved in the
slightest. Summary: While Windows may be fashionable, it does
not extend MaxThink's capabilities!"
|
| Practical Deign of
outlines and site maps |
"For
the theory of outlining, check out the ideas behind MaxThink, an
idea-processor or outliner. It's one of the few programs that
resulted from the excitement about outliners that occurred
around 1986." |
| Outliner's
create order from chaos |
"MaxThink,
which has the best organizational tools of any outliner." |
| International
Futures Simulation |
"A
truly great and original introduction to hypertext. To the best
of my knowledge, Larson was the original inventor of this
concept and others simply borrowed the idea, unfortunately too
often without attribution." |
| Hypertext
as an Enabling Tool for Concurrent Engineering Teams |
"The
selected software is the authoring and runtime systems created
by MaxThink." |
| Refactoring
and information annealing |
"If
the organization go too messy I would export the word processing
file back into MaxThink and work on the organization." |
| Knowledge
Management |
"In
1989, he discovered Maxthink (a software company owned by
"hypertext visionary" Neil Larson) and went on to
develop what may very well have been one of the first hypertext
knowledge management systems in the legal community." |
| Software
for creativity and idea generation |
"
... well-designed, cleverly implemented program." |
| IT
Resources - Data Analysis - Concept Mapping |
"...
allows outlines of almost unlimited size (64,000 topics, 256,000
lines of text, 100 levels deep) and hypertext linking among
multiple MaxThink and ASCII files." |
| ST
New Products |
"
... expand your thinking processes with this
thoroughly-documented idea processor that has been a cult
success on the IBM." |
| Script
Writing Erector Set |
"Outlines
should be viewed as critical thinking tools." |
| Assessment
of Intelligence and Learning Skills |
"Maxthink
... very useful to professionals who write reports and generate
knowledge." |
| Script
Doctor |
"Maxthink
... most comprehensive and versatile outliner available for
processing ideas." |
| Knowledge
Organization Tools for Individuals |
"Some
DOS products, including Neil Larsen's MaxThink outline
processor, are hanging on in spite of the Windows juggernaut." |
Larson's
55 Questions
to Free the Gears of Your Mind
for High-Level Thinking |
"Neil Larson,
developer of the award-winning "idea processor" called MaxThink,
states that the brain is engineered mainly "for pattern processing, and not
for tasks that require thinking. If you have complete information and it
is well organized, then thinking is trivial. The value of information depends on
the way it is organized. Conversely, if you have incomplete information,
then all the talent, schooling, IQ, and money in the world may not keep you from
making errors in your thinking."
Larson maintains
that "the first goal in most thinking is to ask questions
that generate information. It is far harder to ask
significant questions than to answer them." After
much study, Larson concluded "There are only fifty-five
basic questions worth asking in the world!"
Whether or not
that's true, I couldn't say. I do say it's irrelevant.
I find that if I haven't uncovered the information I need by
question 55, the issue is probably unknowable and, very
probably, not worth knowing.
As a business
writer, I apply these disciplines of thinking to access and
absorb information on a topic, filter it for relevance, distill
it to its essence, and structure it in a logical flow.
There are occasions when the gearworks in my mind refuse to
function properly (writer's block). It's helpful then to
turn to Larson's
Fifty-Five Questions (actually categories of information
lists rather than questions) to unclog the cogs. You may
also find them useful. Click on the link to find out what
they are." |
| Domino
thinking |
"This
will mean I can do the "domino thinking" (as Neil
Larson - author of MaxThink - likes to put it) on my own, at
home. Domino thinking is, of course, moving ideas around -
and also splitting paragraphs in single ideas, then rearranging
these and so on. I find it very powerful. This and having only
two levels at a time (i.e. focused thinking) are important to
me." |
| Favorite
Programs |
"MaxThink
(An oldie but goody. One of the premiere DOS outline/idea
processors. I've always found it easier to use than NB's native
outlining capability." |
| A
Survey of Hypertext |
"Most
outline processors are personal computer programs,(10) and they
have done much to bring some of the concepts underlying
hypertext into popularity. The first of these was called
ThinkTank [Hers84], and was released in 1984. It has since been
joined by a host of others, with names like MaxThink ... There
are two very recent additions to the field: Houdini is an
extension of MaxThink that supports rich non-hierarchical
internode references" |
| Electronic
Bib notes |
"
use an outliner named Maxthink, together with Zyindex, an
indexing program." |
| The
Preemptive
Turnaround |
"In
our work we find it useful to have in the room no desks or
tables behind which people may hide emotionally. An arc of
chairs works best , facing very large computerized screens to
display and record commitments. We use a special software -
MaxThink - for this." |
| Rapid
Instructional Design Conference |
"Outliners
(as found in Microsoft Word) and idea processors (for example,
MaxThink) for systematically building up from analysis data
through criterion test items to instructional content."' |
| Computer
Enhanced Creativity |
"According
to Neil Larson, developer of MaxThink software, once an idea or
plan is in word-processed form, its underlying structure is
usually invisible. It's hard to tell if the idea or proposal is
complete, or if it is missing one or more key elements. In
contrast, an outline resembles a skeleton: we can see through it
and quickly determine what elements need to be added, where more
research is required, and which pieces are superfluous. In
short, it allows us to refine the structure and content of our
documents, ensuring that they are complete and persuasive before
we begin to put the "flesh on the bones." |
| Expanding the Lawyers Mind |
"MaxThink
came along at about the same time as ThinkTank and PC-Outline.
My original thought is that MaxThink is an outliner. However, it
has actually more philosophy built into it rather than simply
outlining. The author's premise is that structure of writing is
based on certain defined concepts of what is required to
communicate knowledge most easily. Key features of MaxThink
include the ability to sort information into "bins"
after it has been generated and to readily prioritize items.
MaxThink comes
with an interesting philosophy. The author lists ways of
tackling and thinking about a project; thus MaxThink comes with
a list of 55 ways of approaching a problem and thinking of how
to best organize material. For example, #29 suggests to
exaggerate a subject area to test whether the statement exceeds
information. That has a familiar ring to those who are used to
developing cross-examination. The author has several additional
programs as an extension of his philosophy in the realm of
hypertext."
|
