> tags (metadata) for items aren't available in either word documents or plain text documents. a couple keystrokes filters down on tags in org mode. this is a huge value add - think searching photos or bookmarks with/without tags - this can't be done easily in word/plaintext
Sure it can. If I embed images in a document file along with the text, then Ctrl+F lets me search for that text, which makes it easy to find adjacent images. I tend not to put a lot of images in there, but in practice this works fairly well for the images I do include.
You're also only looking at the benefits of your strategy, without looking at the costs. The cost is, you have to tag things. My strategy works without me tagging anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you can find things slightly faster, but I would be very surprised if this time savings outweighed the time spent tagging.
If it's fun for you to tag things then it's not a cost, so I'm certainly not criticizing anyone using Org mode. Do what you enjoy. I'm just saying it's more of an aesthetic choice than a productivity choice.
This is similar to the various "blog like a hacker" tools out there such as Jekyll or Haunt. People cite all these supposed benefits like version controlling your posts and whatnot, but ultimately the vast majority of successful blogs, including the "hacker" ones, use Wordpress, Blogspot, or something similar.
The underlying point I'm making is that the temptation with highly flexible tools is to spend all your time tinkering with configuration for the tool, rather than doing the thing the tool is intended to do. Some people can avoid that temptation, but I'm not really one of those people.
(Random aside: my file is actually an Open Document Format file (.odt) not a Word Document. It originally was a Word Document, but hasn't been for years, so I'm not sure why I wrote that.)
Sure it can. If I embed images in a document file along with the text, then Ctrl+F lets me search for that text, which makes it easy to find adjacent images. I tend not to put a lot of images in there, but in practice this works fairly well for the images I do include.
You're also only looking at the benefits of your strategy, without looking at the costs. The cost is, you have to tag things. My strategy works without me tagging anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you can find things slightly faster, but I would be very surprised if this time savings outweighed the time spent tagging.
If it's fun for you to tag things then it's not a cost, so I'm certainly not criticizing anyone using Org mode. Do what you enjoy. I'm just saying it's more of an aesthetic choice than a productivity choice.
This is similar to the various "blog like a hacker" tools out there such as Jekyll or Haunt. People cite all these supposed benefits like version controlling your posts and whatnot, but ultimately the vast majority of successful blogs, including the "hacker" ones, use Wordpress, Blogspot, or something similar.
The underlying point I'm making is that the temptation with highly flexible tools is to spend all your time tinkering with configuration for the tool, rather than doing the thing the tool is intended to do. Some people can avoid that temptation, but I'm not really one of those people.
(Random aside: my file is actually an Open Document Format file (.odt) not a Word Document. It originally was a Word Document, but hasn't been for years, so I'm not sure why I wrote that.)