Howstr is a system that makes it really easy to find out how to do things. In simple terms, Howstr considers writing and reading overrated. They’re great for sharing stories, but not great for getting work done.
Howstr replaces a simple story about a project with a complex model of what an expert knows about the project. Knowledge, not words. (okay, it uses words, but they’re used better)
The expert explains everything to Howstr. Howstr explains it to everyone else.
We think in networks but we have to communicate in sentences. Sometimes we can sketch out a diagram or find a stock photo, which saves a bunch of words.
But even using multimedia doesn’t seem to save us time in the long run. Whatever we produce still only works for a certain audience and it still falls out of date. We keep pushing the rock up the hill just to have it roll back down. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s always the lingering feeling that someone else has probably already explained this if only we could find it.
What we’re dealing with is the cost of getting thoughts in and out of our heads. The conversion doesn’t come cheap. It’s like trying to live-tweet through Burning Man using Morse Code.
I think we can solve most of this problem if we can keep information related to itself while it’s outside of our head.