[thefrozenone]

PDFs only get names once I'm finished reading them. I click "Save As" and sit for 30 seconds and try to figure out what search terms I would use in the future to look for this document. Sometimes a title, sometimes a summary, sometimes a topic, author, year, journal, etc. Everything is built into the filename. It doesn't matter if it's long. Computers can handle it. This also has the side effect of ensuring I know what I just read and putting it into a mental filesystem as well as an electronic one.

Once I name it, I move it from the Downloads or temp folder to a Documents folder (though it should really be called 'Library') and I sync it to the cloud with the Google Drive app. In it, there's a Reading-List folder, with a _done folder. I have a few category folders - usually for reading groups. If I read the same document in multiple reading groups, I store it in the folder of the first reading group I read it in. This way feels nostalgic to me. I will also put jpeg screenshots, txt files for notes, etc. This way feels nice, like when I used to go to the public library and see the DVDs and audiobooks next to the books.

The main query interface is MacOS spotlight, though Google Drive also works, and so would something like fzf, or any other finder. I like not having to download or use software. For annotations, I usually save a xyz.pdf and a xyz-Annotated.pdf. For news articles, I just Right Click > Print to PDF and save to the subfolder for a particular topic. You never know when something will get taken down from the Internet. If I search for something and find duplicates, I try to prune then and there.

I don't have to download any apps except for Google Drive, which I already use for e-mail, etc. I can at any point port this entire system to Dropbox, Box, self-hosted FUSE solution, or a flash drive, and keep all its functionality with no software on a computer except for a filesystem and a document viewer.

Names are hyphenated - e.g. Intro-to-Civil-War.pdf. This way feels readable with my eyes, and also most filesystem search utilities seem to tokenize well on hyphens. Tokenizing on spaces would mostly work, except you have to escape spaces on the command line.