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I spent two days on folder structure and I'd do it again

Information Architecture · 2025-08-22

Someone saw me defining folder categories and naming conventions before putting any files in them and said "just start dumping stuff in there and organize it later."

I have inherited enough "organize it later" file shares to know exactly where that leads. It leads to a folder called New Folder (3) containing a subfolder called FINAL_FINAL_v2_USE_THIS containing a PDF that's three revisions behind the one in Mike's Stuff/Old.

"Organize later" is "organize never." Everyone knows this. Everyone keeps doing it anyway.

The Dewey Decimal System has problems. You know what it doesn't have? A section called Misc_Books_To_Sort_Later.