12 frogs read think get curious

Organization creates the illusion of control

I love the Borges catalog of animals from “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins”:

1. those that belong to the Emperor
2. embalmed ones
3. those that are trained
4. suckling pigs
5. mermaids
6. fabulous ones
7. stray dogs
8. those that are included in this classification
9. those that tremble as if they were mad
10. innumerable ones
11. those drawn with a very fine camel’s hair brush
12. others
13. those that have just broken a flower vase
14. those that resemble flies from a distance

The list isn’t a predictable pattern. It’s fanciful; it’s absurd. It’s also about control: the first kind of animals are the Emperor’s. And it’s an admission of the impossibility of the task — what won’t resemble flies from a great enough distance?

Why yes, I have been working on and thinking about web site organization. And my desk is a mess right now.