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ITEM.PARTY

ITEM.PARTY is a Web tool for analytical thinking, that is, organising and keeping track of any kind of item. If you have ever made a list, then you've been working with items. ITEM.PARTY's goal is to make analytical thinking accessible and fun.

ITEM.PARTY online on the internet

Things in the real world are messy and complicated. One way to approach understanding them is to form a mental model which cuts away aspects that we don't need to worry about right now. For example, to keep my houseplants alive, I need to keep track of aspects like whether each one prefers sun or shade, wet or dry, and when it was last watered; but I don't necessarily need to worry about what colour their flowers are or whether they are edible.

This mental model of plants is focused on the goal of keeping them alive. If I had a different goal in mind, like farming them for food or for sale, I'd need to focus on different aspects. Analytical thinking is all about deciding what we can cut away and what we need to focus on, to achieve our goals. In fact the word "analytical" comes from a Greek word meaning "cutting away".

[example]

Why should I use ITEM.PARTY and not a spreadsheet?

Spreadsheets are very commonly used for working with items. Each item can go in a row (or a column), and each different aspect of the items gets a column (or a row). This works fine! But...

Spreadsheets don't know you're working with items. They only understand cells. You can break things by putting the wrong kind of value in a cell, or by copying and pasting carelessly.
Spreadsheets are at their best when working with numbers. They aren't so good with other kinds of data. Say you want to attach a few paragraphs of your notes to each item.
Spreadsheets need big screens, because each item is long and thin. It's hard to work with a spreadsheet on your phone.

Nevertheless, a spreadsheet might be a better choice if

you have hundreds of items, or
you want to do complex calculations, or
the items depend on each other.

Why should I use ITEM.PARTY and not a specialized app?

If there is a specialized app for the kind of items you want to work with, then absolutely use it! But...

There might not be an app that's focused on your specific goal.
Specialized apps come with models built in, which you have to work with. You might want your to-do list app to express something like "I can only do this when I'm in X location". You might have to go through a bunch of apps to find one with that feature.
You might start with one idea of what your items look like, but realize later that you need to change it. You might have to switch app and enter all your data again.
You might not have a model for your items at all, but want to discover the important aspects as you go along.

Getting started

Using your own items

Web 1.0, a tangent

Creating your own setups

Reference

Setup file format

Calculation mini-language