Repair projects: Organizing information and considerations

Andreas Thaler · Thursday at 12:25 PM

Currently, I'm dealing with a Canon T90 that only closes its aperture to f/8.

Reviewing the existing repair documentation suggests a mechanical problem.

Various observations, test results, and thoughts on the cause and solution of the problem need to be noted down before I forget them or get them mixed up.

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The classic mind map is well suited for this; it's flexible, grouped, and provides an almost graphic overview.

Better than loose thoughts and illegible notes, at least for me.

What kind of organization do you use for more extensive repair projects?

koraks · 2025-05-23T02:30:29-0400

Andreas Thaler said:
he classic mind map is well suited for this

Depends on how you look at it. From a conceptual viewpoint, I've never been very enthusiastic about mind maps. I've tried to make them work when I started doing academic research and quickly found that they tend to result in poorly structured, complex 'trees' that implied all manner of things related to hierarchy and causality that just didn't hold true. You end up with a big mess.

I think for repair problems (and particularly technical defect diagnosis), something like this is more sensible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram This is also used widely in industry; I've never run into someone in a technical function relying on mind maps for technical troubleshooting.

Andreas Thaler · 2025-05-23T03:47:59-0400

koraks said:
I've never run into someone in a technical function relying on mind maps for technical troubleshooting.

Then I'll be the first person you'll meet who does it this way

Look above at my mind map for a T90 problem.

The most important considerations are captured, and conclusions and actions are derived from them. Connections are marked with arrows.

This way, the initial problem analysis is documented in a structured format and can be adjusted later. This allows me to get to work without forgetting anything, with everything in a clear overview.

But it certainly also depends on whether you think visually or in writing.

koraks · 2025-05-23T04:42:37-0400

Andreas Thaler said:
Look above at my mind map for a T90 problem.

That's what triggered my response. I saw it and immediately recognize the conceptual problems in it.

Andreas Thaler · 2025-05-23T04:53:32-0400

koraks said:
That's what triggered my response. I saw it and immediately recognize the conceptual problems in it.

Then we have two perspectives.

You see conceptual problems in it, I see support in problem-solving.

How good that we can choose our tools according to our needs.

koraks · 2025-05-23T05:20:56-0400

Andreas Thaler · 2025-05-23T06:03:32-0400

koraks said:
View attachment 399184

Reminds me of the business consultants in our company, decision meetings with management.

Some of them were really into cartoons

koraks · 2025-05-23T06:25:51-0400

If you've seen a particular movie a couple of times, it always tends to become humorous one way or another. Or maybe it's just that humor is one of the only sensible ways to deal with the Groundhog-Day nature of human existence.

Andreas Thaler · 2025-05-23T15:48:39-0400

koraks said:
That's what triggered my response. I saw it and immediately recognize the conceptual problems in it.

How do you come to this conclusion? You have no valid information about how I think and work?

Besides, you've probably read my request above:

„Various observations, test results, and thoughts on the cause and solution of the problem need to be noted down before I forget them or get them mixed up.“

Or do you want to claim that there are fundamental guidelines for organizing intellectual work?

I'm looking forward to this discussion, but please not in my thread. I'm here interested in how other colleagues who do repairs themselves approach this.

Thus my initial request:

„What kind of organization do you use for more extensive repair projects?“.

koraks · 2025-05-23T16:18:19-0400

Andreas Thaler said:
How do you come to this conclusion?

koraks said:
I've tried to make them work when I started doing academic research and quickly found that they tend to result in poorly structured, complex 'trees' that implied all manner of things related to hierarchy and causality that just didn't hold true. You end up with a big mess.

I see the same already happening in your example. If you continue down that road, the result will be spaghetti. You'll have written stuff down, alright, but it'll be essentially unstructured. It's due to the way a mind map forces you to document things.

Hey, if it works for you, great. Just don't get disappointed when at some point you find yourself knee-deep in Italian pasta with dozens or hundreds of hours of work spent on the effort, only to realize there's no way to disentangle it all.

Andreas Thaler said:
I'm looking forward to this discussion, but please not in my thread.

Sure, let's keep it at the brief answer to your question above.

Andreas Thaler · 2025-05-23T16:29:45-0400

koraks said:
I see the same already happening in your example. If you continue down that road, the result will be spaghetti. You'll have written stuff down, alright, but it'll be essentially unstructured. It's due to the way a mind map forces you to document things.

That's exactly how it's intended.

A method for capturing thoughts and information and putting them into some initial order.

koraks said:
Hey, if it works for you, great. Just don't get disappointed when at some point you find yourself knee-deep in Italian pasta with dozens or hundreds of hours of work spent on the effort, only to realize there's no way to disentangle it all.

Ah, now I understand what you mean.

It's not about planning a repair process in every detail; that wouldn't be possible anyway, since I don't have the necessary information.

The point here is to capture all the initially found information and considerations in a meaningful way. And a mind map is ideal for that.

Repair projects: Organizing information and considerations

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