Easy storage and retrieval of information or documents, I agree, is very ineffective when managed by a file / folder type of means. But, before shooting headlong into blockchain or AI, most use cases can be effectievly handled with less exotic tooling, like a document management system (database in front of the information / documents) or a NoSQL front.
Blockchains strengths lie in being trustless. For information or document retrieval, it may work at small volumes, but not when it reaches any significant level, even for a small business - compared to a Doc management system or key-value store (NoSQL). And it boils down to being ACID compliant within milliseconds and plus quick recovery, which blockchains are not. A whole host of problems arise without data, or documents, being ACID.
AI... better for creation in areas like marketing, while not so good for discrete, repeatable, auditable, provable and legally compliant proof of record.
So, what makes documents, information easy to find or discover? Part of that answer is it has to be fast. So far, I haven't seen an indexing solution that out performs a database or key-value store. So why not use them? And AI... no. I'm not bashing AI, in fact it has a ton of uses, but for discrete document or info storing and retrieval, especially for financial applications, there's long proven, effective ways that serves us well.
So, why can't people find "stuff"? They simply don't use a tool and insist they should just be able to throw information any dam where they please. Then, some magical, all access bot, should scoop it up and add it to a neural network, train it at $1,000 an hour so you can hire a "prompt artist" to concoct magical phrases to extract a semblance of the data, dripping in a trendy designer layout... uh, yea.. right.
This is the part where you chuff, bow out your chest, cross your arms and screech, "OK, smarty pants... how would YOU do it?" TO which one simply replies "Settle down... Francis..." and show examples:
Any piece of info, receipt, user manual, article I store into document management. It could be an image, hyperlink, pdf, audio, video, etc and tag it by group, type and description. One place to store and look for any and all types of info, like this showing some of my crypto notes
But that's not the trick - the trick is... you have to be able to handle EVERYTHING, which is not a problem as I also store calendar appointments, stock tickers, receipts, legal docs, tax filings, maintenance schedules, programming notes, health info, home and garden, employment records, retirement rules, computer specs, ...
Here's just a few of those categories that store computer info (helps when I build rigs out)
Just thought to shine light on some old skool software that's hellish performant and strong like bull. Me.. luddite? Nah, I'm adding AI interface to it currently... after all, it's go to be everything...
RE: A Document to Reference