I'm working on a method of research that I would love opinions/feedback on, a method that, I hope, may be found to be of use to similarly inclined individuals.

Using Numbers, the Mac spreadsheet program, as a timeline, one can develop/refine their conception (?) of our history by means of situating "important" figures within their historical context. The cells enumerated vertically, the top row being 1 and the bottom row being 2019, such an important figure's representation spans vertically from the year they were born to the year they perished. Thus, Karl Marx's "bar" stretches from 1818 down to 1883, with Engels' bar, spanning 1820-1895 and situated next to Marx's, beginning two cells below the top of Marx's and ending twelve after the end of Marx's.

In each cell of a figure's bar, a note, with no apparent length/character capacity, can be added, allowing the grapher to integrate their notes on Marx's "On the Jewish Question" into its respective cell on his bar.

The vertical axis denoting time, the horizontal is a bit more dynamic, in this case denoting content-of-thought, as perhaps a more broad way of saying field or subject matter. Of course, this dimension seems, to me, to be more subjectively inclined (?), seeing as the works of Marx and Spivak may seem more related to the grapher than the works of Marx and Said (to use perhaps too thin and arbitrary an example). However, I've found that such conflicts, if persistently contemplated, seem to coalesce (?) into a natural (?) structure, perhaps irrespective of the grapher's intentions.

In any case, I felt the need to do this largely because of my innate difficulty framing events and people along a macro, or a micro, timeline, and this, as a project, has significantly strengthened such a weakness. I've found that there is, in fact, a limit to the amount of cells permitted in a single spreadsheet, a discovery which, in retrospect, perhaps should not have come as a surprise.

Also, not sure how to best share these files - but this seems promising:

https://megashare.megahd.com.br/29Qb (numbers)
https://megashare.megahd.com.br/29Qd (excel)

If there is any interest in viewing/editing, but difficulty downloading, either of these files, please let me know and I can figure out other ways.

Here are some screenshots:






















Anyway, seeing how much this has streamlined my understanding (in both extensive and intensive capacities), I would like to hear what others may have to say about it. Perhaps it's much more a personal project that I happen to be proud of than something with any epistemic/academic potential, or perhaps others merely have an easier time framing people/events in their historical context than I do. In any case, feedback would be wonderful. In my eyes, as close to this as I am, and as much time I have put into it as I have, here are the potential benefits from such a method:

-juxtaposition between fields/disciplines/etc; connections and parallels drawn, influences and movements mapped.
-increased familiarity (which, even uninformed, I believe is worth something) with such figures/idea gained by moving/reorienting them along the horizontal axis, pairing them in different clusters, etc.
-perhaps the ability frame as much of our recorded history a possible, as embodied by its players, onto a single spreadsheet, and thus the refining of ones macro-image of history.

A lot of the benefit comes from the creating process, rather than the mere utilization of it as a product of someone else's. It forces the grapher to organize (?), or, in any case, arrange figures in their ideal positions, which perhaps is always an ongoing task, seeing as how people, and their ideas, develop.

Having just joined this forum minutes ago, and perhaps not being sufficiently familiar with the content of the various categories, I thought it acceptable to post this in the political philosophy section, seeing as it has a largely Marxist slant.