the.com/indexing
the art of knowing where everything is without carrying it all in your head.
means building a shortcut structure that tells you exactly where information lives so you never have to search the whole thing again.
from from latin index, meaning pointer or forefinger — literally the finger that points at what you want, borrowed by libraries, books, and eventually databases.
database tradeofffaster reads, slower writes, extra storage
google's core jobindexing the entire internet, constantly
pre-digital originmedieval scribes indexed bibles by hand
economics twistindex funds just track the market's own index