Why I stopped using "Project Folders" for Hardware R&D (and built a Mesh system instead)

#productivity #career #hardware #notion

I've been a firmware engineer for 10 years. We all know the pain: Project ends -> Folder archived -> Knowledge lost.

The problem is the Tree Structure. It works for deadlines, but fails for knowledge.

I propose a new architecture: Mesh for Resources, Tree for Projects.

The Technical Difference:

In a traditional Tree, the Project is the "Parent", and the Datasheet is the "Child". When the Parent (Project) is archived, the Child becomes inaccessible.

In my Mesh architecture, I use Notion's Relation property to flip this logic. The Datasheet becomes an independent entity in a Master Database. It doesn't "belong" to any project; it is simply "linked" to them.

This simple shift allows one component to serve infinite projects dynamically.

Here is how it works in Notion.