Fighting reality is like fighting truth. . .you can't win. Many of the errors made in taking care of a digital photo collection come from not understanding basic fundamentals of digital photography management. Following are ten important realities that are not likely to change anytime soon. Understanding these will make will make your digital life much more comfortable and organized.

1) Photo organization never comes without some effort.
2) With surprisingly little effort, photos can be organized in a acceptable manor.
3) A photo collection only ever grows.
4) Folders are no way to organize images, unless the collection is very small (see rule 3).
5) A strategy, augmented with photo management software, is required to organize any substantial photo collection.
6) An organized photo collection is worth many times that of an unorganized one.
7) Imaging technology will continue to improve.
8) Digital photos must be backed up.
9) Data is the only way organize photos, be it tags, gps data, or data about faces and objects.
10) Someday the instant a photo is taken it will automatically be placed where it belongs, and the organization of photos will be based on all aspects of the image and the person taking the photo. Alas, this is still some years away.