Record keeping, for better or worse, is essential.
Memories fade. Ink fades but rarely corrupts.
I grew up with the stories of real people (students and scholars of the past times) being able to memorize things by just hearing or reading them once.
Seems a forgotten thing in the modern world.
Re:Lab Notebooks (2020)
by melagonster on Tuesday December 26, 2023 @07:19PM
(#38777576)
there are a lot of book teach you writing note later and give client deep impression.
Because it's a myth. Photographic memory isn't real. Check out the wikipage on eidetic memory. People that claimed it in the past were not telling the full truth. There are only a few examples of savants being able to recall specific things after one showing, but it's terribly narrow. Like being able to draw a horse you saw, but not human faces.
Here here. WWIT (what was I thinking) is so valuable. I'm spending much more time now writing notes that provide context in addition to a bare description of what I did. I hate it when I look at old notes, have a million questions, and curse myself for not writing more.
Also, thank you for making the point about the US patent system. I recall somewhere around 1990, where people silently didn't bother to issue notebooks for me to record ideas (i.e. inventions) in favor of electronic disclosure forms.