📽️ The milk crate problem
Two milk crates stuffed with notebooks, file folders, and envelopes—symptoms of 📖 my problem with note-taking as a grad student.
Next: 📽️ A disconnect between intended and future uses of notes
Transcript
Just under a year ago, I moved to Tiohtià:ke to begin my PhD at McGill. And as I packed up my small apartment to move into my new, even smaller apartment, I came across these: the notes I had taken over my time at Carleton, where I studied Communication in both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. And despite already being conveniently in boxes, I couldn’t help but leaf through them.
I have little recollection of taking most of these notes, but going through them I found evidence of my own struggle to understand concepts I now use regularly, as well as explorations of ideas I have since moved away from. But a lot of them also included a lot of interesting things I had completely forgotten about. There were notes on fascinating articles I hardly remember reading, details about concepts which would have been so useful in that thesis I had just submitted, and even somewhat promising research questions I had written to my future self. Despite the fact I would have to drag them up to my new third-floor walk-up, I decided they would have to come with me in my move.