I have just realized that I have already previously written the small section I was working on last week.
As in, I sketched it while out at a conference, and that's why it wasn't in its normal "spot." I use multiple computers, so I have a centralized repository for my work that can be accessed from anywhere (as long as I have the internets), and this particular piece of writing never made it to the repository. Not only that, it never got checked off my electronic to-do list (now that I think about it, my internet access was at best spotty while at said conference), so when I came across it on the list again, I started working on it. Again.
How dazed did I have to be when I wrote this the first time to completely forget I did it? Comparing the two write-ups, I definitely like the second one much better, but the first one would have been just fine for a 1st draft.
Can anyone tell me where my head is?
The perverse incentives of academia
6 years ago
6 comments:
Has happened to me, too. As my mom used to say, it's good that the head is attached to the body :)
Heh! A system reorganisation may be in order!
It's better than thinking you've done something and then realising you haven't, though.
At least you like the second version better!
When one is editing a long document by reading it over and over again, one enters into a data hypnosis state where the ability to track the logical seuence of events becomes fuzzy. Add long nights and coffee overdoses and strange to the equation and strange things start to happen.
This state is usually fantastic for getting brainwaves on every subject in the world except the one you're working on.
Amelie - your mom sounds like my mom :) I blame this on lack of caffeine.
Cath - I really do like my system, it has been excellent at helping me remember to do everything I need to get done, and getting me to do it by the deadlines. Its weakness truly is its internet dependence, which is so rarely an issue, but I guess I need a backup plan for when it is!
UR - oh, by far! The second version actually looks like a decent draft as opposed to the "I am half-awake" type of rambling the first version was!
Pawl - yep, and this document is getting pretty long! Keeping track of where I introduce ideas, where I go into details on them, and where I should just refer to another place in the document, is getting pretty complicated even with my masterful (and automatic!) outline system. I have no idea how people juggle a multi-hundred-page thesis (but I guess I will have to figure it out!).
At risk of sounding sexist, but really, this happened to me so many times when I was pregnant.... Your brain went on maternity leave.
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