Tell HN: Thing I learned this year was keeping a work journal | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Thing I learned this year was keeping a work journal

11 pointsMuromec9 comments

I once saw a comment suggesting to keep a working journal here and I want to say it's the best thing since figuring out how and why to write unit tests.

Whenever I have to do something that involves more than one line in more than one file, I make another text file, called JOURNAL in the root of the project and write down all the things I plan to get back to.

All the side quests spawned from fixing that one bug, all the slightly obscure parts that I need to figure out what they were doing, all the missing unit tests. And then I don't publish the PR until all of them are either ticked off or transferred to whatever JIRA-hell I have.

I unlocks two capabilities -- 1) I can just close my laptop at any time and whenever I get back I still remember all the half-done, to be checked later, doesnt-break-the-build-but-is-obviously-wrong things. and 2) I can open two probjects each with it's own JOURNAL and switch between them without pain.

Keeping the write ahead log to recover from memory loss isn't only for filesystems, it's for minds too. Shocker.

You’re 100% correct. Everyone must keep a work journal. At least emailing themselves everyday to keep track of things. Hugely helpful when you want to reflect on your progress, and decide if the company you’re in right now gives you the opportunity to grow the way you want.

In so doing, consider asking yourself how others will read it in the event it gets subpoenaed. (Not legal advice, just food for thought.)

That's an interesting perspective. I don't put there anything that I would not put into git commit message. For it to be subpoenaed somebody needs to know I have, right?

I'll leave it at this: the point of discovery in litigation is, first, to find out what the other side (or their current or former employees, or third parties) has that might be relevant to the lawsuit; and, second, to obtain it.

I used to go for walks at lunch with a friend who was an attorney. He lived his whole life in the habit of considering the legal risk of everything. He told me that I trusted people more than he did, would probably get hurt by it more than he will, and probably am a happier person and more satisfied with my life because of it.

This is almost certainly the case. Law practice probably deserves the title of the "dismal science" more than economics does — both as dismal, and as a science. Still, after practicing for a while (perhaps even just during law school) it becomes simply a perception of life that is closer to base reality than one had before — probably similar to a physician's view of the body and biological processes after encountering so much disease, decline, and death, as well as the methods by which those might be prevented, eased, and forestalled.

EDIT: I'll add that I, too, maintain a work journal. The nice thing is that mine can't be obtained through discovery in most situations because of attorney–client privilege, attorney work-product privilege, etc. The lousy thing is that I'll never be able to share complete details of my lessons with most others (save, e.g., other lawyers in my law firm) because of the duty of confidentiality, etc.

Oh, I totally get it. I had once read an executive order with an instruction manual for the vital acts registry official, that describes all the different life circumstances in which birth certificate is issued and what to do in that case. For fun of course. We don't have the case law here, so all the stuff is nicely codified in one executive act and there is a lot of it.

But lawyers, like doctors and cops are overexposed to the high entropy side of things, which I thing warps their perspective.

How do you consistently write a journal?

I’m experimenting with a prompt that interviews me based on my sparse notes and my meeting schedule. It’s only been a week though, so hard to say if it’ll stick.

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