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I don't have one of those. My memory is awful. Fortunately though, realising this is what pushed me to get better at writing documentation. I write it for my ow
by onion2k 5y ago
I don't have one of those. My memory is awful. Fortunately though, realising this is what pushed me to get better at writing documentation. I write it for my own benefit, and everyone else on my team also benefits.
- dspillett 5y agoSimilar here. Though maybe we do have one of those. At 42 I have the memory of me at 25. My memory was terrible back then too.
- RGamma 5y agoDid you find out why? Tried mitigation techniques? My fact memory is working relatively well (passive recall/recognition much better than active recall/production) but my autobiographical memory is almost non-existent. It's really bothering me. I stopped consumption of disjointed media on social media-like feeds (only exception: HN) because that was worsening it to no one's surprise. Maybe a full digital detox to the extent work allows is in order? What else could I try?
- wizzwizz4 5y agoWriting an autobiography.
- r-zip 5y agoI'm not sure, but this may be something to bring up with a psychologist/psychiatrist/therapist. If your memories are "overly general," then it may be linked to something else going on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overgeneral_autobiographical_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overgeneral_autobiographical_m... Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional, and this is not medical advice.
- RGamma 5y agoGood pointer. Sounds eerily related
- 123pie123 5y ago>At 42 I have the memory of me at 25. My memory was terrible back then too. Same here, I've always had bad memory, I've learnt to live with it better as I've got older. I always (or mostly) think of my future self for current actions, ie I try and predict what I would be thinking in the future - eg If I put things down, I choose places where my future self would guess to look. same for my documentation or actions lists etc.. over time this makes things extremely efficient
- criddell 5y agoOver the years, I have written in a journal from time-to-time. When I go back and read what I have written, I’m reminded of all kinds of things I had completely forgotten. It makes me wish that I had established a strong habit of writing every day or two when I was younger. I still suck at it though. I haven’t written anything since the spring.
- whatshisface 5y agoI'm so bad that I write documentation... during coding interviews. It's worked so far.
- Damogran6 5y agoAt risk of a slight tangent, I look at the vast majority of the documentation I wrote over the first 25-30 years of my career and all of it is defunct, and largely unread.
- prepend 5y agoI find documentation as a hygiene practice like washing my hands. Most of it is unread, and when it is, I don’t know about it. But it helps me to write it as I can revise the code that the docs are supposed to reflect. I try, whenever possible to embed docs directly in source or at least the repo. I generate static sites from them and a few years ago added our web analytics to find that the docs are actually read. So they are used, but it’s jot like the readers send me notes saying “great docs, they helped me X.”
- samus 5y agoThe best time to test your documentation is when onboarding new people. Unfortunately, this means that a concerted effort to update and expand documentation should be made before new people start. Else, they will waste their and the team's time on things that don't require an external perspective to fix.