[HN Gopher] Working Methods (of a Historian)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Working Methods (of a Historian)
        
       Author : bryanrasmussen
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2024-09-07 06:39 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.lrb.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.lrb.co.uk)
        
       | bryanrasmussen wrote:
       | original title is just Working Methods but I figured it needed
       | some context.
        
       | jpt4 wrote:
       | Late binding of metadata is critical to my notetaking, and the
       | primary advantage of digital over physical media. I am curious
       | whether any technology like the Nuwa pen will be able to provide
       | a transparent bridge between the two.
        
       | dmvdoug wrote:
       | This was absolutely lovely.
       | 
       | When you take a "methods" class in graduate school for history,
       | you learn about the different theoretical frameworks historians
       | use. You never really spend any time talking about actual methods
       | of going about and doing research. I always found it interesting
       | to go and pick the brains of different professors about their
       | actual, day-to-day working methods. of course, they tend to share
       | similarities, but there's always some weird little personal
       | quirks thrown in there that each individual has found, through
       | ongoing trial and error, works for them.
       | 
       | But it's loveliest for the warm glow of nostalgia and contentment
       | the author wraps the seemingly mundane topic of working methods
       | with. Juxtapose this with the infinity of comparisons between
       | different note-taking apps out there. I'd rather scratch my eyes
       | out rather than see another one of those. This, though, I've
       | already printed and added to my own files.
        
       | westernaccess wrote:
       | I was expecting a bridge to some form of knowledge management,
       | given the brief reference to personal wikis and databases, plus
       | the fact that HN loves to debate the various methods of the
       | above. But I was happily surprised to see nothing of the sort.
       | The author's resignation that his practical research
       | methodologies are no doubt outdated and inefficient was a breath
       | of fresh air.
       | 
       | I often find myself spending far too much time fearing that the
       | methods I've chosen in any kind of research are faulty, which
       | turns out to be much greater time sink than actually just
       | absorbing the material at hand.
       | 
       | An analogy: time spent planning what to do with your
       | friends/family would be better used just being with them.
       | Likewise, becoming closer to a historical subject--whether by
       | immersing yourself in all the relevant material or by literally
       | imagining yourself alongside them--will return more valuable
       | results long-term than by running a scientific experiment about
       | them.
       | 
       | The tour guide is wiser than the city planner!
        
       | gwern wrote:
       | The Acton quote is given more extensively at
       | http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/03/23/lord-actons-lost-wo...
       | (the original book, _On the Writing of History_, Oman 1939, is
       | hard to get).
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-09-07 23:00 UTC)