[analog31]

In my view, an issue for modern science is that much of what we do is already very close to being a narrative of itself, such as program code and the generation of data and meta-data by computerized instruments. Keeping a separate narrative will always require time and discipline, and can suffer from lack of upkeep.

I know scientists who still use paper notebooks. They are quite common in chemistry and other "wet lab" sciences, where it's actually hard to narrate at the keyboard while also wearing rubber gloves and writing with one hand while holding something with the other. I'm sure there's also a mental discipline about it, that might help them think.

When I was a science student, my notebooks were a disaster, and I paid the price by having to repeat work when I couldn't figure out what the hell I did. Writing was always awkward and painful for me.

Today, I use Jupyter notebooks. They are not a strict timeline type of narrative, but have the benefit that I can see if they are complete before taking a break by doing a "restart kernel and run all cells." And they are suited to the kind of work I do, lots of data and computation. And they are at least crudely searchable.

For my work I don't need time-stamping or an immutable record. I need to be able to figure out what I did, hours or years later.