GoKawiilThe first thing I wrote when I started this essay was, "Written 2026-09-01." Then I wrote "Idea long before that". Then I opened my post ideas file and searched for "metadata", and found the line where I had written down the title for this essay, four years ago. Then I wrote "Idea and title 2022-07-30".
Does this sound tedious? It is tedious. But, it's worth it.
I have written before about how much I like dating. (No, no, not that kind of dating. ISO_8601 dating!) But my obsession with timestamps is just part of a broader belief in the long-term value of metadata.
Why save metadata? Briefly: because it's way easier to record data when it's fresh, than to have to piece it together later.
Additionally, I think that:
We wildly overestimate our chance of remembering things. We often have no idea what will prove to be important.
We think, oh, that doesn't matter. Or, oh, I'll never forget that. But it does, and I will, and I'll only realize that it does after I have.
More likely, someone else will realize it does, long after I'm gone. And they'll be like me: wasting a non-profit's money and getting a headache trying to trace the provenance of obscure foreign-language manuscripts that were published under different titles in different languages.
What does this mean in practice? Here are some examples:
I write songs. When I write a song, I make sure to:
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