Warning: I think the push for all-digital field notebooks is missing the point of geological observation.

Writing notes by hand makes you slow down and really see the rocks, which typing just doesn't do.

3 comments

3 Comments

lucas2061mo ago

Yeah the part about not being able to read your own writing later... I mean, I get that. But for me, that struggle to decode my own terrible notes is part of how I remember the details. If it's typed up clean right away, it just goes in one ear and out the other. The act of wrestling with my own scribbles makes the rock's story stick in my head better. Digital is neat, but it feels more like admin work than real observation.

fiona_reed3d ago

Oh, I couldn't agree more. There's a real physical connection that happens when your hand is moving across the page, sketching a fold or jotting down the grain size. Typing on a screen feels detached, like you're just filling out a form. My own field notebooks are a mess of smudged pencil and rushed drawings, but that mess is part of the record. It captures the weather and the hurry you were in. A clean digital file just can't hold that same feeling of being right there in the dirt.

harper2051mo ago

Remember my field notes from undergrad. My handwriting was so bad even I couldn't read the rock descriptions later, so maybe digital has a point.