Coping with My Seemingly Random Access Memory
Reading papers is a really important part of research. It's something I have a hard time with. There seem to be an endless supply of papers to read and sorting through which ones are important is difficult. Lately I've also realized my inability to recall the contributions of certain papers is also causing me difficulty. I've started making heavier use of my citation tool and writing more detailed comments about the major points and thoughts I have about each paper. I think often write comments about how the paper relates to the work I am currently doing and how I can use it, what the paper claims it does and what I think the paper actual does and sometimes I write thoughts about how I could extend this paper or use it in future research. All of this takes a lot of time and can't be done for every paper I read. I've been thinking lately that some papers I just want to categorize and then list the major point and then just shelve with perhaps a comment about why I didn't bother reading it in greater detail or perhaps with a mark to go back and understand the paper in more depth in the future.
I wish I knew how other people just seem to remember not only what all the papers do but also the names of the authors.
I wish I knew how other people just seem to remember not only what all the papers do but also the names of the authors.