Downsizing

This is downsizing as in discarding useless material, not dieting or being laid off by my corporate overlords.

One the advantages of being in the upper end of middle class and a homeowner is that one has the luxury of accumulating material objects. I'm not sentimental about many things but I do have strong emotional attachment to past work, including papers, computers and the accoutrement of one's daily workspace.

As I write this, I realize that nearly 1/3 of all of the shelf space around me is occupied by my handwritten notes from various classes and courses. Each was carefully sorted & filed during the time of the course, then lovingly shelved in chronological order when the course was complete so that I could look up the information again readily if the need should arise.

The time has come to acknowledge that after 20+ years in some instances, these volumes and binders will never be touched again. And I really need the shelf space for more timely items.

I keep lots of digital sediment as well but at least the memory capacity of my PDAs over the years has grown faster than my needs. There's no earthly reason why I still have the courses taken each semester of my BSc and MSc years ago but it doesn't take up more than one kilobyte out of a 32GB device so there's no harm done.

I'm not sure why I'm feeling a need to deal with this tonight but I see no profit in waiting.

Downsizing

This is downsizing as in discarding useless material, not dieting or being laid off by my corporate overlords.

One the advantages of being in the upper end of middle class and a homeowner is that one has the luxury of accumulating material objects. I'm not sentimental about many things but I do have strong emotional attachment to past work, including papers, computers and the accoutrement of one's daily workspace.

As I write this, I realize that nearly 1/3 of all of the shelf space around me is occupied by my handwritten notes from various classes and courses. Each was carefully sorted & filed during the time of the course, then lovingly shelved in chronological order when the course was complete so that I could look up the information again readily if the need should arise.

The time has come to acknowledge that after 20+ years in some instances, these volumes and binders will never be touched again. And I really need the shelf space for more timely items.

I keep lots of digital sediment as well but at least the memory capacity of my PDAs over the years has grown faster than my needs. There's no earthly reason why I still have the courses taken each semester of my BSc and MSc years ago but it doesn't take up more than one kilobyte out of a 32GB device so there's no harm done.

I'm not sure why I'm feeling a need to deal with this tonight but I see no profit in waiting.

Downsizing, Part 2

Wow... I still have notes from the mid-1980s on how to use the job control language on a VAX/VMS system to submit Fortran programs to the Cray supercomputer. Must resist the urge to keep these...

I'm definitely not going to miss my old biology and botany notes: I had absolutely no interest in those courses but I needed science credits for my BSc. Must resist the urge to burn these...

I've tossed a tonne of paper from old computer science courses. Most of those I won't miss. Looking through the papers from the mandatory English composition classes though, I see points where I and the professor disagreed vehemently on issues of style and purpose. Must resist the urge to hunt down those same professors to re-argue these same points...

The copy of my work portfolio on American Sign Language and interpreting/translating held up pretty well, although I now see a few weak spots which I suspect I let go because of time pressure and looming deadlines. Must resist the urge to redraft decades-old papers...

One of my courses in 1999 required a 15-20 page autobiography. It was an interesting if somewhat sanitized read. Must resist the urge to invent a time machine to correct past mistakes...

Downsizing, Part 2

Wow... I still have notes from the mid-1980s on how to use the job control language on a VAX/VMS system to submit Fortran programs to the Cray supercomputer. Must resist the urge to keep these...

I'm definitely not going to miss my old biology and botany notes: I had absolutely no interest in those courses but I needed science credits for my BSc. Must resist the urge to burn these...

I've tossed a tonne of paper from old computer science courses. Most of those I won't miss. Looking through the papers from the mandatory English composition classes though, I see points where I and the professor disagreed vehemently on issues of style and purpose. Must resist the urge to hunt down those same professors to re-argue these same points...

The copy of my work portfolio on American Sign Language and interpreting/translating held up pretty well, although I now see a few weak spots which I suspect I let go because of time pressure and looming deadlines. Must resist the urge to redraft decades-old papers...

One of my courses in 1999 required a 15-20 page autobiography. It was an interesting if somewhat sanitized read. Must resist the urge to invent a time machine to correct past mistakes...