
A few weeks back, a colleague is standing in front of my desk, where I am sitting. We have the following conversation:
Her: I missed the 10:00 meeting. Were you there?
Me: Yes. I can fill you in...
Her: That would be great.
Me, looking at my meeting notes in my notebook: They went over the Shnorkins spreadsheet again. And they said the report on Blexurg is due on the 17th.
Her: The 17th? That's good to know.
Me: And, then a lot of the meeting was spent on the new Gwibble protocol but they don't have enough information about it yet to really know how to implement it.
Her: Oh. What about the XLC project?
Me: Huh! They did talk about XLC. Funny you should mention it!
Her: I read it in your notebook.
Me: *blink* Oh.
I go on to tell her about the XLC project but all the time I'm thinking, "You're reading my notes? Upside down? And you're telling me you're doing it? How often do you read my notes? What have I written before?"
I know that the mind processes things, sometimes unbidden. If there's words we might read them unintentionally, even upside down. But... still...
Questions du jour: Do you read other people's notes? Would you tell someone you're reading their notes? Should I write "[colleague] is a jackass" in my notes?