S02E04: The Ideal Research Workflow

Darius and Emma spend this week discussing research and how to do it. Darius has devoted his life to developing the perfect research workflow, even commanding a Twitter bot to remind him of the unread articles on his reading list. Emma, conversely, spends her working days lying in a state of learned helplessness beneath a heap of incorrect metadata and poorly formatted references. We agree that PDFs are hell, consider whether you might just be better off writing your research down on index cards, and ultimately concede that the ideal research workflow doesn't exist -- but perhaps this episode will offer some ideas of how to get closer. Links: Darius's Tiny Assistant bot and Emma's deeply convoluted Scrivener/Zotero/Applescript workflow.