Field notes should make old thinking searchable.
That is one of their quiet jobs.
A long archive can contain useful thoughts that are hard to find.
The thought may be buried inside an old post.
Or spread across several conversations.
Or visible only after the current lens makes the pattern easier to see.
A field note gives that thought a small address.
A title.
A summary.
A source trail.
A few related ideas.
Enough metadata for agents.
Enough clarity for humans.
The point is not to make the old artifact perfect.
The point is to make the useful thought findable again.