I try to write my journal for me, about ten years from now. So, I don’t spend much time explaining who people are that I know very well, or what my overall situation is—but I do spend quite some time trying to express mental states, because I know that how I think now differs vastly from my thinking ten years ago, and I expect similar changes into the future.
On the other hand, I’ve had lots of experience with trying and failing to understand what I’ve written in programming and mathematics, so I’ve internalized the fact that future-me might not even understand an explanation of things I think are obvious right now. ymmv.
I try to write my journal for me, about ten years from now. So, I don’t spend much time explaining who people are that I know very well, or what my overall situation is—but I do spend quite some time trying to express mental states, because I know that how I think now differs vastly from my thinking ten years ago, and I expect similar changes into the future.
On the other hand, I’ve had lots of experience with trying and failing to understand what I’ve written in programming and mathematics, so I’ve internalized the fact that future-me might not even understand an explanation of things I think are obvious right now. ymmv.