Date Everything -

In the summer of 2019, I found a cardboard box in my parents’ attic labeled “Misc. Cords.” Inside was a tangle of black spaghetti—USB-A to Mini-B, a Nokia charger from 2003, a three-pronged RCA cable, and one unidentifiable gray wire with a proprietary end that fit exactly nothing. No dates, no context, no purpose. The box was a small museum of obsolescence, but without labels, it was also a tomb. This is the quiet tragedy of the undated object: it exists, but it cannot speak.

Beyond the individual, dating is a discipline of accountability. In professional settings, undated contracts, unsigned proposals, and timestamp-less emails breed disputes. In journalism, undated press releases become misinformation. In science, undated lab notebooks render replication impossible. The date is not metadata; it is evidence. It says: this action occurred at this time, and I am willing to stand by that . A world that dates everything is a world that takes responsibility for its own chronology—and by extension, its own truth. date everything