Not sure whether you are still in it.
I assume the topic table / person table is not a problem?
I think you probably need to multi-link the [topic] to the [person].
And the problem is ‘Note’, which I assume another one that you need to somehow link?
My question is, is the "Note’ going to be attached to [person] or [table] ?
As you might have already found out, linking can only be done manually (or so according to the knowledge that I got from lurking. Though I am not an expert in airtable yet). So if you need to manually link everything, yes I assume that it will be tedious work.
But if my understanding is correct, you want the ‘Note’ to be somewhat ‘standardized’ right? else it wouldn’t make sense to have it on separate table. (I mean, you can select a certain type of ‘Note’ and then all the Person / Conversation on it to be displayed).
My suggestion is to just use Filters and generate views for it. Or do the ‘Grouping’.
It might be a simple solution to what you are looking for. Or may not.
I, too, struggle a lot at first to link 3 items at once. I circumvent it by just linking 2 things (just like your ‘person’ and ‘table’), add another field (probably for your notes? In this field I use multiple select link), and just generate a View using combination of Group and filter.
Hope it helps.