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A shudder went through me when I read the parent post you replied to. Based on my personality that wouldn't work for me, and over time I've had to learn to bett

A shudder went through me when I read the parent post you replied to. Based on my personality that wouldn't work for me, and over time I've had to learn to better understand and work better with people that work that way. I've had people comment on me as sloppy, uninterested etc. when they make the observation I'm not a detailed note-taker which is quite frustrating. I've mentored enough colleagues that I've come across those who take extremely detailed notes, and are successful, and a fair number who do this and don't find success in their work. When I try to find ways to get them to question their approach they are often resistant to changing because the have an ingrained belief that detailed note-taking is of fundamental importance.

swsieber 9y ago
I would bet those who are successful have some pretty good reasons for taking notes, while those who are not do it as an end until itself (e.g. "because that's what successful people do") Which makes me think there is something not so obvious that accompanies effective note taking.
- Kluny 9y ago
  For me, it's when I've expended some effort to gain a new piece of knowledge. I'll have to redo the (debugging process/google trail/staring into space thinking real hard) from scratch next time I do it, because it's too intricate to have memorized it. Taking notes about routine everyday stuff is boring and worse than useless, because the notes are full of duplicated information that makes searching slower. I imagine the people who take notes for it's own sake are basically listing everything that they do, whether they gained any new insight or not.
goo 9y ago
One insight that I've come across is the idea that "writing is just thinking on paper". Detail isn't necessarily valuable when it comes to thinking -- it can add noise to the crucial signal. I think the same is true of notes. I spent my entire education and most of my software career taking few notes, and they did the job well enough. Despite my shift to taking a lot more for various reasons, I agree that there is no moral or strategic value to taking nice notes just for the sake of having done so.

swsieber 9y ago

I would bet those who are successful have some pretty good reasons for taking notes, while those who are not do it as an end until itself (e.g. "because that's what successful people do") Which makes me think there is something not so obvious that accompanies effective note taking.

Kluny 9y ago
For me, it's when I've expended some effort to gain a new piece of knowledge. I'll have to redo the (debugging process/google trail/staring into space thinking real hard) from scratch next time I do it, because it's too intricate to have memorized it. Taking notes about routine everyday stuff is boring and worse than useless, because the notes are full of duplicated information that makes searching slower. I imagine the people who take notes for it's own sake are basically listing everything that they do, whether they gained any new insight or not.

goo 9y ago

One insight that I've come across is the idea that "writing is just thinking on paper". Detail isn't necessarily valuable when it comes to thinking -- it can add noise to the crucial signal. I think the same is true of notes. I spent my entire education and most of my software career taking few notes, and they did the job well enough. Despite my shift to taking a lot more for various reasons, I agree that there is no moral or strategic value to taking nice notes just for the sake of having done so.