[baby]

Taking notes is the worst advice you can give to someone. I've had this argument here on HN before, but taking notes distract you from the actual class. The best people I've been studying with were never taking notes, they were listening. If you need to know something after class, you can just google it or look in a book for it.

[muzani]

I have been both: the non note taker and the excessively detailed note taker.

I would say note taking a skill, and one that's honed through years. It's not something you only learn when you start college and there is an art to it.

What a lot of people do is similar to what the page tells you not to do - people would highlight everything, or write everything. This is very bad, because the best place to learn is in class, and by doing this, you reduce the class to a textbook.

I think the best thing to do is write a glossary or write down definitions. You'll notice the class repeating a few concepts several times. This is when it should be noted, or when a concept is too big or contains too much jargon to understand.

[crististm]

I've seen recommendations for not taking notes in class as well.

But your position suggests that taking notes is indeed the worst thing to do in class. How can that be? No qualifications or downplays like "for most people" or "bad"?

What I mean is that unless you have the results of Cal Newport or Jordan Peterson your extreme position does not carry the same weight as theirs.

[baby]

> What I mean is that unless you have the results of Cal Newport or Jordan Peterson your extreme position does not carry the same weight as theirs.

That point of authority doesn't dismiss the fact that spending time taking notes takes from your actual attention and interactivity with the class.

I'm in for writing down a few words here and there, but people tend to write way more and it's actually detrimental to them. We end up in a situation where "taking note" becomes a bad advice and in most cases is not helping.

My story is just anecdotal, but from what I've seen: the more notes students took, the more they failed; the less notes students took, the more they were succeeded. I go to conferences all the time now, and I don't see people taking notes anymore (and the few who do, do not do it as intensively as I've seen it being done in university). Isn't that a sign that people who actually succeeded in becoming PHD students, or postgrads, or professors, or good people in the industry, ... are all people who do not take notes in conferences? (which are extremly similar to classes to some extent)

[claudiulodro]

I think it depends on the person. If I don't take notes I naturally end up daydreaming and have missed an important concept by the time I snap back to reality. Taking notes forces my mind to pay attention to what is being said.

[baby]

I'd say it's mostly a bad advice, seeing how people abuse it, but if you can restrain yourself to just a few words here and there it's actually good.