As we’re about to start out the planning conferences for 2024 at AWS, I’ve been pondering quite a bit about how I take notes. In the identical vein, the method of placing collectively a re: Invent keynote takes months, and it implies that I’m assembly with quite a lot of sensible of us doing analysis and constructing wonderful merchandise. And at each assembly I’m taking notes — a lot of them.
The earliest recollections I’ve of taking notes are in main college. I’d copy word-for-word what the trainer would say or write on the board. Issues like definitions and multiplication tables. Then I’d go residence, examine what I’d copied, and finally take a check. In observe, I used to be studying to encode, retailer, and recall info. When you concentrate on it, it’s a bit like S3.
However this was memorisation, not synthesis.
As I continued alongside my instructional journey, and the subject material turned more and more extra complicated, it compelled me to rethink notice taking. It was much less about being a scribe, and extra about listening, observing, and comprehending what was being taught. For instance, the youthful me might have copied the next definition verbatim: “The basic position of mitochondria is oxidative phosphorylation, which generates ATP by utilising the vitality launched throughout the oxidation of the meals we eat.” And when finding out, I’d have dedicated this to reminiscence with out essentially understanding the way it really labored. What would have been extra useful would have been to learn the definition, then write it out in a method that was significant to me, reminiscent of: “Mitochondria are the energy plant of the cell. They generate many of the chemical vitality wanted to energy the cell’s biochemical reactions.” Perhaps even diagram the method within the margins. That is synthesis. This denotes understanding.
And there’s analysis to again this up. Particularly, that verbatim notice taking simply isn’t as efficient while you’re attempting to study and retain new info.
Pen and paper
To this present day, I nonetheless take quite a lot of my notes by hand. It helps me to take care of focus and internalise the necessary bits. It’s not possible to put in writing as quick as folks converse, so I’m compelled to put in writing down what I believe is most necessary or make notice of what I don’t perceive in order that I can ask questions.
The Cornell Technique
I’ve spent fairly a little bit of time over the previous couple of months studying about and relearning completely different note-taking approaches. All the pieces from outlining to thoughts mapping to charting. And what’s labored fairly effectively for me is the Cornell Technique. A easy method that has you break up a pocket book web page into 4 elements: 1/ title, 2/ notes, 3/ key phrases/questions, and 4/ abstract. And no, it’s not as a result of I labored at Cornell for the higher a part of a decade, however as a result of this technique encourages you to doc your thought processes (i.e., ask questions), synthesise what you’re studying in real-time (i.e., take notes), and summarise all of it after the very fact (i.e., write a succinct abstract).
What I wind up with are structured notes which are straightforward to learn, organise, and revisit, as a result of it’s extra than simply writing one thing down, however with the ability to return and evaluation questions and problem assumptions.
A latest examine by Kuniyoshi Sakai, titled Paper Notebooks vs. Cellular Units: Mind Activation Variations Throughout Reminiscence Retrieval, really confirmed greater retention and recall for topics that used pen and paper versus a keyboard, or pill and stylus. Nevertheless, there may be broad settlement that taking notes, in any type with any enter, helps with encoding, retention, and recall.
As you may see from the picture above, I’m an enormous fan of analog note-taking. For me, analog helps with memorising, synthesising, and summarising. As quickly as I write one thing down with pen and paper, it additionally appears to search out its method into my mind – one thing that doesn’t occur with digital. I even use the Cornell technique when getting ready for conferences; I summarise the briefing doc in my pocket book, and it instantly sticks. The truth that you’re lively with the textual content as a substitute of simply studying it drives this course of.
Utilizing ML and generative AI
There may be quite a lot of worth within the act of taking notes and actively synthesising info. However we stay in a world with extra knowledge than we may ever fairly anticipate to comb by. That is an space the place ML and generative AI will play an more and more necessary position. A couple of examples that come to thoughts are:
- Utilizing a transcription service with speaker identification to complement the notes you’re taking throughout a gathering.
- Utilizing pc imaginative and prescient and optical character recognition (OCR) to transform your handwritten notes into docs that you would be able to simply share with others or retailer in a central location. (Assuming that you simply’re not already utilizing one thing like Kindle Scribe).
- Close to-instant summarisation.
- Iterating over a complete corpus of notes utilizing an LLM to determine themes, tendencies, and necessary folks throughout lots of of pages from conferences, lectures, doc critiques, on-site visits, and so on.
I see this like studying a map. For those who return 20 years, studying a map was a reasonably frequent ability. You’d plan a route, take some notes, then attempt to navigate it. And for those who took the route sufficient instances, you’d bring it to mind. You’d bear in mind a fountain or the color of a particular home alongside the way in which. You’d know when and the place there could be visitors or development, and the alternate routes to get round it. However as of late, we simply use our telephones. We comply with turn-by-turn instructions from street-to-street without having to commit an excessive amount of to reminiscence.
It’s useful. It’s straightforward. That’s not likely up for debate. However studying a bodily map continues to be a really helpful ability. There’ll inevitably be instances that you simply don’t have cell service (otherwise you lose your telephone, or possibly you need to disconnect from expertise), and realizing the place you’re and tips on how to get the place you’re going are necessary. And similar to taking notes by hand, it means that you can take away a number of the noise created by expertise, and to deal with the necessary bits.
I’m genuinely curious to see how analysis will evolve within the subsequent 10+ years as we proceed to review what works finest for digital natives.
Take notes, a lot of them
I’ll go away you with a quote from the author Anne Lamott: “[…] one of many worst emotions I can consider, [is] to have had a beautiful second or perception or imaginative and prescient or phrase, to know you had it, then lose it.” My recommendation: take notes, a lot of them.
Now, go construct!
Observe: I’m genuinely curious how my readers take notes and synthesise info. For those who’re doing issues in another way than me, let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn.
