As we’re about to begin the planning conferences for 2024 at AWS, I’ve been considering 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 signifies that I’m assembly with loads of sensible people doing analysis and constructing wonderful merchandise. And at each assembly I’m taking notes — plenty 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 house, examine what I’d copied, and finally take a take a look at. In apply, I used to be studying to encode, retailer, and recall data. When you concentrate on it, it’s a bit like S3.
However this was memorisation, not synthesis.
As I continued alongside my academic journey, and the subject material grew to become more and more extra advanced, it compelled me to rethink observe 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 power launched in the course of 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 manner that was significant to me, comparable to: “Mitochondria are the energy plant of the cell. They generate many of the chemical power wanted to energy the cell’s biochemical reactions.” Possibly even diagram the method within the margins. That is synthesis. This denotes understanding.
And there’s analysis to again this up. Particularly, that verbatim observe taking simply isn’t as efficient if you’re attempting to be taught and retain new data.
Pen and paper
To today, I nonetheless take loads of my notes by hand. It helps me to take care of focus and internalise the vital bits. It’s unimaginable to write down as quick as individuals communicate, so I’m compelled to write down down what I believe is most vital or make observe of what I don’t perceive in order that I can ask questions.
The Cornell Methodology
I’ve spent fairly a little bit of time over the previous couple of months studying about and relearning completely different note-taking approaches. Every thing from outlining to thoughts mapping to charting. And what’s labored fairly effectively for me is the Cornell Methodology. A easy strategy that has you cut 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 methodology 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 might be simple to learn, organise, and revisit, as a result of it’s extra than simply writing one thing down, however having the ability to return and assessment 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. Nonetheless, there may be broad settlement that taking notes, in any type with any enter, helps with encoding, retention, and recall.
As you possibly can 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 manner into my mind – one thing that doesn’t occur with digital. I even use the Cornell methodology when making ready for conferences; I summarise the briefing doc in my pocket book, and it instantly sticks. The truth that you might be energetic with the textual content as an alternative of simply studying it drives this course of.
Utilizing ML and generative AI
There may be loads of worth within the act of taking notes and actively synthesising data. However we dwell in a world with extra information than we might ever moderately count on to comb by. That is an space the place ML and generative AI will play an more and more vital 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 laptop imaginative and prescient and optical character recognition (OCR) to transform your handwritten notes into docs that you may simply share with others or retailer in a central location. (Assuming that you just’re not already utilizing one thing like Kindle Scribe).
- Close to-instant summarisation.
- Iterating over a whole corpus of notes utilizing an LLM to establish themes, developments, and vital individuals throughout lots of of pages from conferences, lectures, doc evaluations, on-site visits, and many others.
I see this like studying a map. If you happen to return 20 years, studying a map was a reasonably widespread talent. You’d plan a route, take some notes, then attempt to navigate it. And for those who took the route sufficient occasions, you’d recall it. You’d keep 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 site visitors or development, and the alternate routes to get round it. However today, we simply use our telephones. We comply with turn-by-turn instructions from street-to-street with no need to commit an excessive amount of to reminiscence.
It’s useful. It’s simple. That’s probably not up for debate. However studying a bodily map continues to be a really helpful talent. There’ll inevitably be occasions that you just don’t have cell service (otherwise you lose your cellphone, or possibly you need to disconnect from expertise), and realizing the place you might be and get the place you’re going are vital. And identical to taking notes by hand, it lets you take away among the noise created by expertise, and to give attention to the vital 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, plenty 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, plenty of them.
Now, go construct!
Be aware: I’m genuinely curious how my readers take notes and synthesise data. If you happen to’re doing issues otherwise than me, let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn.
