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Comment by counternotions | Hacker News Reader

The country where I’m from, the de facto corporate culture trains the junior employees to furiously scribble down notes as a manager/executive is speaking, as a formality and sign of respect. How much these notes are legible and useful will vary widely, I’ve seen some laughable ones, but it is a positive social tool to enforce the act of listening.

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Is it really listening though? Of the three tested, verbatim was the worst in this test: https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/viewFil...

There are others you can look up. Verbatim note taking means you are hearing the words but spending your time focusing on copying them rather than distilling/understanding them or putting them in context. Letting your brain process the information is more effective than trying to memorize the information.

I worked at one of these companies, as one of the scribblers, and it felt bizarre. Multiple people sitting in the meeting, furiously writing down every word spoken by the Great Senior Manager. It felt like I was one of those North Korean guys you see in those pictures, following Dear Leader around writing down all his words. The rationale we were all given was that it is very important to capture every word, because the execs remember what they said and asked for. If you forget to implement something that they mentioned very briefly or off-hand, they'll remember it and there will be trouble...

Reminds me of the story that engineers would attend Steve Jobs public presentations (during his first stint at Apple) to find out what they needed to work on, because occasionally he would "announce" something that heretofore had existed only in his head.

It's funny but I find when trying to scribble everything said down I'm not actively listening and comprehending anything that's being said just trying to copy words down.

I've found listening and jotting down short concise notes every now and than about something important is the best.

Reminds of " kim jong il looking at things" pictures where whole bunch of minions are jotting down his "on the spot guidance". They even have placards marking the places where such guidance was received and at what date.

That's basically what I do in my lectures at uni. The notes are totally worthless after the lecture, but it does keep me engaged and off hackernews during class.

listening != hearing + transcribing

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