Note taking vs note making
Note taking vs note making¶
Note taking - is the process of taking down points that resonate with you while reading a book, listening to a podcast or during a lecture. It is capturing thoughts on someone elses thinking. It is a process of summarizing.
Note making - is the process of sorting through and understanding ideas in your mind (that come from multiple sources) and then writing them down. It is a process of synthesizing.
These are both different skills and there are important difference between them. When we rely too heavily on the summarized notes as the source of our knowledge, we are then trying to memorize other peoples ideas. This is like trying to put on clothes that are too small or too big for us. They are not our clothes.
When synthesizing ideas into interconnected thoughts using our own words, this helps us to make sense of the world through our notes. This is like taking different peoples clothes, cutting them up and then stitching them together to make clothes perfect for us.
It is not wonder why people like Jordan Peterson suggests that we don't take notes while reading.