I, too, can imagine Steve Jobs saying this. But I think it’s an absurd position to take. (Here is where I confess my bias that I’m an unrepentant note-taking enthusiast). I’m annoyed when people who work for me don’t bring notepads to conferences to take notes. Better to have a short pencil than a long memory, I believe Einstein said. In a post last summer started by @ibuys, we had a lively discussion about notes apps and note taking. I included one of my favorite quotations about note-taking from Through the Looking Glass, which I think is apropos here.
To read that entire thread, you can see here:
So, to the question, do
I don’t know. Sometimes I find that when I have gone to the trouble to take notes that I end up having remembered the material and don’t need consult the notes. That’s more a near-term situation, though. In my work, I often have to review notes years after I (or someone else) took them. I certainly don’t remember the details of a call or meeting that took place years ago without refreshing my recollection (or confirming it!) with notes.
One of the key components of my trial practice system is my “black box.” Like a fighter plane’s black box, the system is a tool to preserve knowledge about the preparation of a case using the mundane memo to the file. Sometimes those memoranda are photos of the back of an envelope where I scribbled notes during a call. Sometimes, they take the form of a more formal summary of a strategy session or discussion of a tricky point of law. But it’s invaluable to me to have this black box.
So, maybe Steve is right and I’m not smart enough to have been in one of his meetings. But knowing my weakness, I’ll hold my notes close to my heart without shame or embarrassment.