# [2021.05.19] Taking notes To begin with, I don't think that either giving or attending two-hour talks is a good idea. Eugenia Cheng wrote her article 'Why lectures are a waste of time', which struck me to the heart, in 2001, even before I entered the university. Twenty years passed, but still, some people sell 'micro-learning as innovation. The same is with taking notes. It's simply anachronistic, not to say more. It was necessary when copying study materials created by a professor was too costly. But nowadays, instructors input everything into a computer from the beginning. Sharing my original notes with students is a piece of cake. Also, it's about open-source, I'd say. I create lecture notes for my course then I license them for everyone, not only attendees of my class. I'm taking a French course on Coursera, and its main topic is studying in France. And today, they asked me to take notes after a video of some guy. Of course, I failed because my French is too bad, but they missed the point too. Unfortunately, the whole education systems in many countries in the world make the same mistake.