How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim • Hacker News Board

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#171

Post by ninkendo » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #64

function_seven wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that it detracts from your point, but I definitely benefited from notetaking on my computer in school. For an AP History class, I typed up—in outline style (I, II; A, B; 1, 2; a, b; etc)—all my notes on the required reading. At the end of the course, I had a few hundred pages of these notes all printed up. I never had to go back and read any of them. Just the process of typing them up in the first place firmly fi…

> reënforces What's it like working at the New Yorker? (explanation: this is a joke based on the way nobody uses diaresis marks anymore for any word other than naive, except for the New Yorker style guide. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-... )

Not only that but the common spelling is "reinforces", which doesn't need a diaeresis at all. It's like function_seven went very far out of the way to show that they know what a diaeresis is...

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#172

Post by setquk » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

4thaccount wrote: post #148

setquk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EOL for old desktop version. There's a new terribly crippled UWP desktop version and the cloud based web app available going forwards. They are absolutely terrible bits of software compared to the old desktop version.

Do they not understand customers at all? Except for high performance simulations, I will never use the cloud. Maybe they realize that and want to force cloud adoption?

I think they understand that if you give customers no option they will be forced to comply with their wishes and act as a monthly revenue stream.

However they also misunderstand people's reluctance to put all your eggs in a large basket out of your control that disappears in a puff of smoke if you stop paying for it plus their ability to want to avoid paying a monthly fee.

At some point it'll backfire.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#173

Post by setquk » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

jjuel wrote: post #164

setquk wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's very much an edge case and he hasn't passed yet. A lot of people get to the end of their course and realise they have thousands of pages of useless words and diagrams and have a nervous breakdown. It takes a lot of discipline and time to write very high quality notes and to study. I spent more time thinking about things and experimenting with ideas and writing notes than I did in lectures or tutorials or…

Don't you think you could be an edge case too where you went back and studied extra and experimented? Very few college students I know actually did anything like this, and I know I didn't. Obviously it would have helped, but I did not do that then.

No because we formed study groups and did it collectively.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#174

Post by zrobotics » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:01 PM UTC

jki275 wrote: post #125

ivanbakel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you'd be a terrible professor, because that attitude is not pro-learning. Students take their own notes because writing is an aid to memory. Students take electronic notes because those notes are easier to organise, edit, and search through. Many "decent" professors will not hand out notes, and the writings they put on the projector might be scanned and put online, but those writings have none of the benefits of…

You know people used to hand-write notes, right? The act of writing them actually helps one to remember -- I never went back and organized, edited, or searched through notes I took, because I remembered most of the material, and what I didn't was in the book.

Well, I gave up entirely on taking notes in high-school because laptops weren't allowed, and I can barely read my handwriting if I'm quickly taking notes. Whereas in uni I actually used my notes, and have even referred to them years later since they're actually readable and useful. Granted, I would have them 1/2 typed while reading the material before lecture and did a final-draft cleanup after lecture, but typed notes were far more helpful than handwritten notes.

Assuming that everyone learns the same way you do is just false. Some people really like mind maps, I don't find them personally helpful but I don't tell people it's a useless technique or that they're wrong. If a student can't be trusted to have a laptop without spending the lecture browsing Facebook, then why should the lecturer care? That student is only hurting their own academic performance, it shouldn't stop others from being able to learn in a manner that benefits themselves.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#175

Post by jki275 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:09 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #152

jki275 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know people used to hand-write notes, right? The act of writing them actually helps one to remember -- I never went back and organized, edited, or searched through notes I took, because I remembered most of the material, and what I didn't was in the book.

>You know people used to hand-write notes, right? They also used to write cuneiform :p What's your point here? >The act of writing them actually helps one to remember Source for this, in comparison to typing?

It’s been widely reported for several years. Here’s the first link I found.

www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-laptops-boosts-memory-writing-notes-helps-recall-concepts-ability-268770%3famp=1

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#176

Post by jki275 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:10 PM UTC

zrobotics wrote: post #174

jki275 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know people used to hand-write notes, right? The act of writing them actually helps one to remember -- I never went back and organized, edited, or searched through notes I took, because I remembered most of the material, and what I didn't was in the book.

Well, I gave up entirely on taking notes in high-school because laptops weren't allowed, and I can barely read my handwriting if I'm quickly taking notes. Whereas in uni I actually used my notes, and have even referred to them years later since they're actually readable and useful. Granted, I would have them 1/2 typed while reading the material before lecture and did a final-draft cleanup after lecture, but typed not…

Have you ever sat in the back row of a lecture hall and watched what the students are doing on their laptops?

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#177

Post by zrobotics » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:12 PM UTC

ranc1d wrote: post #121

dspillett wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As if the average modern day student is going to do this. If that is the case, then I fear little from the upcoming students chomping at my old ankles in the jobs market! Transcribing my lecture scribbles to neater notes later in the day (or sometimes later in the week depending on scheduling) was important in solidifying the knowledge or, more importantly, realising that something hadn't twigged in my head as I th…

My handwriting is terrible,and worse when it comes writing down formulas, this could be a useful way of writing up notes a lot quicker. Also useful for cheat sheets or summarising notes

My handwriting is also awful, but what the parent suggested isn't at all incompatible with taking typed notes: I would type a first draft while reading the material before lecture, add during the lecture, then finish the final draft afterwards. I regret I didn't learn this method of note-taking earlier, and it works for both hand-written and typed. It also doesn't take that much time, but the last step of reviewing and cleanup is critical for actually cementing my understanding of the material.

Another possible method would be taking written notes during lectures, then typesetting them afterwards. However, I found it was preferable to revise my notes soon after the lecture, at least 1-2 days following, while my memory was still fresh.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#178

Post by mklingen » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:16 PM UTC

ygra wrote: post #66

Interestingly he uses pretty much the same techniques that I relied on when typing lecture notes with Word: - Formula auto-buildup with automatic replacements of \stuff with Unicode keeps the mess of backslashes and braces more readable (and it also allowed me to immediately spot where I mistyped something) - I used snippet-like things for parts I had to type a few times, such as a formula that's revisited a handful…

This is how I took notes in college as well. TeX people may scoff but word is way better for taking math notes quickly. Just learn the key combos and you can do almost anything rapidly. The only thing I found tedious was matrix/vector stuff.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#179

Post by dangom » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:17 PM UTC

akrout wrote: post #162

dangom wrote: post #139

1700 pages of notes would translate to 9 pages/working-day in a year. That's a lot of note taking. The blog post is wonderful and does show outstanding LaTeX and VIM practical knowledge, but I'd be skeptical that the average student could absorb so much content and still have time to bring it to such a polished final format every day. Nonetheless, there's definitely a lesson to be learned here with respect to the usa…

Looks like you have a typo in your [2] link. I think you meant to link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

That is correct, thank you. Also in the description, I meant stenotype and not stenography.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#180

Post by andbberger » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:21 PM UTC

I did this during college (but with emacs).

It was fine. I was in the habit of TeXing up my homework anyway so was fairly practiced, and I have shit handwriting and know I'll never reference anything I write on paper, or have it to look at in a few years. I also don't get that much out of lectures.

YMMV

It's nice to have it to reference now though.