Thinking more about that gifted kid thing, I wonder how many other people frame their learning process as “absorbing” concepts from the air (lectures, videos, readings, etc.) rather than trying to drill those concepts into memory by taking notes, making cards, etc. Like learning by osmosis.
So much of my education, and the reason I’m a bad note taker, is I’m just present when someone is talking, and enough of the concepts stick that I develop an idea of what they’re trying to teach. Don’t ask me to go to the whiteboard and demonstrate what was just discussed, because I can’t access those learnings that way, but the seed from which the concept can be further expanded is planted just because it floated into my brain.
The stuff’s just floating around and I happen to be there. This is not how one masters a subject, but it is how one learns just enough to get a passing grade.
Conversely, as a worker I am obsessed with documentation, and not so much for myself but because other people need the information that is piled up in my brain, and I’m sure that by having to write documentation I’m just reinforcing those ideas, not unlike one does with taking notes. But this is different from taking notes for class because this is work and I’m getting paid to be there and I can’t risk getting fired.