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Frequently I see other TeX notes live or at least after a talk/class. Wouldn't this take a lot of time and effort? The point is that you want to encode the information for long term memory. So it seems that TeXing during a lecture is a distraction.

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If people are willing to put in the time and effort, what is wrong with that? Also, how can you make the general observation that TeXing during a lecture is a distraction? Considering that many people do not follow lectures completely from the beginning to end, it certainly helps to have a source to refer back to that is legible. Plus, contents of lectures can be made available to a wider population. I don't think the way the question is phrased is constructive. – Rankeya Oct 19 '12 at 20:07

closed as not a real question by Matt N., Asaf Karagila, rschwieb, Qiaochu Yuan Oct 19 '12 at 20:53

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

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I don't Live TeX, but ... different people learn differently. For some, the value of concentrating to produce a typeset version of the lectures notes may be most effective. For others, it may well be too distracting.

Similarly, some people like to sit back during a lecture or talk and try to absorb the big picture, confident they can later go back and pick up the relevant details. Others prefer to try to copy as much as they can down, presumably with the belief that keeping track of the details is the only way for them to see the big picture.

What's good for the moose isn't always good for the (sala)mander.

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