Mostly voice recorders have replaced shorthand, but Commonwealth countries have kept the 100 WPM shorthand certificate as a preference/requirement for journalist employment, and some wrinkles in UK libel law make keeping shorthand notes still useful at times (they're considered as a valid record to resolve he said/she said disagreements about what went on in an interview, IIUC).

The system mostly taught now is Teeline, which is an alphabetic shorthand that probably tops out around 150 WPM (so too slow for court reporting which takes like 200-250 WPM, which drove a lot of shorthand system design before the stenotype). It's pretty quick to learn, and basing it in regular letterforms (even if it's a stretch in places!) makes it easy to start with. Then you just learn a lot of shortcuts and hammer on drills till you pass your certification.

I did my usual thing of geeking out on systems and the design space without really mastering any of them. I do (still, after months without any practice) sneak in some Gregg Shorthand prepositions and adverbs in my notes at work because they are so quick and easy to write and very easy to read back. "For", "of", and "today" are the most common in my use.

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