You Decide: Are the notes to the financial statements necessary?

Do the notes to the financial statements add value to investors, or have they evolved from tradition? You were listening to talk radio on your way home from work a couple weeks ago when you heard someone say, “Everything you need to know about a company should be either in the balance sheet, income statement, or statement of cash flows. If you can’t find it in there, it is not worth knowing! Besides that, the notes are too complex to understand!” Do you agree with this assumption?