What a tragedy. For some reason, my memory has always been terrible. Brent frequently says he's glad he's known me since I'm twenties, otherwise he'd think something was going on ...
Oh, something is *definitely* going on with you two. I mean, you're travelling the world together, and that's been happening for YEARS, I'd say that's a clear sign that *something* is...
Oh. Right. You meant memory.
Got it.
So here's the question I keep returning to with my reading: is it actually possible to have a "terrible memory"? Or is it that most of us have an average/'normal' memory and a few folk have an incredible memory, and almost all instances of "terrible memory" are in fact people with average yet chronically untrained memory? Because my reading so far is kinda suggesting it. It feels a bit like the old "oh, some folk just can't tell stories" thing that I used to rail against in my consultancy work. What if "good memory" is most, maybe even almost completely, a skill rather than a trait?
I don't have any answers here. It's just such a provocative and hopeful question. I will keep chipping away at it...
I really think mine is plain old bad. I've been visiting friends and adopted family here in Sydney and they remember all sorts of things from forty years ago that are complete blanks to me. I mean complete blanks. I have very few memories of childhood. Then again, so does my brother, possibly because our childhood wasn't great. Not like Angela's Ashes bad by any means. But very unhappy parents and loads of fighting. Maybe I developed bad memory making skills back then.
One of the reasons I love photography is that I have found it's a great tool when it comes to fixing memories much more solid in my mind. I might drive Brent crazy taking all of those pics, but I'm really really glad I have them.
Do you have an article about how to teach people to tell stories?
I'm terrible at telling stories. I can tell there's a structure to it, but often feel like I've just launched myself off a cliff ... just to crash down inelegantly at the end.
So fascinated by this Mike! I know that creating new neural pathways in your brain is supposed to help improve your memory (like why Lion's Mane is said to be effective) but I'd never actually stopped to think about why. Thank you for investigating!
Thank you, Ali! I'm also really interested in one of the most direct applications of memory in the modern world: actors learning their lines! Can I pick your brains sometime about this?
Mike, a wonderful piece as always! I actually have a personal connection to this -- in 2001 I had a bad bike wreck and landed on my head with a concussion. Like poor Henry, I didn't have a short term memory for a while, and kept looping with the same questions over and over: What happened? Where am I? then, Did we ruin Dave and Joann's ride? Not once did I ask how my bike was, which is how you know someone's had a bad wreck. My husband eventually wrote all the answers to my questions on post-it notes, then hid behind the bedroom door to watch me wake up frantically, read the notes, then go back to sleep.
My memory eventually recovered, thank goodness, but in the meantime it really did affect my personality. You don't realize how much your YOU is based on the internal thoughts and ruminations that run through your head. I wasn't able to multi-task and spent much time staring into space, empty-headed. I also lost the ability to comprehend what I read, since I couldn't accumulate information. Months later, I wrote about it here: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/professional-development/articles/my-students-shoes
Years later, it gave me deeper insight as my mom suffered from and eventually died due to dementia. Thanks for your great writing, as always!
As lighthearted as this is, which I enjoy reading as always, it also gave me some optimism remembering (ha!) that there are people out there working seriously on the question of memory. My great-aunt died of Alzheimer's and couldn't speak coherently in her last years, but her memory was clearly still there; and my grandmother had memory loss or possibly dementia for most of her last 5 years (we'd take her out to lunch and she'd ask, "where's my purse?" about once a minute) and couldn't remember much after a certain point in her life. She remembered us, her grandchildren, but not our spouses or her great-grandchild. Being able to age with an intact memory, if that's desired, is something I'd love for everyone to be able to do.
Like everyone else, I found this fascinating, not just because my father's Alzheimer's looms down the road from me about 5-7 years away, but simply because, as usual you do such a good job of proving those stories that lure my curiosity. The last section did remind me about the advice i would give my students, that if they wrote down what they heard in my lectures, and then told someone else, this would improve both their understanding and retention because they would have experienced the information in three different ways.
That poor man. He was desperate and took a chance, but it doomed him to a lifetime of loss.
Would mushroom mycellium colonizing a log be the analogy for this?
"It’s more like a particular root-like array of connections that spread out over the brain (and beyond!) like, like, uh… Maybe analogies fail here, because it’s just such a complicated and massively interconnected thing. A single route through all the world’s roads? ...A line connecting all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world? Okay, this is getting silly."
Well this is, as always, just peachy. It also immediately put me in mind of this comedic gem from John Finnemore. https://youtu.be/9ZXu36Qh7Yg?si=8kpBMR_Zrnmp9YFS
I had not heard that before! 😂 Oh lordy, that was fun to listen to.
Fascinating!
Thank you, Linda. :)
What a tragedy. For some reason, my memory has always been terrible. Brent frequently says he's glad he's known me since I'm twenties, otherwise he'd think something was going on ...
Oh, something is *definitely* going on with you two. I mean, you're travelling the world together, and that's been happening for YEARS, I'd say that's a clear sign that *something* is...
Oh. Right. You meant memory.
Got it.
So here's the question I keep returning to with my reading: is it actually possible to have a "terrible memory"? Or is it that most of us have an average/'normal' memory and a few folk have an incredible memory, and almost all instances of "terrible memory" are in fact people with average yet chronically untrained memory? Because my reading so far is kinda suggesting it. It feels a bit like the old "oh, some folk just can't tell stories" thing that I used to rail against in my consultancy work. What if "good memory" is most, maybe even almost completely, a skill rather than a trait?
I don't have any answers here. It's just such a provocative and hopeful question. I will keep chipping away at it...
I really think mine is plain old bad. I've been visiting friends and adopted family here in Sydney and they remember all sorts of things from forty years ago that are complete blanks to me. I mean complete blanks. I have very few memories of childhood. Then again, so does my brother, possibly because our childhood wasn't great. Not like Angela's Ashes bad by any means. But very unhappy parents and loads of fighting. Maybe I developed bad memory making skills back then.
One of the reasons I love photography is that I have found it's a great tool when it comes to fixing memories much more solid in my mind. I might drive Brent crazy taking all of those pics, but I'm really really glad I have them.
Do you have an article about how to teach people to tell stories?
I'm terrible at telling stories. I can tell there's a structure to it, but often feel like I've just launched myself off a cliff ... just to crash down inelegantly at the end.
So fascinated by this Mike! I know that creating new neural pathways in your brain is supposed to help improve your memory (like why Lion's Mane is said to be effective) but I'd never actually stopped to think about why. Thank you for investigating!
Thank you, Ali! I'm also really interested in one of the most direct applications of memory in the modern world: actors learning their lines! Can I pick your brains sometime about this?
Of course!
Mike, a wonderful piece as always! I actually have a personal connection to this -- in 2001 I had a bad bike wreck and landed on my head with a concussion. Like poor Henry, I didn't have a short term memory for a while, and kept looping with the same questions over and over: What happened? Where am I? then, Did we ruin Dave and Joann's ride? Not once did I ask how my bike was, which is how you know someone's had a bad wreck. My husband eventually wrote all the answers to my questions on post-it notes, then hid behind the bedroom door to watch me wake up frantically, read the notes, then go back to sleep.
My memory eventually recovered, thank goodness, but in the meantime it really did affect my personality. You don't realize how much your YOU is based on the internal thoughts and ruminations that run through your head. I wasn't able to multi-task and spent much time staring into space, empty-headed. I also lost the ability to comprehend what I read, since I couldn't accumulate information. Months later, I wrote about it here: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/professional-development/articles/my-students-shoes
Years later, it gave me deeper insight as my mom suffered from and eventually died due to dementia. Thanks for your great writing, as always!
As lighthearted as this is, which I enjoy reading as always, it also gave me some optimism remembering (ha!) that there are people out there working seriously on the question of memory. My great-aunt died of Alzheimer's and couldn't speak coherently in her last years, but her memory was clearly still there; and my grandmother had memory loss or possibly dementia for most of her last 5 years (we'd take her out to lunch and she'd ask, "where's my purse?" about once a minute) and couldn't remember much after a certain point in her life. She remembered us, her grandchildren, but not our spouses or her great-grandchild. Being able to age with an intact memory, if that's desired, is something I'd love for everyone to be able to do.
Every time I fumble for a word, a little voice seems to whisper “dementia like your mother.”
😬🫶
Like everyone else, I found this fascinating, not just because my father's Alzheimer's looms down the road from me about 5-7 years away, but simply because, as usual you do such a good job of proving those stories that lure my curiosity. The last section did remind me about the advice i would give my students, that if they wrote down what they heard in my lectures, and then told someone else, this would improve both their understanding and retention because they would have experienced the information in three different ways.
That poor man. He was desperate and took a chance, but it doomed him to a lifetime of loss.
Would mushroom mycellium colonizing a log be the analogy for this?
"It’s more like a particular root-like array of connections that spread out over the brain (and beyond!) like, like, uh… Maybe analogies fail here, because it’s just such a complicated and massively interconnected thing. A single route through all the world’s roads? ...A line connecting all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world? Okay, this is getting silly."
Wow, we are *incredible*. Fascinating as always, thank you.
I have an endless wonder of the complexity of being human and crave learning.
i loved your class today Mike!
Took notes for my memory. ha
Hurry to the next part please. Fascinating indeed!
And thank you truly for this .
of course, superbly written!
kept me fully in every word