I had two thoughts today. I shared them with my wife and I am now writing them down on my blog, lest I forget them. Feel free to opine.
Thought Number 1
Your memory is what you choose it to be. You write down, or film, into your memory exactly what you choose. Sure, everything you see/experience gets put somewhere in your brain, but not your memory. Getting those "video" files into your memory is a secondary task, one that we have power over. We choose what we remember.
Which leads to:
Thought Number 2
Books are important to me. Definitely among my most prized posessions and impossible to part with.
This got me thinking: My memory works like my personal library. I decide I'm going to learn something (or the learning is thrust upon me), just like getting an assignment from a teacher. Inside my head, I create a class for myself on learning whatever it is. Then I create a sylubus, buy books, and study until I master whatever it is.
Except that in real life, when I'm done with a class, I keep the books. I've got 20 year-old college texts from statistics (spine in perfect shape) to philosophy.
However, in my brain, when I'm learned what I set out to learn, I can throw the books away. Heck, I can forget I ever took the coarse at all. I can just remember the lesson.
6 Comments:
And those differences are?
interesting. does it matter that those you choose to remember aren't necessarily the accurate representation of what actually took place?
Treespotter,
That's exactly it. Your memories are *never* an accurate representation of what actually took place. They do this test on college campuses all the time, in criminal justice classes: They have someone run into the class and "commit a crime". Then they immediately start asking questions of the students, in order to gain a description. In the end, even the people who are positive as to what they saw are usually wrong in some major way. Ask any good cop and she or he will tell you, eyewitness testimony is highly suspect.
Memory is a choice, based upon many factors, including your background, your physical size, your I.Q., and your emotional state.
Memory is a tricky thing. Due to a variety of possible reasons I have a rather spotty memory. In general I do agree that the lessons themselves do tend to stay with one long after the specifics have faded away, but even they can use a refresher sometimes.
I keep meaning to establish a regular regimen of memory exercises, I could really use it, but in the meantime I think I can live with lessons learned and specifics forgotten.
It's true. Memory is highly selective. You have no idea how many times I've related a past experience on my blog, only to have MY WIFE say "Well, this bit of the story didn't happen this way, it happened such-and-thus."
The interesting thing is that, had we discussed this in friendly conversation before I wrote about it, I may have agreed with her. I know this. However, once I've written it out and read it and re-read it, that's how it happened, period, to me. My memory has been locked in by my writing about it.
Hey my man... syllabus. Peace out
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