5 ms·

Hmmm ... your job is to cover the actions of 540 people elected to DC, many of whom you already recognize, and you can't remember what they look like? I'm not a

Hmmm ... your job is to cover the actions of 540 people elected to DC, many of whom you already recognize, and you can't remember what they look like? I'm not a journalist, but that seems like an essential thing to memorize, along with some minor metadata (locale, party, a bit of bio). Spend a weekend and do it. Every profession has things you can look up and things you just have to memorize. 540 people isn't much - can sports journalists recognize 540 athletes? Otherwise you'll be in situations where you don't have an opportunity to look them up (e.g., can't get a photo, no time, etc.), and you'll have many false negatives: If you don't know what they look like, you won't realize it's a member of Congress at the party with the coke.

nlawalker 8y ago
This sounds like 2018's version of "you won't always have a calculator."
danso 8y ago
As the article states up top, there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing. Also, it's not just members of Congress who are important to cover in a beat, but their senior staff members and aides. Spending a significant amount of time developing a process for face memorization and undertaking it would be an example of needless/premature optimization, especially for people who may be covering Congress tangentially. Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress.
- forapurpose 8y ago
  > Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress. So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press conferences and hearings sound boring. But I will nitpick a minor point: > there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing I don't remember the rate at which incumbents are re-elected, but it's pretty damn high. Unfortunately, after you memorize them once, you'd only have to learn a few more at a time.
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    The House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story, those guys fossilize.
    - Retric 8y ago
      This election the house will have 55 voluntary departures + 2 people resigned so far. Assuming ~90% get relegated which may be high that's easily ~100 new members. It varies quite a bit but 2010 for example was down to 85% that won their races.
    - forapurpose 8y ago
      > The House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story I respectfully refer the gentleperson from Spooky to the following: https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. They don't provide a number but eyeballing the chart, I think that number starts with a "9" over several decades, and is increasing. Here's an article that says it was around 96.6% in 2014;[0] it must be embarrassing to find yourself in the bottom 3.4 percent of any group. (It also says House members are reelected more often than Senate members.) [0] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/11/facebook-posts/congress-has-11-approval-ratings-96-incumbent-re-e/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/...
      - ISL 8y ago
        Representatives also face 3x as many elections.
      - Spooky23 8y ago
        You’re totally right, but being a rank and file congressman is kinda miserable... many transition to other offices, federal/state appointments, etc.
- mimimihaha 8y ago
  Remembering the 150 names of the memebers of my fraternity, along with their hometown, big brothers name, major and several facts about them took me nearly 8 weeks to completely. And to be candid I still didn’t know about 50 of them. It’s difficult memorizing those things and I was actively engaging with them on a daily basis and putting work towards memorizing their names. I could imagine it would be a stretch to remember that many names, many of whom you will never talk to in your life along with possibly their home state and party affiliation. Especially since they mentioned the number of congressmen/women is constantly changing.
jonas21 8y ago
> can sports journalists recognize 540 athletes? Well... I don't know if that's a fair comparison. Members of Congress don't generally walk around with their names embroidered on their shirts (but, hey, that might be a good idea!)
- danso 8y ago
  Also, athletes look like...athletes, with non-facial physical characteristics, such as height and muscle mass, that make it easier to pick them out from a general crowd. A congressmember is less easier to pick out in a room full of other suit-wearing middle-senior aged people.
  - forapurpose 8y ago
    The smell, the outstretched hand, the other one in your pocket ...
ThrustVectoring 8y ago
Not all brains have an equivalent ability to recognize faces. Like, "face blindness" is a real thing.
- FigmentEngine 8y ago
  Prosopagnosia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

nlawalker 8y ago

This sounds like 2018's version of "you won't always have a calculator."

danso 8y ago

As the article states up top, there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing. Also, it's not just members of Congress who are important to cover in a beat, but their senior staff members and aides. Spending a significant amount of time developing a process for face memorization and undertaking it would be an example of needless/premature optimization, especially for people who may be covering Congress tangentially. Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress.

forapurpose 8y ago
> Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress. So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press conferences and hearings sound boring. But I will nitpick a minor point: > there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing I don't remember the rate at which incumbents are re-elected, but it's pretty damn high. Unfortunately, after you memorize them once, you'd only have to learn a few more at a time.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  The House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story, those guys fossilize.
  - Retric 8y ago
    This election the house will have 55 voluntary departures + 2 people resigned so far. Assuming ~90% get relegated which may be high that's easily ~100 new members. It varies quite a bit but 2010 for example was down to 85% that won their races.
  - forapurpose 8y ago
    > The House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story I respectfully refer the gentleperson from Spooky to the following: https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. They don't provide a number but eyeballing the chart, I think that number starts with a "9" over several decades, and is increasing. Here's an article that says it was around 96.6% in 2014;[0] it must be embarrassing to find yourself in the bottom 3.4 percent of any group. (It also says House members are reelected more often than Senate members.) [0] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/11/facebook-posts/congress-has-11-approval-ratings-96-incumbent-re-e/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/...
    - ISL 8y ago
      Representatives also face 3x as many elections.
    - Spooky23 8y ago
      You’re totally right, but being a rank and file congressman is kinda miserable... many transition to other offices, federal/state appointments, etc.
mimimihaha 8y ago
Remembering the 150 names of the memebers of my fraternity, along with their hometown, big brothers name, major and several facts about them took me nearly 8 weeks to completely. And to be candid I still didn’t know about 50 of them. It’s difficult memorizing those things and I was actively engaging with them on a daily basis and putting work towards memorizing their names. I could imagine it would be a stretch to remember that many names, many of whom you will never talk to in your life along with possibly their home state and party affiliation. Especially since they mentioned the number of congressmen/women is constantly changing.

jonas21 8y ago

> can sports journalists recognize 540 athletes? Well... I don't know if that's a fair comparison. Members of Congress don't generally walk around with their names embroidered on their shirts (but, hey, that might be a good idea!)

danso 8y ago
Also, athletes look like...athletes, with non-facial physical characteristics, such as height and muscle mass, that make it easier to pick them out from a general crowd. A congressmember is less easier to pick out in a room full of other suit-wearing middle-senior aged people.
- forapurpose 8y ago
  The smell, the outstretched hand, the other one in your pocket ...

ThrustVectoring 8y ago

Not all brains have an equivalent ability to recognize faces. Like, "face blindness" is a real thing.

FigmentEngine 8y ago
Prosopagnosia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia