The fact that certain skills atrophy if not used is the brain prioritizing efficient allocation of resources. If you're not making daily and active use of relev

The fact that certain skills atrophy if not used is the brain prioritizing efficient allocation of resources. If you're not making daily and active use of relevant concepts then the only way to reliably remember them is to use spaced repetition on carefully crafted question answer pairs. Task relevant context residing in an [intermediate-term memory](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6596466/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6596466/) is built up over time as you gain expertise, it's more durable than working memory but impermanent, unlike long term memory. According to this model, fine details are unfolded in working memory and details not relevant to current attentional focus shift into latent intermediate storage. Those structures locate the expert at a point where they are quicker and more effective in solving domain relevant problems but also bias which paths are taken in problem solving (such as not noticing you're using a calculator for trivial arithmetic). It's loss is why the same person can write complex algorithms or mathematical proofs and come back months or a year later and be unable to make heads or tail of it. It's quite likely that long term memory does not store at the same level of detail as intermediate context, relying on inference in recovering into WM. Keeping a notebook of detailed derivations of unintuitive or complex workings reduces the complexity of inference during recall and helps for more successful and reliable recovery of desiccated memories. Notes are also important for things you expect to fall out of intermediate context due to rare use but caused a great deal of headaches to solve. Tools do have a cost but good tools are net positive. Good tools will be pivotal in an era of exponentially expanding knowledge, fixed human capacities and slowed population growth. From oral stories to books, from the abacus to computers, humans are unique among all animals in how much we extend our cognition beyond our brains.