I'm not entirely sure I get his meaning - which I take to be using your memory to filter for good ideas. Sounds like something a savant would say, not realizing

I'm not entirely sure I get his meaning - which I take to be using your memory to filter for good ideas. Sounds like something a savant would say, not realizing they have an unusual brain. But I bet Stephen King types his novels, rather than dictating them to his editor from memory. Jay Z is said (by himself and numerous collaborators) not to write his lyrics down. He writes them in his head, and recites them from his head in the studio. I can't remember any ideas that originate in my head, that I haven't seen with my eyes. Except for those thrice-in-a-lifetime level ideas. I've tried the "if it's good I'll remember it" approach literally hundreds of times, and maybe retained three of those. I've had more than three good ideas in my life. I don't only want to remember the A+++ ones. I want the A++ ones, the A+ ones, and so on, so that I can work on refining them. Note taking apps are really handy for refining.