What you had for dinner probably falls under the “meaningless information.” The study seems to call out ability to accurately recite one’s life story, vividly

What you had for dinner probably falls under the “meaningless information.” The study seems to call out ability to accurately recite one’s life story, vividly recalling subsets of childhood experiences in details, not knowing they had mac n cheez last Tuesday. I grew up rural and was way less distracted by trendy and/or random people all around energy. I can clearly recite events and back it up with pictures my camera obsessed father took through the 80-90s. My autobiographical awareness seems intact. Mainstream life then and now comes along with pressure to defer expressing ourselves and serve “higher purpose.” It’s not so shocking people do so and then remember nothing; there’s probably not that much to recall if one’s path was constrained to “set aside personal exploration to serve by getting busy work job, do job all week, sit on couch parasocially recharging through others emotional performances on TV.” That’s a pretty fractal cognitive existence. That’s why I am not a fan of lifelong “career” culture. Adam Smith wrote years ago extreme division of labor would make humans incurious and stupider than animals; current political trends seem to back up the idea as everyone clings to keeping their tribal bubble intact rather than explore new models. Don’t smash my cognitive fractal, bro!