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How I've Learned to Live with a Nonexistent Working Memory
- yamrzou 2y agohttps://archive.is/wl87A https://archive.is/wl87A
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- paulpauper 2y agoNo exaggeration; I know things happened and I remember emotions and feelings but rarely specifics, like what a person said or other details that make the event more memorable. isn't this like most people? this is why witness testimonies during trials are considered unreliable.
- clockworksoul 2y agoThe difference here, I think, is a matter of degree. A perfectly normal trait can be a pathology when taken to an extreme. Consider the difference between feeling sad sometimes and suffering severe depression.
- genewitch 2y agoI once witnessed something and was interviewed about an hour after it and the police said "yeah, that's not what happened" - and i was so sure i asked to see the video (the following day) and sure enough, that's not what happened. Although i thought a car was going in reverse when it was going forward - and part of it was contextual based on how the car ended up after colliding with parked vehicles. However i can remember extremely detailed and accurate things otherwise. Unless it's people's names. Or "hey remind me tomorrow ..." or that i need to shut something off in 45 minutes. basically my memory is fine unless i get distracted, or experience anything greater than "mild trauma". Except names. I am so bad at names that Dale Carnegie got mad.
- anyfoo 2y agoMy watch has a timer. Whenever I have something to do in a short to medium amount of time, whether it's for me or someone else, I just set the timer to something appropriate. Doesn't have to be exact. I don't add a note. For example, when my wife is going to bed and asks if I can put the laundry into the dryer when it's ready, I just set a timer for 30 minutes. When it doesn't matter much when something happens, I just set it to whatever I feel like. If the laundry isn't done, or I just don't want to interrupt whatever I am doing, I repeat the timer (a single button press with my watch), or set a new, shorter one. Sometimes I "snooze" 5 times or more, maybe all evening. But the invariable thing about it is: I never ever forget the thing I wanted to do when the timer goes off. And by setting the timer, I free up my mind until then.
- kayodelycaon 2y agoI need to try this. My iPhone lets me label timers and give them different sounds.
- anyfoo 2y agoThat is nice if you have a need for overlapping timers, but if you don’t, I wouldn’t complicate things to much. The good thing about is that it is very easy to set a timer. (A few touches on the watch, or just saying “timer for 45 minutes” to Siri.)
- genewitch 2y agomy watch is cheap and therefore menu driven. my android phone though has sets of timers for things i do weekly. For nearly everything else i use the oven timer, at least, when the power is on.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y agoI tried this and proceeded to lose hours trying to figure out what I needed to remember. It's a horrible feeling, because I know I needed to remember it
- ssss11 2y agoI can identify with that paragraph, however, my wife can recall things from decades ago with extreme detail. More research into commonality of types of memory recall would be very interesting.
- tonymet 2y agoMost people you know who are good at remembering things like your kids names are usually just good at journaling. I recommend journaling your conversations . If your friend tells you his kids got sick, write it down so you can ask him about how they're doing the next time. Your friends and family are many times more important than your bills and appointments, so treat them with the requisite level of attention.
- saulpw 2y agoWhere do you write it down? I write a lot of things down but then can never find the information when it's relevant.
- knoebber 2y agothe act of writing it down probably makes them remember it.
- hackeraccount 2y agoThis is absolutely the case with me. When I need to remember something I'm reading I'll read a part then write a summary. It makes me slow down for a bit and think about what I've read. Same thing with meetings. Going back later and re-reading the notes is something I rarely do.
- gre 2y agoYou can send yourself signal messages and search them. It's not writing though. You could write it down, take a picture, and send it to yourself in signal if you must write it.
- sn 2y agohttps://zim-wiki.org/ https://zim-wiki.org/
- tonymet 2y agoapple notes and paper journals.
- newzisforsukas 2y agoWell, this person can remember songs or lyrics at least. I wish there was a real prospect of something like artificial hippocampi becoming commercialized in our lifetime. Maybe we will get AR assistants or something that can reduce experiences into some summarized model with streamlined recall prompting through sensory input.
- hyperthesis 2y agoCan't read without an account. Also "working memory" is short-term storage, like registers, the details of what you're thinking about right now. Not memory of past events, like your wedding day.
- dboreham 2y agoYes but if new data gets lost before committed to long term memory, then the result is the same.
- mlhpdx 2y agoAs another person with low working memory (but decent long term memory) I can posit things aren’t that simple. Working memory has to be wired for recall, and my guess is that wiring may be different from what connects to longer term persistence. Someday soon perhaps we’ll understand just how complex it all really is…
- antegamisou 2y agoYeah I have no idea what definition the OP had in mind. Nonexistent working memory must be devastating: Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory
- westurner 2y agoMemory improvement > Strategies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_improvement#Strategies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_improvement#Strategies Hippocampal prosthesis, Cortical implant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampal_prosthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampal_prosthesis Cortical implant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_implant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_implant Digital immortality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_immortality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_immortality External memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_memory_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_memory_(psychology)
- greenish_shores 2y agoTry piracetam.
- kristianp 2y agoPiracetam has not been shown to work on normal individuals. I would like to try it though, I feel that my memory isn't great.
- MrDrMcCoy 2y agoCurious how someone in the US might do that.
- greenish_shores 2y agoOrder it from a Czech online pharmacy, where it's an OTC medicine (which have better quality controls than supplements). It's not a controlled substance in the US (heck, not even phenylpiracetam is), it's just not registered there.
- autoexec 2y agoNotebooks and journaling are great, but only for people whose memory is good enough that they can remember to do it, remember to set aside the time needed for doing it, remember where they left their notebook/journal, and remember to bring the books/pens with them wherever they go. It seems like a valuable tool, just not one I'd expect to work for everyone, especially those with ADHD which is where I see it brought up most often. This is something that cell phones could really help with, since most people have one on them most of the time, but some people don't like the idea of always carrying one or putting highly personal things into a device that's managed remotely by someone else and is designed to collect data about them which will later be used against them.
- latentcall 2y agoIf I could remember to write things down I would! If I could read my own handwriting.,
- tlavoie 2y agoI've jumped around a few different applications and such, settled on Joplin. (Mobile & multi-platform, still own/sync my data, etc.) The key for me is that it's the first thing I open, and create a journal note for the day right off. Make the one simple thing the habit, and then it's right there whenever I think of something to add. If I want to copy or move a piece off to a separate note later, it's right there. Worst case, the document search will find it on the random day anyway if I need it. I suppose paper is good with the right habits too, but my handwriting is cryptic at best, and I can't search paper.
- yalok 2y agoWhen I try to journal during the actual live conversation, I feel like I'm not fully there in the moment, not as responsive, not as realtime... So far, only chat history and email history serve that purpose well. I wish all the journaling would be done automatically for me - for all my calls, all my in person interactions (wearable pin/headphones/glasses with recording func?) - but ASRs/LLMs unfortunately are still not there to fully grasp all the terms and words from different languages, to make the transcript/summarization fully useful (my current experience for transcribing the calls in non-English language, with mixed terms from English, is that over 50% terms are not captured correctly for a specialized conversation). Somewhat related - highly recommend "The Final Cut" movie on this topic where the recording of everything (audio, video) was implanted at birth for everyone - and ramifications of that.
- flanbiscuit 2y agoI've never heard of The Final Cut but there was an episode of Black Mirror that had a very similar general premise (implants that record everything). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entire_History_of_You https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entire_History_of_You
- brendanfinan 2y agoWhat can change the nature of a man?
- nritchie 2y agoI understand well where this woman is coming from. Most people who succeed in school succeed because they can memorize. This means most of you on this comment board likely are in the roles you are because you can memorize. Success in school is like that. It rewards memorization more than understanding (yes, it really does...) For me, I often struggled in school because try as I might I can't remember facts unconnected to other facts (I'm thinking of you particularly 6th grade Latin) but excelled in certain subjects where understanding (making connections between ideas) means more than memorization (FWIW I have a PhD in Physics.) I build up a web of understanding where I know fact A because it is supported by facts B, C & D that surround it. If I distrust my memory of A, I reconstruct that it has to be true because without it B, C and D would fall. Early in life (45 yrs ago), I gravitated towards computers where the software I wrote became my long term memory. How do I understand XYZ? It's there in the code. What is the value of ABC? It's there in the code. Code is still my crutch.
- viraptor 2y agoClassic ADD compensation for the high performing people - external memory and reasoning working in overdrive to mask the memory issues since school.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y agoThat is somewhat concerning for myself, I do offload to my notes and to my code my memory, but I started having problems memorizing in high school, somewhat related to my complete rejection of somebody asking me to memorize something just because they said so, instead of being useful. But then, I do remember programming language libraries that I use often, so it can't be ADD
- viraptor 2y ago> But then, I do remember programming language libraries that I use often, so it can't be ADD Hahaha. But seriously - remembering some things does not disqualify you from the diagnosis, just like not remembering doesn't confirm the diagnosis. If you're actually concerned, maybe talk to a professional.
- sghiassy 2y agoSad that this article is pay-walled behind Medium’s login. Seems like excellent content
- smitty1e 2y agoThis was explored masterfully in a fictional context by Gene Wolfe in "Soldier of the Mist" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_the_Mist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_the_Mist