What's great about a lousy memory?

[bill5]

Mostly not much. My memory is erratic to say the least. I have a hard time remembering lyrics, how to play something unless I've played it 100 times, the name of that hot girl in Accounting who just told me her name 10 seconds ago, etc. 

 

But I've found it occasionally has its advantages. For example, I can watch shows or movies I haven't seen in years and it's practically like seeing them new. Or I can go "you didn't ask me to clean out the gutters.......oh you did? Really? I'm sorry I forgot." 

 

Any fellow spaceheads have other advantages to share?

[jazzpiano88]

Don't feel bad.   I thought this morning was a work day (Friday not Saturday).

[Leroy C]

I'm terrible with people's names. I used to feel bad about it, but I eventually realized that it was because I didn't give a BLANK, and that my brain was jettisoning that information to make more room for music.   

[bill5]

  

22 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

Don't feel bad.   I thought this morning was a work day (Friday not Saturday).

 

I've done that both ways.......i.e. woke up thinking it was a work day when it wasn't (yay) or woke up thinking it's still the weekend and it wasn't (boo). 

 

1 minute ago, TheophilusCarter said:

I'm terrible with people's names. I used to feel bad about it, but I eventually realized that it was because I didn't give a BLANK, and that my brain was jettisoning that information to make more room for music.   

That has sometimes been the case with me but not always. It's a real drag in social situations! 

[o0Ampy0o]

People's names, even people I have been around for 20 years my mind can go blank, and for some reason if someone passing says my name I am more likely to forget theirs in that moment.

 

Taking a shower I have forgotten whether I shampooed my hair yet so did it and discovered I had based on how different my hair feels when I shampoo it more than once during the same shower.

 

Earlier today I was making oatmeal. I opened the microwave and discovered a danish I had forgotten I was defrosting this morning.

 

I have made breakfast or coffee to take with me and left it on the kitchen counter.

 

Many times I have unlocked the door as I am leaving to make sure the coffee pot and stove burners are off.

 

I have forgotten Daylight Savings and been early and late to work.

 

I have forgotten to set the alarm clock, woken up early in the morning wondering what day of the week it was.

 

I have been at the grocery store and bought things I forgot I had purchased the previous time I was at the grocery store.

 

I was seeing a cardiologist this week and they said I was finished and could leave. I walked out. Once in the parking lot I looked at my phone and it showed that I had another appt coming up that afternoon. (I had around 12 medical things scheduled during this past 2 weeks and as many as 3 on a single day). I waited in my car then checked in. The clerk looked at my account and said I had the procedure done while I was there earlier. It was an EKG. I did not remember them placing electrodes on my body when I was there earlier. 

 

I have enjoyed watching good films more than once though.

[time4jazz]

Details don’t stay with me long if I’m not constantly using them. Names are especially bad. Sometimes, if I haven’t seen someone at work for a month or longer, I’ll forget their name — even though I know them very well! The names of coworkers’ children? Forget it. It’s quite embarrassing when someone asks me about my kids by name, while I’m struggling to remember if the person who’s asking even has any children!

[RABid]

I can tell a big difference after I hit 60. It does not help that I had a severely bruised brain because of a blood clot. For three months they treated me for a sinus infection while the encapsulating material my body surrounded the clot with kept getting thicker and increasing the pressure on my brain. Once they found it and did emergency surgery it took over a year to normalize. The only lasting affect is horrible sleep patterns where I normally wake up 8 to 10 times a night. That makes memory retention even worse. My counter is to focus on learning activities. I subscribe to The Great Courses Plus (Wondrum) through Amazon Fire TV because that is the cheapest subscription option. I watch everything from cooking to chemistry but my favorite areas is astronomy and sub atomic physics. It is important to keep your mind active. Treat it like a muscle and exercise it regularly. I also keep a subscription of MacProVideos and am frequently going through courses on music software.

 

I've always been bad with names and good with faces. I grew up reading a book a day which gave me a really good vocabulary, but spelling was my weak point and always brought down my test scores. What is strange is things that I remember and things that I don't. I remember sitting in my sand box on my third birthday wondering why my aunt was making such a big deal about the clover leaf I had built into my little highway system. And strangely, I remember watching the news segment on TV and how clover leafs were changing the nation's highway system, sometime in 1962. Yet, the only thing I remember about school in the second and third grade is being in a classroom with a sliding wall. They would open it up occasionally and show both classrooms a movie.

 

I can remember sitting in my crib before I could talk, but half the time I don't remember what day it is. 

[marino]

I've always been the classical "distracted artist" in any company, with friends keeping an eye on me to be sure that I won't fall down a manhole or something. Short-term memory has been a problem since a rather young age. However, thru my convoluted brain processes, I've always been able to keep thing together in my practical life, to the point of having a reputation of being a good organizer of things and people (writing music and being a bandleader for several years has helped for sure). I also developed the ability to remember complex pieces of music.

 

Things have changed for the worse after the severe covid-19 that I caught last October. Five months after recovery,  I'm still suffering from a whole lot of complications: All my previous conditions have worsened, my sight has collapsed, and my memory has taken a turn for the worse. Teaching (my main activity these days) requires much more effort now, especially the history courses, with thousands of names, events and dates to remember... and I often find myself interrupting myself because I forget what I was saying - which almost never happened before in my life, and it's highly embarassing in a public situation.

 

I'm a bit worried because my dad died from Alzheimer, so of course I'm afraid to fall into the same hellish condition. When the current deluge of commitments is over, if the situation hasn't improved yet I'm going to take courage and visit a specialized centre.

 

EDIT: Oops, I *forgot* that the thread was about finding something "great" in memory loss. Well, maybe not great, just funny...

[Stokely]

I re-read (or more likely these days, re-listen to) books all the time.  Some of my favorites I've read a bunch of times over the decades.  It's not that I don't remember the main plot (usually) but everything gets a bit foggy and so it's sort of like reading it again for the first time  

I have a great memory for music, granted doing simple rock stuff.   I never bother to write down chords anymore for new songs or have any hints for live.

Lyrics are a completely different story.  Case in point, I've sung Don't You Forget About Me hundreds of times probably going back to the 80s and I still mix up verses, forget certain lines (typically the same ones too.)   The harder I try to remember, the worse it gets, I've found I need to "let it flow" like Luke and the Force and I do ok.  Our lead singer, who sings backup on my lead vocal tunes, is always ready to come in with an impromptu harmony to get me back on track!

I have a completely defunct memory about time, as in:  how long has it been since X happened.  I might guess two years when it's been ten, or vice versa.

I've had one weird and slightly troubling thing happen to me over the last couple years, not really a memory thing but marino's post brought it to mind.  When I type thoughts (like this post, or things at work), I'll often type a soundalike word in place of the one I really meant, and they don't have to be all that close.  For example I might write "house" instead of "how" (the only thing common typically being the same starting sound)  and won't even realize it until I re-read my writing.  Or I write the wrong suffix.  I don't recall this ever happening until a few years ago.   Edit:  Just typing this, I wrote "examples" instead of "example"...makes no sense because "for examples" doesn't work...somehow my brain when it came to write "example" just added the "s" for whatever reason.

[RandyFF]

Wow…. Covid, blood clot in the brain, father having Alzheimer’s- yikes!  Not to be morbid but I realized some time ago death is not a single event but something that happens slowly.  

> The upside here is when we stop taking our precious life for granted, when we see all the little things happening over decades leading to our ultimate cessation, then we embrace with gratitude and appreciation what we can still do.

 

My response to this and other signs of mental/physical decline, has been to double down on healthy eating and exercise.  I can definitely tell my brain is much clearer and highly functioning as a result

 

I also spend a fair amount of time writing.

 

So, to facilitate paying attention, remembering peoples names and the important details of my life- what I do these days is keep a journal/blog.  

> Starting with names: If I’ve met someone, I make damn sure on the spot that I’ve worked on knowing their name: 

> Things like simply repeating their name to myself as we’re talking, or

> Looking away and seeing them ‘freshly’ and going, “oh, that’s Brigette”, and the usual hodge podge of memory techniques:

> Finding things that rhyme with their name, giving them an associative name (Bill has skills), and surprisingly,

> Focusing on the first letter of their name, sometimes the rest of it just comes back.

> As a result, I have 80-90% retention of names, in the past it was more like 30-50%

 

I’ve also noticed that the people I admire with outstanding memories will have retention of many of the details of their experience BECAUSE THEY WERE PAYING ATTENTION!  

> When I was younger I was often just spacing out on what was happening around me.  These days I want to be more like the smart kids, and I pay attention to all of the important details/specifics that make up my everyday experience.  

> You’ll notice many authors use this to great effect, by naming the details of where they are and their frame of mind, they help to place you in that time/place/experience, a good memory technique!

> I have a fun time with my niece who’s just started driving, and when she asks me for directions to things that are close to home I feign ignorance and love seeing the mental wheels churning as she has to locate herself and actually pay attention!! Talk about spacing out and taking things for granted!!!!!!

 

Once I’ve got names and particulars of events/people, I come home to my journal/blog and I write down the person’s name in bold and recount in as few words as possible the interactions and situations with them worth remembering.  I also extend this observational journaling to important events and state of mind, and anything worth remembering.

> Much of a person’s childhood can be easily lost to the sands of time.  I’ve often thought how powerful that’d be if a family made a point of reviewing photos and memories of a family trip for example- like within a month, and then again after a year.  

 

As a side note, this journaling/blog can have a major upside, it often reveals a much richer, deeper understanding of what I just experienced.  

> It feels like there are ‘treasures’, understandings to be mined from my experience that are mostly left untouched if I don’t take the time to recall them thru writing.  

> This of course can also be done simply by remembering and reflecting on your experience, but I mostly like writing for this, it feels more concrete to me.

 

Now that I’m newly in a pop/soul band and am the accompanist for a singer of torch songs, I’m having to learn dozens of songs quickly!  All of that is definitely exercising my brain!  What a great, motivating challenge!

 

As you probably noticed from my formatting, I’m a stickler for organizing text, I find this helpful as well for remembering things.  

> It drives me loco when someone has a lot to say in a never ending paragraph!  My mind doesn’t remember things well like that, one big blur, like the past that you never took the time to reflect upon or write about.  

> On a practical level, just wanting to read quickly, there’s no way to visually ‘grok’ that big blob of text, no way to scan for highlights or just the info you’re interested in.  But beyond that, I find  it helpful for understanding and remembering if there’s a structure to it that makes it more accessible.

[bill5]

10 hours ago, RABid said:

I can tell a big difference after I hit 60. It does not help that I had a severely bruised brain because of a blood clot. For three months they treated me for a sinus infection while the encapsulating material my body surrounded the clot with kept getting thicker and increasing the pressure on my brain. Once they found it and did emergency surgery it took over a year to normalize. The only lasting affect is horrible sleep patterns where I normally wake up 8 to 10 times a night. That makes memory retention even worse.

Yikes sorry to hear that!

 

Quote

My counter is to focus on learning activities. I subscribe to The Great Courses Plus (Wondrum) through Amazon Fire TV because that is the cheapest subscription option. I watch everything from cooking to chemistry but my favorite areas is astronomy and sub atomic physics. It is important to keep your mind active. Treat it like a muscle and exercise it regularly. 

Agree 1000%. I've always had a thirst for knowledge which I hope I never lose. Most of what I watch on TV or online is documentaries. 

 

Quote

What is strange is things that I remember and things that I don't.

Same here. I amazed an old friend once when she found I that I remembered every teacher I had from nursery school on in great detail...not only their name and (exactly) what they looked like, but sounded like, their personality, mannerisms, even many of the outfits they wore. But teachers I had later in life are spottier. I've done similar with minute details of long ago events. 

 

So.......wait tomorrow is Monday, right? 

[bill5]

10 hours ago, marino said:

I've always been the classical "distracted artist" in any company, with friends keeping an eye on me to be sure that I won't fall down a manhole or something. Short-term memory has been a problem since a rather young age. However, thru my convoluted brain processes, I've always been able to keep thing together in my practical life, to the point of having a reputation of being a good organizer of things and people (writing music and being a bandleader for several years has helped for sure). I also developed the ability to remember complex pieces of music.

 

Things have changed for the worse after the severe covid-19 that I caught last October. Five months after recovery,  I'm still suffering from a whole lot of complications: All my previous conditions have worsened, my sight has collapsed, and my memory has taken a turn for the worse. Teaching (my main activity these days) requires much more effort now, especially the history courses, with thousands of names, events and dates to remember... and I often find myself interrupting myself because I forget what I was saying - which almost never happened before in my life, and it's highly embarassing in a public situation.

 

I'm a bit worried because my dad died from Alzheimer, so of course I'm afraid to fall into the same hellish condition. When the current deluge of commitments is over, if the situation hasn't improved yet I'm going to take courage and visit a specialized centre.

 

EDIT: Oops, I *forgot* that the thread was about finding something "great" in memory loss. Well, maybe not great, just funny...

And again yikes and best of luck for improvement of all that. Memory is so important in teaching!

[bill5]

9 hours ago, Stokely said:

I've had one weird and slightly troubling thing happen to me over the last couple years, not really a memory thing but marino's post brought it to mind.  When I type thoughts (like this post, or things at work), I'll often type a soundalike word in place of the one I really meant, and they don't have to be all that close.  For example I might write "house" instead of "how" (the only thing common typically being the same starting sound)  and won't even realize it until I re-read my writing.  

omg YES this is happening to me and it scares me, esp since I'm a writer and have always had impeccable grammar, proofing skills, etc. Now I make mistakes I wouldn't have made in fifth grade.

[o0Ampy0o]

Are you guys certain that is not auto spell correction kicking in? Your description is exactly how things behave when that is enabled. Maybe it isn't your using the wrong words and is instead you getting a little sloppy typing and not thinking of spell correction being on?

[o0Ampy0o]

Update: In my earlier post of personal memory challenges I said I could not recall EKG electrodes being applied. I was reading through my messages using the medical app and noticed something. I was scheduled for a Holter EKG. I had never seen that before and thought Holter was the doctor to perform the procedure. But Holter EKG's are done using a patch that you wear for a period of time so readings can be triggered when you feel something happening like a heart flutter. I do recall that patch device being applied. It resembles one of the small jelly or honey tray packets you see in diners. It is just taped on your chest. So I never had electrodes applied and a regular EKG to recall.

 

Yeah I know.... no one cares 🙂

[Stokely]

9 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Are you guys certain that is not auto spell correction kicking in? Your description is exactly how things behave when that is enabled. Maybe it isn't your using the wrong words and is instead you getting a little sloppy typing and not thinking of spell correction being on?

Definitely not.  It's as if I'm dictating to myself but misheard a word, typing out a word that sounds similar or is the same but with the wrong suffix   Normally I notice it right after typing and just backspace but sometimes I need to edit posts.

It doesn't happen when I actually talk, so who knows!

[Bill H.]

All I can say is thank God for Google Notes. I've got important people to remember from two clubs in there along with my sister's grandkids (all 10 of them), the staff I interact with at the medical center, the directions to my son's house, my daughter's shoe size...

 

I've always had a bad memory but it just gets worse as I get older. My cell phone saves my ass from embarrassment numerous times practically every week. 

[RandyFF]

Hey Bill- I looked up Google Notes and all that came up was Google Keep.  So I assume it’s just like it sounds, a place on your phone to easily input names and other important things for easy lookup.  Sounds more efficient than all my journaling!

[Bill H.]

^ Yeah my mistake that's what it's called now. I believe it was Google Notes in a previous Android build. 

Names, shopping lists, anything I need to remember goes in there. Things like shopping lists get deleted after their use, but some notes stick around. I've currently got a dozen in my phone permanently. 

[Old No7]

Off the top of my head I can easily think of 5 things to answer the question:  "What's great about a lousy memory?"

 

1.  You get to go back to the cute girl in accounting and ask her again.

2.  You get to...

3.  You...

What comes after 3 again?? 

 

Old No7

[RandyFF]

What comes after 3 again??

Old No7

[bill5]

Man what'd I'd give to have a photographic memory, or a memory like Marilu Henner - I can't imagine

[aronnelson]

It made me create unrealBook! I was tired of all the binders and always forgetting the chord changes to Christmas songs!

I have a really bad long term memory.

[vonnor]

On 4/15/2023 at 10:40 PM, bill5 said:

What's great about a lousy memory?

Oh man!... I used to know this one! 🤔

[stillearning]

I have a form of epilepsy called ‘absence seizures’. No physical convulsions, just temporary disconnects from reality. Like I occasionally awaken to… well… nothing. Who am I, where am I, what day is it, etc. It can last anywhere from a minute to several minutes while I slowly rebuild myself. Was quite scary until it was diagnosed and I was put on low dose anti-seizure meds. Still have them, but rare and mild now.

 

A offshoot of this that I also have is referred to as ‘autobiographical memory loss’. If I read something in a book, learn a song, study a subject, it’s locked into memory. But my wife and I will go to a restaurant, or I will get booked for a fill-in gig… I will have no memory of having been there before, the band I played with, etc. But if asked to play the songs again? No problem. Even if was a few months ago, no memory of the gig itself. Going to a restaurant, wife will remember where we last sat, what we both ate, who we were with, etc. Mundane, day to day, normal events do not get stored, but learned facts get stored almost permanently. Very strange. 
 

And yeah… peoples names? Forget about it. Not gonna happen. But phone numbers, got it!

 

Strange thing, the brain.

 

 

ps. Forgive me if I’ve posted this before.