

Ask HN: Would young people worry about unable to remember things? - irisdai

By "young" I mean, before 30 or before married. 
Are you guys over-confident about what you can remember? Do you think good memory is a powerful thing?
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iamscanner
So, wait - does getting married suddenly make you 'old'? =P

According to your description I count as young, and not being able to remember
things bothers me a lot sometimes. I remember back before cell phones were
commonplace, I could remember 3-4 phone numbers in my head (home, girlfriend,
parents, local pizza places) - but now that I've become so reliant on my
smartphone, I can only ever seem to remember my own number (and, I'll admit -
the pizza place).

Does it bother me? Yeah. I talk to relatives (especially of the grand-
variety) who are all "I can still remember every phone number I've ever had",
and I get a little bit jealous. I help myself get over it by rationalizing
that I have access to a lot more information a lot easier, now - so I don't
need to remember as much of it.

Having a good memory is definitely a powerful thing - especially when you want
to make a good second impression. So far though, 'take copious notes' has
basically solved the "I wish my memory was better" problem.

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chad_oliver
I assume this is a market-research type question. FYI, I'm 20+-3 years old.

Almost everything I need to know is available online. Knowing the speed of
light is useful, but if I forget it google can remind me. Good memory is
useful, but not nearly as useful as it was 30 years ago. There are also good
tools online for memorising facts by brute force -- for example, I use Anki to
learn formulae.

Regards the wetware brain, the only real issue I have is names. I can't
remember them to save my life, and it'll be a few years before technology
allows me to offload that function.

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irisdai
I knew it, people are young and smart here. Another thing, I'm also trying to
understand: How important is your past memory to you? Do you wish that
everyday of your life should have something memorable? Or you'd rather look
forward?

