Of memories and such...

Ah, memories. These are meant to last forever. But my stupid brain
just hates them. My brain hates me. It can remember something trivial
for a long time, but when it comes to something of importance. Nope!
Memory has been a topic of interest for me for quite some time now. I've
researched quite a bit about it and am also currently reading a book
called "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer which deal with this
subject.
Point to keep in mind is that your IQ or level of intellignce has
nothing to do with how much you can remember. You could have an IQ
level of 300 and still forget where you kept your keys.
No. Memory depends on HOW you use it. Even a person with average
memory can do wonders if he uses his memory in a proper way. There are
lots of techniques you can use to remember stuff easily. Mnumonics and
Memory palaces seem to be the popular ones.
The former deals with associating the given information with something
which is easier to remember.
For example VIBGYOR to remember the colors in a rainbow.

Memory Palaces though are much cooler. They have been popularized by
the BBC tv show "Sherlock", where Holmes uses this technique to
remember everything.
When i had come across this technique in my research, i decided to go
ahead and try it for myself. (If you dont know what Memory Places are,
i suggest you google)
I used it for about a month and found some interesting observations.

What i had'nt realized that i would need more places to store more
information. Thats because once you effectively store information in
that place it'll be there for a really long time, and you cant put
more info in there, as it'll cause confusion.
And so my problem was that i now had stored my temporary shopping list
permanently in my bedroom. The place which is the most familiar to me,
and i store a shopping list there. *sigh*
So thats one disadvantage i found. Maybe one day in the future, i'll
forget that list and will be able to store new, more important info
there.
So thats one disadvantage i found in this technique. You need to know
a lot of places to store info in. But the good news is the human
memory is good at remembering places. It retains images and places
better than, say names or telephone numbers (cz well... Cavemen). And
this is the basic idea of memory palaces. I could go on about these
Memory Palaces, but that's not the main topic.
Memory.
People forget stuff all the time. Nothing new here. But the thing is
its not our memory that is weak, for our brain records almost
everything. But its our power to recall that's weak. Its not that we
forget, but we cant remember it. Mainly because we cant get the
connections in our neurons right. And another interesting thing is
that we can recall a memory almost perfectly, if it was accompanied by
a major incident. For example, most americans remember exactly what
they were doing when the plane crashed into the twin towers on 9/11.
But ask them what they had for breakfast a week ago and they havent got a clue.

Memory is a strange thing. Its an abstract idea. Without which we
cannot survive. Its been there since the beginning of the ages, and
will be there till the end of time.
But how you use it will change how you percieve it.
Treat it well, and it shall return your favour.

- B1ack Rose