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July 6th, 2024

How I've Learned to Live with a Nonexistent Working Memory

The author shares struggles with memory issues due to trauma, ADD, and fibromyalgia. Despite challenges in recalling significant life events, they use tools like bullet journaling to cope emotionally and navigate daily life effectively.

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How I've Learned to Live with a Nonexistent Working Memory

The article discusses the author's struggle with a nonexistent working memory and how tools like bullet journaling and personal journaling have helped them cope. The author shares that despite experiencing early trauma, ADD, and fibromyalgia memory fog, they still face challenges in remembering specific details of their life events. The consequences of their memory issues include not recalling important moments like their wedding day, the birth of their children, and their graduation. The author reflects on the emotional impact of these memory lapses and the strategies they use to navigate daily life.

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By @nritchie - 5 months
I 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.
By @tonymet - 5 months
Most 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.

By @yamrzou - 5 months
https://archive.is/wl87A
By @paulpauper - 5 months
No 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.

By @hyperthesis - 5 months
Can'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.

By @yalok - 5 months
When 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.

By @autoexec - 5 months
Notebooks 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.
By @newzisforsukas - 5 months
Well, 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.

By @smitty1e - 5 months
This was explored masterfully in a fictional context by Gene Wolfe in "Soldier of the Mist"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_the_Mist

By @sghiassy - 5 months
Sad that this article is pay-walled behind Medium’s login.

Seems like excellent content

By @brendanfinan - 5 months
What can change the nature of a man?
By @greenish_shores - 5 months
Try piracetam.