Selective memory is well known.  For example, I am quite clear on all the mistakes that others around me have made, but I have difficulty recalling my own screw-ups.  I’m sure there are smart people who can explain the reasons for this.

My own increasing tendency to forget stuff in general is of more immediate concern.  It’s one thing when my doctor starts most of his sentences with “At your age….”, but it’s quite another when a skill I have worked to develop for most of my life deserts me.  Two score and 15 years ago, I memorized all 272 words of Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg address with minimal effort. I still remember most of it.  It took me a long time to reach the point where this and numerous other similar exercises shall not have been in vain.

Kids memorize stuff like this in school for good reasons.  Not only does it help train your brain, but it can make some useful facts readily available.  Granted as an engineer I haven’t had much use for Abe’s speech, but the ability to remember basic equations has served me well many times.  If I am ever stranded on a remote island, I’ll have no trouble pulling up the basic beam bending equations in my head.  For future generations that could soon be a distant memory. <continue>