It's all about your own internal GC. When you meet someone, you don't know if they're worth remembering or not. It takes a few encounters (or generations) before your mind realizes that this is necessary information. If you want to prevent an object from being GC'd in Ruby you can assign it to a constant. In real life you can hack your brain by making an association with an constant in your life. A good trick is to try to remember their face and the name of a celebrity. The extra few seconds you spend thinking about what celebrity has the same name is usually enough to trick my brain into remembering. Can't think of anyone famous? Ask them. At least you'll spend a bit of time talking about their name and it's a fun ice breaker.

Check out 'Moonwalking with Einstein - The Art&Science of Remebering'. It's a really cool book and could help you a lot.

Try to associate something to a name, a story that person told you, where you met the person, what the person was wearing, etc. - makes it easier to remember the name.

In addition to the others, repeat the name throughout the conversation. And when you see them again, say "Hello, caleb_thompson. How have you been?" If you can't remember their name, be honest about it and ask again, repeat it a few times again and try again.