This is similar to Farley file [0], a file kept by politicians to record all the people they meet; and they meet a lot of people daily, dealing with a variety of issues, so it is good to write everything down. When it is time to meet them again, they now know enough details about the person to appear considerate and caring: their name, spouse's name, last topic discussed etc.

It gets its name from James Farley, Franklin Roosevelt's campaign manager:

>> A bad memory is not a great asset in politics, so Jim Farley devised a clever remedy: he kept an index card of every person that Roosevelt met, and recorded the names of spouses, children, hobbies, education, place of employment—any personal information that you could reasonably expect a "good friend" to remember. If Roosevelt returned to the same area, Farley would hand him the index cards of everyone he might meet. << [1]

In Rome, they had slaves for this sort of thing, called Nomenclators [2]. Their duty was to remind their master of people he had met earlier.

[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_File

[1] : https://markmilliorn.blogspot.in/2015/05/who-are-you.html

[2] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclator_(nomenclature)