Comment by moth-fuzz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by moth-fuzz | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to challenge the question - if I've got something written down, why would I need to memorize it? Maybe in school where closed-notes tests are a thing, sure, but nowhere in the 'real-world' tests one's ability to memorize in the strict sense. I write things down for a reason and that reason is not just accessory to memorizing it. I put things on paper precisely so I don't have to put them in my brain. To keep them in both places would be redundant.

On that note, I have ADHD, and very little 'brain-RAM', and really lack the ability to memorize things or recall what I've memorized. The only consistent way I've found to 'memorize' things is to deep-learn them, to the point where I can infer all the answers from prior knowledge, and draw new conclusions from existing conclusions, pretty much all the way down. I can't just brute-force-memorize the conclusions themselves. Every step inbetween has to make sense. It's like memorizing the square series as individual numbers, 1, 4, 9, 16, etc. (something I cannot do) vs memorizing the formula x^2 and being able to calculate the resulting numbers when needed (something I can do).

> I put things on paper precisely so I don't have to put them in my brain. To keep them in both places would be redundant.

I think that makes sense if your only goal is to reference the information, like looking up information in a personal library. But I like to write by hand so I can record my understanding of the information, my putting the information in context in my own words. Sometimes I'll never refer to the written thing again. The writing is part of the leading to understanding by way of reformulating the information into my own words --- situating it in a context that makes sense for me. Writing by hand feels more connected to the development of my understanding. Typing never really gets to that point for me.

But I think it's also very subject oriented. Writing in a technical context requires handling information in a different way than if it's in a more analytical or critical/expository context.

>The writing is part of the leading to understanding by way of reformulating the information into my own words --- situating it in a context that makes sense for me

This is the essence of why it is important to learn to Write/Diagram by hand. It helps in the memorization and understanding of data within my personal framework.

My andecdata-points are (1) As soon as I make a shopping or to do list, I promptly forget the items on the list as that responsibility has been delegated to the piece of paper which I can rarely later find, and (2) I never took notes in class and instead payed good attention in (most) of my classes connecting the dots so that they fit and made sense to me in some way rather than rote memorization. I was usually slower at solving problems as I would often start closer to first principles but was usually able to get to the answer soon enough. Some classes didn't lend themselves to this form of learning requiring memorization of tricks or unexplained long formulas to get answers fast enough or at all--I didn't like those ones.

Where I find this method problematic is professionally: documentation scales well and I don't know if/where there's a limit to when it stops paying off.

Before the internet was a thing the only two ways to get information were by remembering it (or remembering by proxy by asking somebody else) or checking a book. Since it was still impossible to lug around an entire library, schooling gave a large emphasis on memorization.

These days at least some university tier education has adapted to the model of just acquainting people with a concept quickly to the point where they can search for it when they need it. Most of the educational system still needs to catch up though.

> if I've got something written down, why would I need to memorize it?

The extreme example is this: would you rather see a doctor, or see someone capable of doing med school?

Externalizing memory has greatly expanded what we can "remember", but access is very slow compared to the jello in our skull. Plus, it won't be incorporated into your deeper thoughts. Don't externalize memory which shapes your thinking to be better.

The speed of recalling information from your brain vs looking it up is the important thing. Suppose it takes you 1/100th of a second to remember some formula or protocol but it would take you 10 minutes to look it up. Now suppose you are faced with several dozen such situations each day.

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