Memory loss: Expert advice for improving memory and concentration | Hacker News Reader

Memory loss: Expert advice for improving memory and concentration

vox.com

198 points8bitsrule79 comments

Here's my god-tier hacks for memory and concentration.

1. For memory: it's all about the strange. The brain is exceptionally good at remembering strange and weird events. So all the articles you read where something odd happens you'll probably be able to recall with photographic accuracy. One way to take advantage of this is to weave strange narratives throughout factual information you want to recall. It would probably be best if someone else did this for you so you'll know it's not fake and you'll automatically hang on to the story as an anchor point. The best part about this technique is it requires no effort. You will automatically prioritise remembering the information. No additional effort needed.

2. For concentration: it's paramount you consider your motives. Since this is hacker news the main reason people might want to optimise concentration is to work harder. They fear that they're 'not getting enough done.' Maybe in severe cases they won't be able to start work at all. The trouble is: the harder you force yourself to work, the less time you have to recover, and the sloppier your work becomes. Believe it or not -- the ones who are able to achieve exceptional output are also the ones who aren't overly-attached. They can deliver whether things are going good or not because they're always emotionally in a good place. When you care for yourself better you really can do amazing things. Software engineering can be very demanding so I do think this is the right approach for most people.

> the ones who are able to achieve exceptional output are also the ones who aren't overly-attached.

This was the biggest work related epiphany for me. Had to almost burnout to realise this.

There is no one recipe but for me self-worth is inferred from the love of family and close friends. Work is just something meaningful I do as a side quest.

This phenomenon is also present in early dating.

Don’t attach your self worth to a successful or failed couple of dates, and your results will improve.

Acute stress just after an event drives memory formation. That's why you'll always remember bad events. Chronic stress dulls this. You can induce acute stress with cold exposure to improve memory formation.

I've read that in olden times, people would teach kids (or have them watch) a memorable event, and immediately throw them into water. Just for this reason.

Only read it once, (or heard it; maybe from Huberman?), so no idea if it's true or not.

i remember reading something similar, but it was a huge slap rather than water (seems too much to throw people in water back when colds were lethal)

Can being thrown in water cause a cold?

A cold is a virus, so not directly at least.

if it's full winter before heating was highly available, i'd guess so

These are great tips. Personally I just have an abnormal perspective where I view just about everything as strange. Life is really weird if you think about it, maybe this perspective is why I remember so much

Interesting way to look at life. Many social conventions are wierd. But how to use this while programming with a new language?

For more information on the technique the parent describes in point #1, I recommend the book "Moonwalking With Einstein" by Joshua Foer.

This article is useless clickbait.

Exercise and good sleep are far better than some cherry-picked exercises that this article says I need to do, and will have many more benefits. Here are the "Neurobiological effects of physical exercise" from Wikipedia [0]:

> The neurobiological effects of physical exercise are numerous and involve a wide range of interrelated effects on brain structure, brain function, and cognition. A large body of research in humans has demonstrated that consistent aerobic exercise (e.g., 30 minutes every day) induces persistent improvements in certain cognitive functions, healthy alterations in gene expression in the brain, and beneficial forms of neuroplasticity and behavioral plasticity; some of these long-term effects include: increased neuron growth, increased neurological activity, improved stress coping, enhanced cognitive control of behavior, improved declarative, spatial, and working memory, and structural and functional improvements in brain structures and pathways associated with cognitive control and memory. The effects of exercise on cognition have important implications for improving academic performance in children and college students, improving adult productivity, preserving cognitive function in old age, preventing or treating certain neurological disorders, and improving overall quality of life.

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

I wonder if anyone has researched whether it's actually good to remember everyday things. I can watch a movie or read a novel, enjoy the experience, and the next day not really remember much about it. Often I'll get half-way through a movie and start to get a sense of deja-vu. Of course I've seen it before, but can get an hour in before I realize. I still enjoy it though.

Now, is this actually bad? I have no problem remembering what I actually need to remember to do novel research or to cope with the complexity of large programs. So it's not that I can't remember, but that I don't make any effort for things that don't matter. My feeling as I get old, is that it gets a little harder to learn new stuff because my head is already pretty full, but it's not too bad. But would it be worse if I actually remembered all those books and movies?

My conviction is that a selective memory is a defence mechanism against being overflown with he noise of everything. For being able to work/live with, rely on the important things, construct new concepts/thought out of those managable number of selected ones instead of every piece of sand it encounters. The real important things inherently become a backbone of our self without wanting it, actively choosing or dedicating (forcing?) it to become important. The rest fade.

Of course the burden of the selective mind is the need to relearn things like me with names (among others). The certainly tens but perhaps hundreds of thousands of names I met in my life makes my brain forget all names (name of a particular person) I first meet in 10 seconds now. I just pay no attention without being aware of not paying attention, it is an automation. I need to use names several times, repeatedly to become a reliable filament of the inner network forming my consciousness and the representation of the world I live in. Those who are important and part of my life will unavoidably be imprinted and solidified in my memory, the rest without use dropping out for good. Old names fading into grey like the balls of memories in the movie Inside Out.

It's called hyperthymesia syndrome. This might interest you:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160125-the-blessing-and...

A blessing and a curse is how I'd imagine it too. Great for some stuff, but this quote highlights the curse part of it:

Viewing the past in high definition can also make it very difficult to get over pain and regret. “It can be very hard to forget embarrassing moments,” says Donohue. “You feel same emotions – it is just as raw, just as fresh… You can’t turn off that stream of memories, no matter how hard you try.” Veiseh agrees: “It is like having these open wounds – they are just a part of you,” he says.

I do the wordle and if you asked me ten minutes later what the word was, I haven't a clue.

After years of being a Very Successful illegal street racer, I finally had the money to attend professional racing schools and then enter open wheel Formula Cars races. To be clear, I street raced in and around NYC late at night and alone because I would not risk any of my friends lives in the event of the worst outcome that is Always possible.

I can remember drives I have taken years and years later. Going fast is my thing and has been since I was 6 years old. However if you ask me about my first organized Formula Car race: I have virtually No Memory of those 20 or so minutes of my life... I remember the warmup lap and the green flag but thats about it.

It took a while and a lot of effort but yes I did eventually dominate on the track. I won races, poles, fastest laps and I was offered the chance to turn pro... I mention this only to give credence to the oddities that Stress and/or Fear have on memory.

So now when I hear reports of Police in shootouts Not Remembering what happened... I UNDERSTAND.

This is why I remember the things I learned in university while stressed out studying for exams, but don't remember things learned without stress.

I think a bit of stress is healthy for retention.

Formula Car races and Police Shootouts are notoriously low-stress situations.

Few years ago I decided to challenge my memory by learning few characters of the Divine Comedy by earth.

I don't know how much my memory got better but as a side benefit I got a great meditation technique for when I feel overwhelmed with my thoughts, or cannot sleep. I just have to recite one character silently and all the brain resources that would be wasted to feed my stress will go into the activities of recalling, visualising and enjoying the poem. It's the greatest stress relief method I found.

Thank you. Have been thinking this for ages, but just never get around there. This is the push. I really will go work on my Shakespeare, starting tonight.

what does 'by earth' mean?

I'm guessing auto correct for "by heart"

I learn songs all the time, and it has the opposite effect for me - when I've learned something new it often pounds around in my head when I'm in bed and keeps me awake

How to Make Friends and Influence People had an impact on my memory ability. It has a section on how important it is to remember people's names, and it basically says people who are bad at it likely just aren't trying very hard.

For me, that turned out to be correct. I used to jokingly refer to myself as 'name-blind'. Now I intentionally focus on people's names when they introduce themselves to me and I can usually remember just fine.

I've somehow weirdly gone from being good with names to being bad with them, and I think this is probably right.

I grew up in a small community where everyone knew each other and, of course, knew everyone's names. When I moved out, I sort of assumed that I'm expected to know the name of everyone I've met (like I did before) and so I did. Over time I came to the realization that world is full of people I casually meet once or twice and then never see again. This completely changed my world view from "everyone you meet is super important" to "these people don't really matter that much". I think I went a little too far with this, because now I don't seem to remember even the names of people at my work who I meet occasionally, but not all the time. I sort of think along the lines "either they or me will move to some other job eventually and we will never see each other again so there's no point in trying to memorize their names".

I don't know what qualifies as not trying hard enough, but when I meet someone, I expect I'll be able to play back salient chunks of content (precise wording, intonation, clear visuals zoomed in or out) but I'm worried the couple times repeating the name in my head trying to focus on it will, predictably, not stick.

I generally am bad at recalling labels compared to 'content.'

Knowing I need a better system for remembering names, I suppose I should try harder to uncover one.

I had a similar experience. My first wife had an amazing ability to remember all kinds of details about everything. It sounds weird, but I just remember trying to do the same thing, and then I did. And now people often comment about it, but I wasn't always like this.

This made me chuckle. I don’t think anyone who’s “generally social” is actively trying to find mnemonics to remember names of faces, which is what I need to do to remember anyone if I met them just once. Peoples brains work differently from each other, and it would be good to acknowledge that. Also would help if we don’t take life advice from books like “how to win friends” which seems to be the Jordan Peterson work of the earlier decades tbh.

> Peoples brains work differently from each other, and it would be good to acknowledge that.

And yet here you are, invalidating my experience.

They're not though. Your comment says

> people who are bad at it likely just aren't trying very hard.

which rather ignores the differences in how people's brains work. The person you're replying to says they're definitely not remembering names well because of any kind of effort they put in moreso than you might.

I’m paraphrasing the book, which resonated with me not maligning anyone else.

You are sort of implying that people just aren't trying hard enough. That is your experience, sample size = 1. If you strike that sentence from your comment nobody would be rubbed the wrong way by it.

There may be many reasons why someone can't remember somebody's name. And not trying might be one of them, but invalidates all other experiences people have.

My friends say I always run into people in public. The thing is that I instinctively remember faces of people I met, not at a first glance, but if I met them maybe 3 times or more. I will recognize them on the street, from afar, 10 years later.

Because of my ability to recall people's faces, even with aging changes, I have a much higher chance of running into people I know in public, than somebody who can't do that.

However I can't remember names for the life of me. For one I have an attention problem. Even if I try to listen to people's names when they introduce themselves, in many cases I won't hear the name. The other is that I'm very forgetful with names even after learning them.

I have worked with people for years, but a few years after leaving that job I won't remember their names. I will recognize their faces though.

I wouldn't say people don't try hard enough to remember people's faces.

> “I instinctively remember faces of people I met, not at a first glance, but if I met them maybe 3 times or more. I will recognize them on the street, from afar, 10 years later.”

Maybe you are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_recogniser

I'll try that test maybe. Interesting!

I don’t know. Do what you want.

Stepdad started detioriating rapidly few years ago, looking tired etc. Finally went to doctor, no dementia signs.

Turns out he had sleep apnea. If you too sleep poorly consistently and are older or overweight, maybe get this checked...

Bad sleep is terrible for your brain.

Two years back I realised that I am being very forgetful so I reached out to a professional for advice. I was advised to play memory games on Lumosity (https://www.lumosity.com/en/) along with a few other tips (like : record your todos in phone but try remembering that list from mind). I did these exercises for a few months (~3 months) with discipline. I was surprised that it really had an impact on me. So when the article mentioned that it is a skill which could be developed, I can second that idea.

I feel like this sort of advice is neutral. It won’t help or hurt you.

One thing mentioned—making everyday events more memorable—is good advice, just not for memory.

As always, the best thing for your mind is physical health. Eat well and exercise. Do things things that make you happy. Sleep. You don’t need brain training games.

Edit: use article language

Eh. that just leads to narcissism. Learn to give up.

Listing all of these "techniques" doesn't address the important question: why are they necessary?

Why do you need to apply all of this conscious effort to "strengthen memory" if other people, or yourself previously, could easily remember the plot details of most movies you had watched, names of peoples you had met, etc. without ever having to think about it?

Maybe this is indirectly addressed in the paragraph "Start paying undivided attention to important events and interactions"? The author writes:

> How many times have you walked away from a conversation having no idea what was discussed because you were distracted by your phone? “You can get impoverished memories for past events because you were never really there in the first place,”

Maybe we used to be more "present" in the past, and therefore formed better memories? And now, with constant distractions literally at our fingertips our brains have less and less opportunities to form "sharp" memories as there is always a distraction pulling us away. And, as time goes by, due to lack of training and/or laziness, our brains actually get worse and worse at forming proper memories even when a distraction-less event is encountered?

Just a hypothesis.

I see it like a program. It gets worse over time due to lack or even non-existence of effort/maintenance to make it good. Problem is we don't know how to write said program, we only know what the effect of all past behavior put together is. Is it even changeable later in life, or is it hardcoded now after enough of certain interactions having burnt it into the disk => requiring permanent workarounds and effort.

Also just a hypothesis.

> Why do you need to apply all of this conscious effort to "strengthen memory" if other people, or yourself previously, could easily remember the plot details of most movies you had watched, names of peoples you had met, etc. without ever having to think about it?

Why do you have to exercise in your old age when previously, when you were young, you were comparatively fit without trying?

Biology is full of "use it or lose it" because maintaining any ability or skill costs energy.

My guess would be that in previous generations people were not exposed to as much abstract information, nor were they expected to remember it, and if they were expected to remember something there was a social structure or a regular habit which helped. Individuals are responsible for a greater variety of tasks than they used to be, and those tasks are much more abstract, and so it also becomes more difficult to form memories about the details.

My armchair-neuroscientist take: forgetfulness is an evolutionary necessity. If we remembered every detail of our lives (every pebble on every road, ever second of every day) then we would reach our brain’s total capacity in a single day, and it would take enormous amounts of calories to preserve all that information. So every living creature forgets.

Once we reach maturity evolution basically stops “caring about us” (that is an anthropomorphism)- our systems are left “on maintenance mode”, which in evolution’s case means “luck”. Some fortunate souls might preserve their natural memories until they reach 70 or 80, but most people don’t, and for some the “maintenance mode” comes super early, because biology isn’t exact.

That said, I also think that nature is part of it but nurture also plays a role. The human brain is incredibly flexible. You can partially overcome or at least delay the worst of your memory loses with the right environment, and you can also squander your natural gifts and succumb early with the wrong one.

Those people actually do think about "it", but they have thought about it in a more useful way forever, so they wouldn't notice the difference now.

People also develop the mental infrastructure to index particular kinds of information. Part of it is luck, part of it may be genetics but most of it is training. For example chess masters can easily remember chess games. Musicians can easily remember musical sheets. And some version of this is going on in most people.

For example I can learn new Chinese characters relatively quickly, because I already spent years memorizing some.

>People also develop the mental infrastructure to index particular kinds of information. Part of it is luck, part of it may be genetics but most of it is training.

The thing that most people don't realize is that neuroplasticity is competitive, and developing highly specialized abilities in one area actually negatively impacts your abilities elsewhere.

I don't think so. Is there any evidence? Selective maybe in that you choose to spend time on something particular and not something else and then that something else doesn't improve as much. I wouldn't think there is an actual decrease.

I first came across the idea of neuroplasticity being competitive when reading "The Brain That Changes Itself" back in around 2017.

I spent some time over the Christmas break reading a few books on Neuroscience as the brain is a topic I for some reason keep on coming back to. Among them was "Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory" from Cambridge University Press, and looking it up now in Chapter Three they talk about studies comparing London taxi drivers with controls and noting down differences. To quote the relevant paragraph(s) "they found that taxi drivers had changes in the size of only their hippocampus, with a relative _increase_ in the amount of gray matter within the posterior hippocampus and a relative _decrease_ in the amount of gray matter within the anterior hippocampus. Moreover the changes in both types of hippocampal gray matter correlated with the length of time they had been taxi drivers, which ranged from 1.5 to 42 years (with the largest changes for those who had been taxi drivers the longest.". And also this one: "The investigators also found that the taxi drivers were worse at copying a complex drawing from memory, and a subsequent study from the same group observed the same result and also reported that the taxi drivers were relatively worse than control participants at learning object-place pairs and word pairs (they also reported that the taxi drivers had average IQs). These behavioral deficits may be due to the relatively smaller size of the anterior hippocampus in London taxi drivers. Thus, although the taxi drivers had superior memory for navigating London, it appears to have come at a cost for other forms of memory."

[0] https://www.normandoidge.com/?page_id=1259

[1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cognitive-neuroscience-...

Interesting. But I'd question the link between the anatomical change and the better memory for places. Navigation is not just a memory task.

The idea that size matters in terms of neuroanatomy is problematical. I distinctly recall that there are people missing entire regions of the brain who have no impairment whatsoever.

If you're trying to solve a problem (whether in life or business) and you keep forgetting some of the constraints as well as options then you're not going to come up with a good solution.

I agree, but don't see how this reply relates to my comment.

Anyone here that uses a strategy like Memory Palaces (also sometimes called "Method of Loci" I think)?

I would be especially interested in whether people apply this technique to stuff different from memorizing lists/sequences.

Do cardio for increased blood/oxygen flow to the brain.

Useless.

Its about chemistry and behavior, not about wishes and hand waving. People need ACTIONABLE advice. For starters:

    1. Modafinil 100-200mg (not every day)
    2. Vitamin B complex 50mg
    3. High fat diet, lots of eggs
    4. No THC
    5. CoQ10 100mg

Each of those is demonstrated to influence cognition in multiple research setups, in humans and animals. Some consider Alzhamier to be diabetes type 3.

Also, virtually no side effects.

Modafinil is a prescription drug. I'm not sure why you're recommending it as if it were advil.

It's available as grey-market generics shipped from India (in the US). That said, it is Schedule IV.

It's fairly well tolerated and widely prescribed for narcolepsy, and used off label as a 'nootropic', or cognitive enhancer.

Ironically enough, the rate of adverse effects might actually be comparable to Advil, and modafinil has a noticeably lower median lethal dose.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your prescriptions, but attitude and psychological reframing can be tremendously beneficial. Just setting goals and clarifying what your motives are can do tremendous things. Humans are not just a machine with inputs and outputs.

Got a link any good blogs or articles for understanding the research evidence?

Gwern's fairly comprehensive blog post [0] could be a good starting point.

[0] https://www.gwern.net/Modafinill

The best way to improve your memory is getting a wife. She always says: "Idiot, do i have to repeat it for you ?" /s

I recognise your sarcasm and that you're joking but I hope that as a community we can start to move away from misogynistic jokes like these in the coming years.

I hope you're not being serious

I hope they are. "My spouse sucks" humor is a mostly misogynist and not funny relic from the past that needs to be dropped

Did the OP actually say their spouse sucks?

No, but most "my wife" jokes are about how controlling or awful they are

Why?

And "It's Wednesday, take out the trash" because I never can remember that one myself.

Bonus: Focus on a nutrient-rich diet instead of external factors.

which nutrients exactly

Omega-3 (EPA and DHA), B12, Creatine and CDP-Choline (or alpha-choline).

I googled first one on that list and there were the top hits

https://neurosciencenews.com/omega-oils-reading-memory-child...

" New research has found no evidence Omega-3 fish oil supplements help aid or improve the reading ability or memory function of underperforming school-children."

Fish oil supplements may not improve memory

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/fish-oil-...

Omega-3s Don't Seem to Affect Brain Health

https://www.livescience.com/36456-omega-3s-fish-oil-brain-he...

If you are experiencing memory problems, you might have something going on with your brain that isn't resolved by following some tips in an article. I recommend consulting with a doctor if this is a problem for you.

Many people say they've little memory, but they just actually lack focus.

This. My partner for instance. She blames her current "bad memory" on ageing, bad habits when younger and what not while at the same time, I see her grabbing her phone for mindless thumb scrolling literally every five minutes.

Learn to breath, sleep and eat and ageing will not stop and death is ultimate but you will know.

I'll try to remember these advices....

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