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 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 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.
And yet here you are, invalidating my experience.
> 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.
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.
Maybe you are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_recogniser