11.23.09
The Supreme Killer App: Your Memory

From the blog of Steve Demaio:

I have a confession to make. One that will make me sound like a Luddite. One that elicits the response, "Are you kidding me? It's 2009!" . . . Ready?

I memorize stuff. Mundane stuff. Phone numbers. Email addresses. Appointments. I don't use the contacts feature on my cell phone, or the calendar on Gmail, or the personal organizer on any handheld device. And, no, I don't rely instead on an old-style paper planner or address book. Not even a desk blotter, retro as that would be. I memorize things, plain and simple -- as if Gutenberg never lived, as if the Egyptians never started using papyrus.

It's true that when I worked full-time and had to coordinate with large numbers of people who had a common mission, I was fully on board with using a shared electronic calendar. I dutifully booked and accepted all my meetings on it -- and, for a few months, forced myself to rely on it exclusively (without my memory), though in the end I got bored. I even was -- and still am -- one of those people whom others seek out to help them with their electronic tools. Clearly, willful rebellion is not what's driving me. I'm not actually a Luddite. I can enjoy being a techie, just not as a way of life.

So what's motivating this foolish behavior? It's, in part, a kind of primal stimulation that my mind craves. Using electronic tools is extremely practical and fun, but relying on them denies me the fulfillment of a basic need. My head goes soft when I give it a crutch, and that softness shows up in my work. In contrast, when I deftly spin my mental Rolodex, my mind bristles with neural activity. You might even say I get high on it.

There's also a moral dimension to the choice. I believe in this mental high. It elevates me as a person, and (without meaning to sound like a missionary) I think it elevates us as a species. There's something intoxicating about a room full of flesh-and-blood creatures who can call up -- without an electronic aid -- any of thousands of details, no matter how mundane, at a second's notice in order to organize and plan their activities. Indeed, the more mundane the details are, the more delightfully freakish and exhilarating it is to recall them.

Besides, people tend to smile at this behavior when they see it in action. As a teacher of English, when I know all the names in a new class of students within a few minutes, they feel appreciated, instantly recognized as learners, accountable to this person who stands before them. That, I believe, makes them much more willing to memorize geometry formulas, comma rules, and the principal parts of verbs. There is power in memory, and witnessing it makes one crave it.

At this point, you may be wondering whether my self-bought health insurance comes with psychiatric benefits. But if instead you're intrigued by these musings of a madman, try making the mundane magnificent through memorization. It won't mean giving up your electronic tools (their many practical benefits are indisputable), but it will mean feeling more independent of them, more powerful as a thinking creature.

You'll be amazed how satisfying it is to retrieve phone numbers instantly -- even faster than pressing *1. And seeing your calendar in your mind's eye is better than having it at your fingertips. Besides, it's nice to know you won't be in ruins if you drop your device in a puddle, even for the relatively brief period it takes to restore your lost information to a new tool. Safety and self-sufficiency go hand-in-hand.

What are your thoughts about the value of memorization? Is that type of aspiration itself simply a quaint memory in 2009? Or do you see a role for it in our tech-heavy world?

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Read this piece and subsequent comments on the Harvard Business Publishing web site by clicking the title here: The Supreme Killer App: Your Memory

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