Anyone here have a photographic memory?

[LinuxRandal]

I know it's a weird question, but I've always wanted to know, what do you do to forget?




Yes, there is a reason I am asking, and it won't be posted.

[MilDoc]

In my 20's and 30's, very little. Now .... what was the question again?

[DUD]

I don't I have to write everything down, but My Brother is an Architect and He has one. Even though He very rarely draws the plans anymore, I have been to a jobsite with Him more than once and He will say, Where is the floor drain that goes here? Sure enough they look at the plans, always on the other side of jobsite, and He will be right. Bill

[Texas splinter]

My phone number, the names of people I knew 40 years ago, the name of anyone even remotly connected with Hollywood, and most disturbingly, the things my wife wanted me to pick up at the store while I was in town! The last is disturbing because then I go to bed with no supper!

[Otter]

I don’t have a photographic memory, I don’t have visual total recall, I can recall 100% verbatim anything I hear, it is an artifact of an audio discretionary problem I have

[RayintheUK]

I don't think there's much - if anything - you can do to forget something, if my experience is anything to go by. I don't think the subconscious (or whatever else you want to call it) has a selective erase button anywhere.

My thoughts seems to rotate in a sort of eccentric cycle and I've never been able to sit and not think about something. If I'm relaxed, I don't get to choose the subject, otherwise I do. It's sometimes a little weird, but doesn't cause any problems I'm aware of - although LOML might have a different take on that part!

Ray.

[Hellrazor]

I have a photographic memory. The problem is I forget to put film in sometimes..

[cabinetman]

I find good people, good times, good projects are hard to forget. It's what I forgot to remember that bothers me. Wait - which thread is this?



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[just4funsies]

I know it's a weird question, but I've always wanted to know, what do you do to forget?

Forget WHAT??

[Knottscott]

I have a photographic Palm Pilot....does that count?

[LinuxRandal]

Sounds like I need another hobby (besides sitting at the pc), because when your wanting to forget something, working around moving blades just DOESN'T seem like a wise idea.


Haven't been able to sleep well lately, and now, a missed opportunity from my past has moved back, but I can't stop thinking about the LOML, (the one that responded to a proposal with "I want to be a kept woman".

There's a lot of other stuff to, but this just seems to be the straw.

[430752]

I think so?

Never been tested or proven or etc. but I think I have it. Usually I can remember stuff just by conjuring up an image of where I saw it. The key is to conjure the full image, then zoom in on what I want. What I mean is it doesn't work for me to conjure up a sentance in a book, but rather the page of the book and then remember the sentance was in the middle of the third paragraph and look at that. When I was in law school, and really had to strudy for once, I found that what worked best for me was not to read (I have problems reading, concentration, although comprehension and remembering is always great), but to write. So, instead of reading, I would attend every lecture without fail and write copious notes. THen, I could refer back to my notes in my mind. For some reason, I coudln't refer back to the spoken word. Guess that's why its photographic?

Also, I agree with Ray in UK that its always on, kinda rotating images and thoughts, never really getting to rest. Thus, I find that physical labor works well for me. Fixing the house, woodworking, pounding salt, whatever. It uses just enough brain power to focus on the task, without using the whole brain and getting bogged down. An idle mind IS the devil's workshop (although I don't know if I'd call the results devlish or even bad, just constantly scheming).

Finally, to answer how to forget? Well, hoestly, I often self-medicate with beer and a baseball game. Sure, stats go thru my head sometimes, but that's simple numbers without a larger scheme involved. At night, if its sleep you need, I do one of several things: stay up until I can't anymore (which now is a manageable 1am or 2am), or play mind games. I find two work well. One is to do you mutliplication tables 2x2, 4x4, etc. The other is to picture a three dimensional cube (six sided) in your head and assign each side a color, then begin to rotate to cube on one axis in your mind's eye, then rotate it on both axises, again keeping the colors right, then speed it up. Usually, rotating on one axis does the trick. I know it sounds ultra geeky, but it works.

I think the trick is to think of something just "busy" enough to keep the "front" of the brain occupied, but not too busy so as to involve the whole brain crunching away at stuff. In a way, you're not forgetting stuff so much as thinking of something new in order to push the other stuff to the side.

Okay, that's my bit. Good luck.

curt j.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

I don't think that mine is "photographic" but maybe it is. But when I worked as a cashier where we had to punch in 6 diget numbers for potting soil and things outside like plants and other large bags of things. I could remember almost all of those numbers with out looking in a book that we kept at the registers. Most of the cashiers that worked around me would just ask me and not even look in the book.

It was kind of comical when they would train a new cashier they would say if you forget a number just ask Melissa.

[crokett]

I can't remember if I do or not.

[dwolsten]

When I was in law school, and really had to strudy for once, I found that what worked best for me was not to read (I have problems reading, concentration, although comprehension and remembering is always great), but to write. So, instead of reading, I would attend every lecture without fail and write copious notes. THen, I could refer back to my notes in my mind. For some reason, I coudln't refer back to the spoken word. Guess that's why its photographic?

I think I'm somewhat similar: in college, I always found I remembered things better if I wrote them down. I rarely referred back to my notes, because after writing it down I remembered it all. I don't think my memory is quite so good as to be able to remember pages in books, however.

But the other thing that struck me in your post is your comment about the spoken word. While I can remember things I see quite well, I can't remember things I hear worth a dam, unless it's music (in which case it seems like I can recall entire songs as if I'm listening to a CD). This causes me a lot of problems because, I guess, most people can remember things people tell them fairly well. For me, it seems to go in one ear and out the other, unless of course I write it down. Some people, like my wife, seem to be able to recall conversations with great clarity, and remember when a particular conversation occurred and what was discussed. For me, that stuff is all muddled together if I can recall it at all.