A week or so ago, I surprised (and possibly worried) my wife by singing some French songs which I'd learned in high school. [She also studied French in high school but was in the wilds of New Jersey and so had less music and more irregular verbs.]
Anyway, the tunes quickly sparked a discussion on the relatively useless information we acquire in a lifetime and how it often has a firmer grasp on our memory than far more important items. Right now, I can tell you more about the French Communist Party, Bugs Bunny, and Ogden Nash's poetry than I can about mortgages or cooking.
There must be theories on why our memory has such a bizarre filing system. I'll look them up after some more French songs.
4 comments:
I recommend the book, Moonwalking with Einstein for more about memory than you knew you wanted to know
Wally,
I have that book but have not finished it. It was interesting but I kept wanting to shout, "Get to the point!"
That may be my failing more than the author's.
I will finish the book.
Thanks!
Michael
I get that. Perhaps this is one of those books that doesn't have a point, just a bunch of interesting stuff laid out along the arc of a story.
Wally,
I suspect that you are right. My mistake was approaching it more as a self-help book.
Michael
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