[SpiralOcean]

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Nowadays, I am forgetting things, events, and names of persons. I wondered whether this has impacted my knowledge, imagination and curiosity levels.

The material from Disruptive Thoughts Website was a consolation for me.

We can now know more by knowing less. You are wasting too much time remembering. Our learning has been limited (forever) by what we can remember.

Traditionally brain space has been consumed by remembering; an evolved necessity borne from no other option. If you wanted to know you learned to remember.

However, technology, especially the internet, has destroyed the need to remember. We can, for the first time in history, truly know more by knowing less.

Spend time learning how to use and how to understand the concept. That’s where the valuable learning occurs. There’s a big difference between learning to remember, learning to use, and learning to understand.

Here’s a simple illustration: The Pythagorean Theorem, a2 + b2 = c2. Everyone, including math dropouts, knows it. However, I bet many people don’t know how to solve for c and even less understand the concept well enough to know how to apply it to a problem.

It’s the aggregation of concepts where one can really extend their learning. An imagination filled with an understanding of concepts creates value in today’s world.

Learn to effectively use the tools that allow you to forget.
Free your mind to understand concepts.
Leverage concepts against each other.
Create value.

One of Einstein’s colleagues asked him for his telephone number one day. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. “You don’t remember your own number?” the man asked, startled.” No,” Einstein answered. “Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?”