Yes, absolutely, and impacted significantly by COVID and working from home. Some of it is getting better, but at 53, my recall and ability to pick up the minutiae of IT stuff is not what it used to be.
Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
61–70 of 82 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#62Mid-life burnout/overwhelm and long term low-level stress can all contribute, in my and my team's. experience. You've not mentioned gender either - menopause in women can cause brain fog etc. You end up feeling like "25 year old me was so much sharper and quicker, wtf?!" Assuming that: you work in tech; you're probably not neuro typical; you've developed so many coping strategies for life's ups and downs you don't ev…
Thanks for your answer, very insightful really. I suspect I might have some of the issues you’ve mentioned. Two follow-up questions if you don’t mind Do you track your sleep quality, and if so using which method? I do work in tech. What do you mean by not being neuro-typical?
Bluntly, most tech people are either some kind of ADHD or Aspergers, or both. Well-Adjusted Adults (/s) don't generally want to spend all day speaking in extremely logical terms and fighting esoteric error messages from their computer. IMO a lot of scrum practices and tech company culture is centered around making work more tractable for people with these kinds of neurodivergances.
In relation to what GP was talking about, if you have spent most of your life with either of these conditions it is likely that part of your normal every-day functioning involves employing some set of defense mechanisms and learned reactions. Part of that in the past may have been developing an affinity for computers. It can be hard to navigate a world in which most people seem to understand more about interpersonal interaction than you do, and/or where most people are cool with ambiguities that don't make sense to you. These strategies take up a lot of CPU power in your brain, and can (among a whole host of other things) make your memory more foggy because you are busy spending all your time in a kind of low-level survival mode.
As an aside, poor autobiographical memory is a really common side effect of ADHD, a condition which can be philosophically framed as having a difficult time connecting to the past or future as well as other people can.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#63Get checked for ADHD. I thought my memory was awful, and in some ways it is, but there's so much more to it than that. At 44 I was diagnosed, and 1.5 years later I'm learning so much about how it affects my every day life. Of course, hitting 40 is part of the equation, but the way you described it sounded pretty familiar.
I really appreciate this tip. There could definitely be something like that that hasn’t been identified until now. I thought ADHD was only for hyperactive people, but it seems that it doesn’t have to be the case always.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#64Get checked for ADHD. I thought my memory was awful, and in some ways it is, but there's so much more to it than that. At 44 I was diagnosed, and 1.5 years later I'm learning so much about how it affects my every day life. Of course, hitting 40 is part of the equation, but the way you described it sounded pretty familiar.
I really appreciate this tip. There could definitely be something like that that hasn’t been identified until now. I thought ADHD was only for hyperactive people, but it seems that it doesn’t have to be the case always.
It's definitely not what you think it is, or what I thought it was for that matter.
This page really helped me to see it for what it was, and then go get diagnosed. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd-what-you-n...
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#65I, too, am 41. For the last five years, I've noticed that my mental performance has become more sensitive to physical changes. I had a particularly bad day with my memory one day when I woke up an hour earlier than I normally do. Another time, my wife had to point out that I hadn't eaten in 12 hours when I complained I was feeling worn out (I didn't think I was hungry). If I'm stressed, sleeping poorly, haven't exerc…
Same. Physically, feeling old: slow, tight, missing energy, etc. Go for a run one weekend. Stretch after. Back to normal. Never before felt like this. Never been fixed so fast. Like I needed some fresh oil flushed through the system. Rot quicker. Dust off easy. Swap the deodorant for wd-40 maybe.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#66OH yeah. Coming up on 40 and I forget so much shit now. I'll forget I watched some movie a year ago, start to re-watch it, and go "wait a minute..." I also make really dumb errors writing that I never, ever used to. Homophone mix-ups and such, even when I know which one's correct, the wrong one goes to my fingers. Omitting words, that kind of thing. Didn't do that ever before 30. I also barely have what they call an…
Isn't this autobiographical memory just another capability of the brain that is simply trained by making use of it?
Yes, there are of course medical cases and disorders. But I'd guess a lot of variance just comes from differing individual "training intensity".
There must be quite some variance in the average number of times that individual people are triggered/challenged to recall some memories (and process them) in their everyday lives. Some people don't communicate with others - generally, and also more specifically about what happens/happened in their life - as much as others do.
And some people are more inclined to subconsciously cultivate their own memories, than others. Those for example, who enjoy storytelling. Their mind probably creates stories (which apparently are an essential mental feature) around their memories more easily, which facilitates recalling these memories.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for your answer, very insightful really. I suspect I might have some of the issues you’ve mentioned. Two follow-up questions if you don’t mind Do you track your sleep quality, and if so using which method? I do work in tech. What do you mean by not being neuro-typical?
Bluntly, most tech people are either some kind of ADHD or Aspergers, or both. Well-Adjusted Adults (/s) don't generally want to spend all day speaking in extremely logical terms and fighting esoteric error messages from their computer. IMO a lot of scrum practices and tech company culture is centered around making work more tractable for people with these kinds of neurodivergances. In relation to what GP was talking…
Maybe this is not very HN-style of a response, but I want to sincerely thank you for your careful answer. I’m probably learning something about myself just now. Something I’ve always suspected, but didn’t put a finger on it until now. Will investigate this further.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#68I, too, am 41. For the last five years, I've noticed that my mental performance has become more sensitive to physical changes. I had a particularly bad day with my memory one day when I woke up an hour earlier than I normally do. Another time, my wife had to point out that I hadn't eaten in 12 hours when I complained I was feeling worn out (I didn't think I was hungry). If I'm stressed, sleeping poorly, haven't exerc…
Same. Physically, feeling old: slow, tight, missing energy, etc. Go for a run one weekend. Stretch after. Back to normal. Never before felt like this. Never been fixed so fast. Like I needed some fresh oil flushed through the system. Rot quicker. Dust off easy. Swap the deodorant for wd-40 maybe.
I've heard hormone therapy can help that. My father in law did it at fifty and he said it made him feel a lot younger.
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#69did u get covid?
Re: Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
#70Bad (and/or slow) memory too. By slow I mean I’ll remember later but not when needed.
With football, if you are not into it I think it is OK not to remember. Often there is peer pressure to watch this stuff. Can’t wait till it is over so I can hide my lack of interest in other people playing sports.
I print out stuff to remember who is in what team as the teams shuffle around alot.
BBC has a puff piece saying eat blueberries and green tea, guess there is not much to lose trying that.
My issue is yes I can remember stuff if I try but I don’t soak up everything in realtime. In conversation I am either paying attention or remembering details but not both.
Not sure on the answer!
More sleep, healthy diet I guess!