In Praise of Memorization

I tend to use the term "contextual recall" rather than the term "memorization", since the former emphasizes that it's okay to rely on a combination of memorization and pithy resources.

Hand anatomy is the best example I can think of. A good diagram can help you recall enough information to answer complex questions that would otherwise require an incredible amount of memorization. You still need to memorize some things in order to answer questions -- mostly the kinematic aspects and various properties of the things being represented (tendons, bones, muscle, etc.) -- but far less than you would need otherwise.

The one pager of theorems and proof construction techniques sometimes allowed in mathematics courses is another example.

This is why generative models are exciting as the next "tool for thought" for me, up there with calculators and search engines. Contextual recall is a powerful tool, especially when combined with memorization, and is a limiter for lots of folks (including me).

Then way later in my 20s, when it was handy to know how to remember some multiples quickly, I realized that obviously there's a lot of patterns in there, and of course the magic of looking for an easier problem to do mentally to solve a more complex one.

No amount of effort at memorization ever succeeded in even trying to give me those tools, and they're so general - you can apply them to everything.

My entire 90s educational experience is a memory of teachers saying "you need to know your times tables" and no one actually trying to teach even basic reasoning about how numbers worked (which I suspect is why programming lept out at me - it's all number manipulation but it's all about the algorithms and patterns and finally things started to make sense).

"Retrieval is the key process for understanding learning and for promoting learning, yet retrieval is not often granted the central role it deserves. Learning is typically identified with the encoding or construction of knowledge, and retrieval is considered merely the assessment of learning that occurred in a prior experience. The retrieval-based learning perspective outlined here is grounded in the fact that all expressions of knowledge involve retrieval and depend on the retrieval cues available in a given context. Further, every time a person retrieves knowledge, that knowledge is changed, because retrieving knowledge improves one’s ability to retrieve it again in the future. Practicing retrieval does not merely produce rote, transient learning; it produces meaningful, long-term learning. Yet retrieval practice is a tool many students lack metacognitive awareness of and do not use as often as they should. Active retrieval is an effective but undervalued strategy for promoting meaningful learning."

1: https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1177/0963721412443552

Similarly I see no point in doing the opposite, like certain "GTD fanatic" who pretend not to remember what they need to do in next few hours because their GTD system is more efficient than their memory and so they need to keep memory free to focus on current thing.

Est modus in rebus.

We need to eat, eating too little is harmful, but also eating too much is harmful. We need oxygen to breathe but too much exigence fry our lungs and brain. Sport is important, a sedentary life is not healthy, but too much physical activity means being broken in the old age with a consumed body.

The most important thing to operate with their own brain IMVHO is having in memory "the big picture" so to being able to recall anything via computer as needed. Without the big outline our searches are limited, probably biased, we can't correlate things we encounter etc, but there is no need to do more and no reasons to do less.