1/ I’ve noticed that I increasingly forget certain things. It started with people’s names, then I'd forget plans, early memories with my wife and children, and I began to worry what if my absent-mindedness affects my ability to think and write?
2/ Once I was driving with my wife and she said excitedly, “Remember when,” I wrack my mind, but I’m at a loss. She looks over at me and sees a blank face. I quote Nietzsche, “The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”
3/ She rolls her eyes. I read her Jack London, “To be able to forget means sanity.” Silence. Often, she tells me a plan and when the day arrives, I am surprised. I won’t recall our conversation. I thought this is her way of manipulating me but I just suck at remembering things.
4/ It was a relief to discover that there is nothing wrong with me. A growing body of neuroscience research in the past decade shows that forgetting things can actually be a byproduct of rigorous thinking, smooth decision-making, or heightened creativity.
5/ We are so caught up in our everyday lives that to think and act more clearly, the brain balances remembering and forgetting gracefully to facilitate optimal use of memory, helping to lessen the cognitive load. To brain is wired to forget so we can have proper memory function.
6/ By clearing the mind of past patterns and perspectives, forgetting eliminates interference from competing thoughts and keeps us from fixating on a single set of ideas or things we already know. Forgetting is at the heart of thinking of something new and different.
7/ And contrary to the notion forgetfulness reflects a withering of brain cells, scientists say it can actually be driven by the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region linked to memory. The ability to forget is crucial to how the brain works.
8/ The corollary is that a healthy memory benefits from the ability to forget. According to Michael Anderson, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, “Forgetting is what we want and need to, while remembering is the human frailty.”
