Or, the value of writing things down.

“Me: Speak, memory.

Memory: About what?”

Your memory is a funny thing. It is a universal capturing device turned on through attention; where your attention is, that’s what will be committed to memory. For most people, events, objects, and ideas decay like an ice cube on a warm day.

If your memory is powerful, when confronted with a relevant detail, the right memory will pop into your mind’s eye. Now, if your machinery is working otherwise, you won’t even know that you once knew something related to that detail.

I was reading a short blog post by the famed mathematician, Terrence Tao about the usefulness of writing down “some neat mathematical trick or argument” for use later.

Although writing down every useful piece of information you come across, might seem tedious — in fact, you have to first answer the harder question of knowing what is relevant to record and what you expect to find useful in the future — it serves a dual purpose. The first is that you will explore the groves of your topic, closer and the second is that it will free up mental space.

Start small and like an old, rackety, motorcycle engine, just get going.