#write only memory

{ 18 – III } WOM

Si algún día piensas o te dicen que el típico informático, la típica BOFH, el nerd más normalito o la geek estándar no tienen gracia, son aburridos, no saben contar chistes o son “barely” tratables humanamente, recuerda que unos cuantos descubrieron la “write only memory”… y se lo llevan pasando bomba treinta años a costa principalmente de sí mismos. Porque el humor bien entendido empieza por…

Write Only Memory

- I just spent a large amount of time making flashcards for my Arabic vocab words. I've been meaning to do it since the beginning of the semester, but I kept putting it off. So I have a lot to catch up on.

Rather than complain about that, though, I'm going to talk about the importance of what I'm doing. Not the flashcards. I might not ever look at them again. But the act of writing the flashcards. There is scientific proof that links the act of writing to memory. I don't have the studies in front of me. Google them yourself if you want. But the proof is there.

This doesn't work with typing yet. That's also in the studies. But I did my own experiment last year in college, and I'd vouch for its truth. I spent the first semester of last year taking all my notes on my computer. I took it to every class, and typed every note I ever took. The next semester, I stuck with paper and pen. I still remember stuff from that semester. Not to mention the fact that my grades were better, too.

Sure you could argue that it wasn't exactly a large sampling of data. Maybe the classes were harder the first semester, or maybe I didn't like them as much as the second. You can't say that my computer distracted me from my school work though. For every class I spent perusing the interwebs that first semester, I spent an equal class the second semester doodling or playing a game on my iPod.

After that post about the baby and her iPad, maybe we will eventually get to the point where typing is intimately tied to our memories, but right now it is the simple act of forming symbols with your hands on a piece of paper. If you want more proof, you could also google ways to learn languages fluently in a few months. There is a whole group of people devoted to this, and a common theme is filling up tons of notebooks with the new vocabulary. They just write words and phrases over and over again. But it sticks in their mind.

Heck, I still remember things I wrote down in elementary school. Do I remember anything those teachers said? Nope. So if you need to remember it, write it down. You could even do it with your finger on a piece of non-existent paper. It would suffice.