Episode 111: You Get There Early for Pancake Day

TOPIC: Memory.

This week, Dan and Merlin try to tackle the complexities of memory.

Why do we remember things from childhood with unimpeachable detail, but then forget our own phone number or PIN code? How can the same person remember the name of everyone he's ever met, and then space a phone call a couple hours after it was scheduled? Why do we remember and why do we forget?

Unsurprisingly, few concrete answers appear, but there's plenty of lively conversation on savant syndrome, tactical memory aides, and the precise location of Merlin's pills.

Links for this episode:

• [SPONSOR] Shutterstock
  Royalty-Free Subscription Stock Photography & Vector Art - Search and select from millions of high resolution royalty free images, stock photos, vector art, and stock photography.
  
• Forgetfulness - Billy Collins Animated Poetry - YouTube
  
• This is real. And, it’s still my favorite email... | kung fu grippe
  
• Compose Gmail Message.app I just ““wrote”” my... | kung fu grippe
  It’s the world’s dumbest and awesomest Automator app, and it does precisely one thing
  
• Tip of the tongue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (TOT), sometimes called presque vu, is the failure to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent.[1] The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
  
• Papenhausen Hardware
  We are now carrying SodaStream products. That's right you can make your own sodas or carbonated water drinks. The machine is simple to use and the cartridges are refillable. Just bring down your empty one and exchange it for a full one.
  
• Chunking (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Chunking, in psychology, is a phenomenon whereby individuals group responses when performing a memory task. Tests where individuals can demonstrate "chunking" commonly include serial and free recall tasks
  
• Heuristic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  In more precise terms, heuristics are strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings and machines
  
• Jamie Phelps (jxpx777) on Twitter
  Smartsure and cocksure.
  
• Jamie Phelps | Smartsure and cocksure
  
• Rain Man (1988) - IMDb
  Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie
  
• Rain Man (1988) - Trivia - IMDb
  Dustin Hoffman spent a year working with autistic men and their families to understand their complex relationships. Also, when he was a jobbing actor, he had worked in a psychiatric care home, and drew from his experiences then for the film.
  
• Kim Peek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Laurence Kim Peek (November 11, 1951 – December 19, 2009) was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had an exceptional memory, but he also experienced social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man. Unlike Babbitt, who had autism, Peek probably had FG syndrome.
  
• Kim Peek - The Real Rain Man [1/5] - YouTube
  
• Savant syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities and/or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal
  
• Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief: Lawrence Wright: 9780307700667: Amazon.com: Books
  A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower,?the now-classic study of al-Qaeda?s 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with?current and former Scientologists?both famous and less well known?and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology.
  
• Operating Thetan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  In Scientology, Operating Thetan (OT) is a spiritual state above Clear. L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and creator of Scientology, defined it as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time (MEST)"
  
• The downside of the outboard brain | 43 Folders
  Clive Thompson writes on a phenomenon I think about constantly: if you really do start entrusting all your ephemeral memory work to external systems, might your wetware start to atrophy?
  
• David Brooks on his "Outsourced Brain" | 43 Folders
  NYT's David Brooks on outsourcing memory, reference, and decision-making to things that theoretically do it better:
  
• Tips on becoming a better listener | 43 Folders
  No, friend, you will be deeply annoyed to hear me ask you to repeat your name at least twice, and possibly five times, during our inaugural conversation. And, in subsequent meetings, even though your face will be forever etched upon my brain (a skill at which I absolutely excel), I will probably call you "Champ," "Chief," or possibly "Tex." Because, yes, I will have completely forgotten your name.
  
• SI Football Phone commercial - YouTube
  Sports Illustrated Football Phone. Late 80s
  
• Albert Einstein - Wikiquote
  [I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. ...The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
  
• Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea? (Part Three)
  "A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England" --Richard Saul Wurman
  
• 5by5 | After Dark #360: After Back to Work #111
  Wow. Today's Back to Work After Dark is…is…mmmmmmmMMMMMMMM…**UNACCEPTABLE!!!**

• MI Spliff UB40 - YouTube
  
• Neuroplasticity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Neuroplasticity (from neural - pertaining to the nerves and/or brain and plastic - moldable or changeable in structure), also known as brain plasticity, refers to changes in neural pathways and synapses which are due to changes in behavior, environment and neural processes, as well as changes resulting from bodily injury. Neuroplasticity has replaced the formerly-held position that the brain is a physiologically static organ, and explores how - and in which ways - the brain changes throughout life.

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Shutterstock (use code "BACKTOWORK3" for 30% off).