Memory

The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder [8k words] [journalism] [light]

• A long-form profile of a Silicon Valley founder.
• Did Lee lose his "true self"? What is the difference between losing your true self and changing your true self?
• Would past Lee knowingly enter his current state? Would current Lee willingly leave his current state?

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling [13.5k words] [fiction] [light]

• A short story by Ted Chiang about memory and technology
• I feel like there are two positions you can take after reading this story. Which one do you take?
• What is a scenario in which, the truth of feeling is more real than the truth of fact?
  • Perhaps the answer to the question: "Did you do that because you were mad at me?" Maybe I did it because I was mad. Maybe I did it because I was mad at them. Maybe they weren't the sole reason I was mad, but they were a crucial part of it.
• How would you explain words to somebody?
• Does access to a record of memory really depersonalize and remove all partiality from memory? The subjectivity of human experience will still be there, but it will just be mediated by technology. For example, if I had access to a video stream of the last 24 hours, I still watch that video stream through the lens of my own mental filters.
• I think there is a more nuanced truth here: summary statistics can only say so much about the world. And everything is a summary statistic. For example, someone may claim that a certain group deserves to go to the best college because they have the best SAT scores. But the counter claim can be made that this group had unjust access to resources that allowed them to get the best SAT scores.

Why We Forget Most of What We Read [1.5k words] [science] [culture] [light]

• A reflection on reading and memory

Erler 2010 - Does Memory Modification Threaten Our Authenticity? [9.5k words] [philosophy] [dense]

• An argument from a philosopher about how memory enhancement and editing technologies could affect our identities.
• What other considerations are there besides authenticity that should be made when weighing a decision?

The Curse of Reading and Forgetting [2k words] [culture] [light]

• Another personal reflection on remembering what we read
• Referenced in Why We Forget Most of What We Read

How to take smart notes in Org-mode [1.5k words] [blog] [demo] [light]

• A blog post about a note-taking workflow that can be described as "building a second brain"
• If you’ve ever struggled with writing a research paper, I think this will be a really insightful read. I just started using this system and I think I’ve gotten a lot of benefit out of it. - Chris

The Machine [2.5k words] [philosophy] [comic] [light]

• A neat comic about the philosophy of memory
• This comic touches on some of the themes in the other readings. If you like philosophy, the rest of these comics are pretty good as well.

Remembering the Details: Effects of Emotion [10k words] [study] [cognitive science] [dense]

• Scientific article on how emotions affect the way we store memories