Why does the brain forget things?
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Forgetting is just as important as remembering. Can you imagine remembering every single face you see on the subway? Your brain would be so full of useless noise that you wouldn’t be able to pay attention to the stuff that matters.
Unless you get brain damage it doesn’t. You just misplace the memory. Memory works by association. The secret to a strong memory is putting your memories where you’ll be able to easily find them. For centuries a system most commonly referred to as simonides memory palace was used. Mostly forgotten about today it’s still invaluable for memorizing large strings of random number and letters as well as lists, poems, speeches, and anything else that has a start and a finish. Basically you visualize a building in your head that exists in the real world then visualize mnemonic devices along a path through the building that symbolizes what you want to remember. So for example if you were memorizing every president of the United States you would start with Washington so at the front door of the building you would visualize a washing machine washing a big cartoon weight shaking iradicaly.
The idea that we don’t forget things is pretty easy to prove, all you have to do is remember something that you thought you forgot which happens to most people regularly.
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