Charan Ranganath

Yeah, and the more similar they are, the harder that competition is, right? Yeah. I want to be clear that proper nouns are exceptionally hard because they're not – the problem is never the name or usually not the name. With me, it's sometimes with my name. It's the name for people. But let's say if the person you're looking for is Catherine, right? It starts with a K.

So the problem is, is that there's nothing that helps you link Catherine's name with her face. It's just a completely arbitrary link, right? They could look like anyone and that would be their name. So you're really trying to form a memory for something that's utterly meaningless. And that's the hard part. It's a little bit easier if you have some knowledge about them, but often it's

So the problem is, is that there's nothing that helps you link Catherine's name with her face. It's just a completely arbitrary link, right? They could look like anyone and that would be their name. So you're really trying to form a memory for something that's utterly meaningless. And that's the hard part. It's a little bit easier if you have some knowledge about them, but often it's

So the problem is, is that there's nothing that helps you link Catherine's name with her face. It's just a completely arbitrary link, right? They could look like anyone and that would be their name. So you're really trying to form a memory for something that's utterly meaningless. And that's the hard part. It's a little bit easier if you have some knowledge about them, but often it's

It's just very hard. And even once you learn it, as you said, you can still suffer from this competition because there's many other people that you have probably met whose name also starts with a K. Well, you make an interesting distinction, which is that there's a difference between forgetting and a retrieval failure.

It's just very hard. And even once you learn it, as you said, you can still suffer from this competition because there's many other people that you have probably met whose name also starts with a K. Well, you make an interesting distinction, which is that there's a difference between forgetting and a retrieval failure.

It's just very hard. And even once you learn it, as you said, you can still suffer from this competition because there's many other people that you have probably met whose name also starts with a K. Well, you make an interesting distinction, which is that there's a difference between forgetting and a retrieval failure.

That's exactly, that's one of the best analogies that I would think of is rummaging through the junk drawer, right? Another example I could give, which is, it's easy for me to think of because it's my life, is that, you know, if I walk into my desk in my office, it's completely filled with junk. My desk is my junk drawer, basically.

That's exactly, that's one of the best analogies that I would think of is rummaging through the junk drawer, right? Another example I could give, which is, it's easy for me to think of because it's my life, is that, you know, if I walk into my desk in my office, it's completely filled with junk. My desk is my junk drawer, basically.

That's exactly, that's one of the best analogies that I would think of is rummaging through the junk drawer, right? Another example I could give, which is, it's easy for me to think of because it's my life, is that, you know, if I walk into my desk in my office, it's completely filled with junk. My desk is my junk drawer, basically.

And I'm looking for something, let's say, let's just imagine I have 100 Post-it notes on my desk, and they're all yellow. And on one of them, I wrote my password for some bank account, let's say. I'm looking and I'm looking. It's going to take me a while to find it. And I might not find it amidst all the other clutter.

And I'm looking for something, let's say, let's just imagine I have 100 Post-it notes on my desk, and they're all yellow. And on one of them, I wrote my password for some bank account, let's say. I'm looking and I'm looking. It's going to take me a while to find it. And I might not find it amidst all the other clutter.

And I'm looking for something, let's say, let's just imagine I have 100 Post-it notes on my desk, and they're all yellow. And on one of them, I wrote my password for some bank account, let's say. I'm looking and I'm looking. It's going to take me a while to find it. And I might not find it amidst all the other clutter.

But if I had used a hot pink post-it note, it would stick out relative to everything else. And that is the issue with memories. You want something that's distinctive that makes this particular memory unique relative to other memories that you're looking for, right? And so that's a big part of what helps you overcome the competition in memories.

But if I had used a hot pink post-it note, it would stick out relative to everything else. And that is the issue with memories. You want something that's distinctive that makes this particular memory unique relative to other memories that you're looking for, right? And so that's a big part of what helps you overcome the competition in memories.

But if I had used a hot pink post-it note, it would stick out relative to everything else. And that is the issue with memories. You want something that's distinctive that makes this particular memory unique relative to other memories that you're looking for, right? And so that's a big part of what helps you overcome the competition in memories.

Well, I think this is one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book so badly. I had been told by a lot of people, hey, you should write a book teaching people how to remember more. And I always say you don't want to remember more. You want to remember better because nobody that's ever been studied has a photographic memory for everything.

Well, I think this is one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book so badly. I had been told by a lot of people, hey, you should write a book teaching people how to remember more. And I always say you don't want to remember more. You want to remember better because nobody that's ever been studied has a photographic memory for everything.

Well, I think this is one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book so badly. I had been told by a lot of people, hey, you should write a book teaching people how to remember more. And I always say you don't want to remember more. You want to remember better because nobody that's ever been studied has a photographic memory for everything.

And in fact, I don't care because my phone has a photographic memory. Literally, I don't need to do that.