How do you file your thoughts?

I read this in a newsgroup today. Someone trying to be technical without really knowing what they are talking about.

"What happens next time the logorythems change in Google?" ... logorythems?

Seeing how I needed to post about something today, I recall a conversation my wife and I had the other day. She really hates it when she starts to tell me something and I say "oh yeah, I heard that, or oh yeah I read that..." It drives her crazy. I have really been trying hard to let her tell me things she learns. It's important that she know things before I do. Anyway, what I was thinking was why is it that I know these things and how can I recall them? I mean I'm no Ken Jennings, but I do know a lot of current events and like staying on top of things. I guess the reason I know so much about current events it the fact that I interface with a computer all day. I have access to news and weblogs when ever I want.

But the conversation we had was how each of us store things we see, hear, smell, tast, everything. Somethings are stored in short term memory and we don't have to think very hard to recall them. Others are stored long term and take more of an effort remember them. Here is what I do. Everything piece of information I come across that I may want to remember I associate it with a picture or phrase. Things I want to remember frequently I try and store a hyperlink to it in my short term memory.

Why I am able to remember these things? I think comes from years of reading technical books and developing software. But I really think it's just that I see it all the time, every day, every where.

Filed in: technology