My memory is terrible. If I don’t see a record of a thought or experience, it’s like it never happened.
I’ve lived 31 years and I don’t have 31 years worth of experiences I can recall. It troubles me that much of those 31 years are basically gone. (Afterall, other than our individual and collective memories, what life does a fleeting thought or experience have?)
There have been 1.9 quadrillion days of human experiences. More or less. [1]
How much have we humans retained? How much has been “wasted”? [2]
That’s why I want to journal, email, blog, bookmark, twitter, tell a friend, talk out loud… Anything that lets me read or hear it a year from now, smile and exclaim, “Yes, that’s right! I remember that. That did happen.”
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[1] 106 billion humans ever lived. Call it 50 years average life expectancy. 106,000,000,000 * 50 * 365 = 1,934,500,000,000,000 (1.9 quadrillion)
[2] When I say “wasted”, I mean two things. First, human experience is wasted when it’s not recorded for future generations to enjoy and learn from. That’s why I think the Story Corps project is so awesome. Second, I sometimes find myself solving the same problem twice. It annoys me when that happens. Ever have this experience? ”Wait a minute. I think I’ve figured this out once already. Hmm, where’s that code…”
Hi, I'm Greg. I'm a cofounder of Killer Aces Media. We publish community blogs like