Jim KwikFounder, Kwik Brain · Brain Coach

REMEMBERING names like THIS 😉

15 Mar 2023 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:29

In this segment of Jim Kwik’s video, he explains that the ability to remember names (or any information) hinges on the emotional connection to that information. He argues that we tend to remember names of people we are attracted to or see as beneficial because strong emotion creates long‑term memory. Conversely, the primary emotion experienced in school was boredom, which he rates as zero on an emotion scale; with an emotion level of zero, information retention drops to zero, explaining why we forget facts like presidents, capitals, or the periodic table. The core message is that motivation and emotion are essential drivers of memory retention.

Usually the names you remember are names you're motivated to. Somebody that is attracted to somebody, somebody that could be good for their business. There's emotion there. So emotion tied to information becomes a long-term memory. Because here's the thing, back in school, what was the primary emotion we felt? Boredom. On a scale of 0 to 10, what's boredom? 0. Information times emotion. If the emotion's 0, what's anything times 0? 0. And you wonder why you forgot the presidents, the capitals, the periodic table, all the things we learned in school, because the emotion level was very weak. Oh, wow.