Jim Kwik explains that long-term memory forms when information pairs with emotion. A song can instantly transport you back to a moment, but information multiplied by zero emotion yields nothing, which is why you forget the periodic table learned in a boring classroom.
The key to memory, it's information. Put your hand out and say information. Information. Combined with emotion. Combined with emotion. Becomes long-term memory. Becomes long-term memory. You remember things that make you feel something. How many of you, there's a song, you could hear a couple of notes, take you back to when you were a teenager? Oh yeah. Because it's the information times emotion. How many of you, it's a food or a fragrance that could take you back to when you were a child? But what was the primary emotion you felt back in school sitting in class? Boredom. No. Okay, let's take, let's take boredom. On a scale of 0 to 10, what's boredom? 0. And if it's information times emotion is a long-term memory, if that emotion is boredom or 0, what's anything times 0? 0. And you wonder why you forgot the periodic table.
The Library of Minds: Brain Coach: How to Stay Sharp When AI Does the Thinking | Jim Kwik
