Memorization of facts

[ruminator]

I have a friend who is a history buff and, during casual conversation, can explain historical facts in detail. For example, when I was planning a trip to Hungary, and asked him what it's like there, he explained the history of the Austro Hungarian Empire, its collapse, and how that affects the culture there, etc.

I find this very impressive because I am completely incapable of recalling detailed facts like that. For example, I recently read a book on Middle Eastern history, but I can not explain what I read in detail the way that my friend did. I understood everything while reading it, and could have probably recited the facts within a week of reading it, but after that it fades away. I carry away the "big picture" ideas from the book, but do not remember any specific facts.

Regardless of the book, this comes up a lot in life where people like my history buff friend share their knowledge (and they have so much knowledge) about things like history, political theory, philosophy, science, etc. In contrast, I feel like I have nothing to share because I don't really have any knowledge. I don't remember facts about anything.

This makes me feel stupid compared to them and I start to wonder am I even smart after all? It's really caused a personal crisis where I feel like a huge failure in life for not having knowledge. I don't know if this is an INTP thing or if anyone relates to this.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Its probably conditioning, where women were not allowed to join in at the same level as men from the past.
I guess if people didn't have teachers or parents that required that level of detail, it just wasn't developed as well with most people in general though, men or women. School and daily immersion of something will make you more of an expert.

If you wanted to, you really could I'm sure when its something you really like. We need to see more women doing this. I only can do that when its a topic I know a lot about and like.

I can memorize things in great detail but I can't as easily verbalize vocally about it. I did teach my entire division at work how to do a process in an hour long demonstration and they said I explained it clearly and perfectly, its because I need a high level of detail to understand something myself and if I'm immersed in it, I can do it. Otherwise, I don't feel proficient enough to talk about it. So, its like I require tons and tons of knowledge before I feel I can and then its second nature.
History and Language were the two subjects I didn't get into very much mostly because of all the facts that are dry and don't synthesize well without a bigger picture of real coherence. Just know that anything that is impressive in someone else was a LOT of work for someone to get to that point.

Yes, you can, but it might be years of work getting to that level. So, I'm sure if you appreciate it in them, thats all that is needed. And if you still feel lacking then just study that area more, it might just be that you are trying to motivate yourself to learn more.

Now, if he just read the book once and then it all rolled off his tongue like he was an expert, then whoa, I don't know, I can't do that at all. I am guessing it was much more work than that though.

 

[Black Rose]

There is verbal eidetic then there is pictorial eidetic.

This is a combination between the temporal lobe and the hippocampus.

In college, I had to read a history book containing 200 facts but the test had 20 questions. I got a D-

I am more of a spatial algebraic learner, that is the parietal lobes.

I am good at solving problems.

Not in working memory but in space.

According to my theory, Ti is the left front brain working memory and Te is the right front brain working memory.

So verbal reflectiveness is not the same as vision reflectiveness.

One side is dominant in the front. But we have different modules that work together.

 

[sushi]

he sounded like an istj or intj

 

[sushi]

its not about fact memory, its about understanding explaining and how it relates to the present.

there is nothing wrong with just seeing the big picture and slowly realizing the details.

as for crisis, there will always be people 10 or 100 times better than you no matter where you are in the genius curve. Better just live with it. Does it devalue you, only if you take it too seriously.

 

[dr froyd]

i think it is an attribute of INTP to tend to reason in a vacuum – to try to analyse things with pure logic based on particular axioms and assumptions. As such this INTP would have little interest in history or all the various aspects of say politics and culture throughout the world, and he/she would have a very small repertoire of real-world and historical facts in their mind.

I have operated very much like that most of my life, but i came to the conclusion that it's a major shortcoming when it comes to understanding things in the real world. It works as long as one reasons inside purely theoretical systems like math, but when it comes to the real world the only way to reason about it is to understand the sequence of events that preceded the present – i.e. history. With that realization, memorizing historical facts becomes easier because it all becomes a part of a coherent system.

but the starting point of that approach is that one asks why is x currently like this and that – it was because x was preceded by y and so on. I recall how we learned history in school in a very different way; as with most other things in school you start by learning a bunch of random disconnected facts. One day we're learning about Martin Luther and the origins of the protestant church, next day we learn about some WWII stuff, and so on, with no indication of why these things matter to begin with. For systematic thinkers like INTP that's a very bad approach, and naturally we forget 100% of the facts we are presented with.

 

[sushi]

if you are a teacher and teaching something
you will understand how knowledge works.

its not strict recitation and memory

 

[ZenRaiden]

I feel like I have nothing to share because I don't really have any knowledge. I don't remember facts about anything.

I hate this about myself too. I realized I tend to understand things, but details just hum in background.
I dont recall things until I need them. My brain has a stranglehold on info.
Ti problems.
I believe that detail brains are trade off. Different kind of smarts.
If you generalize more you remember less fuzzy details.
But you also are more versatile in applying the knowledge.

So your friend might never see connection between Austro Hungarian Empire collapse and someones bad hair day.
I do.
No one cares about those associations. They crack me up good though.

This makes me feel stupid compared to them and I start to wonder am I even smart after all?

Me too, but that is because the way we are taught to view our human intellect in school system.
We are conditioned to be detailed and analytical thinkers.
Anything outside of this cognitive box is seen as stupid by normies.
Which means if you want to be really smart you have trust your brain more, even though 99 percent of the time most people will tell you are dimwit.

Reciting details is not the only way to slice our brains in terms of intelligence.
Also your friend simply learned how to think of details more. ITs a type of processing power we all have, but it comes at cost and most of us are lazy to work on it, because its boring and tedious kind of like knowing how to write in cursive.
Our brains are lazy for a reason.

 

[Hourglass]

What even is a fact these days anyways?