Use tools to enhance your brain’s faulty memory

As human beings, we lose little pieces of our reality all the time. Names, phone numbers, the mental image of what someone looks like. These things all disappear over time because our brain is designed to hold onto what is now and let go of what has passed. For some of us, it happens faster and more frequently than for others. I am writing this article in 2009, and as of this date, I am unaware of any technology that can enhance the built in Random Access Memory I was born with. However, my brain can be prodded and refreshed externally. In a world where I am expected to demonstrate peak processing power at any given moment Evernote is a stopgap solution.

What makes Evernote so valuable is that it can become your crib sheet for life. If you are not familiar with the term crib sheet don’t be upset. Back in prehistoric times before the iPhone students used to try and make cryptic notes on small scraps of paper that they would hide in a sock or somewhere on their person to “assist” them in passing a scholastic exam. Now those all important reminders to oneself don’t have to be hidden in a sock – they can follow you from your desktop to your laptop to your iPhone. If you’re anywhere in the world where cellular service exists you can also use the backup brain on a little color screen to help you remember that name, face or all important Swiss bank account code.

Things will only get better. In 2019 I see no reason why I won’t have a built-in kind of Evernote subdermally implanted in my arm or some other strategic location like a HUD in my eyesight’s personal horizon. The world is awash in more and more information. It follows that we will need better and better tools to capture, store, sort, filter and retrieve that information. Go check out Evernote – the free version is probably adequate for most of you information hoarders. If you are an information super hoarder like me you might want the paid version – at $45 per year most people should get a good return on investment.