I reckon usually, but this bad memory thing seems to have sprung up on me overnight. It’s not like I’ve always dismissed gaps in memory with “Oh, I’m just bad at that,” and allowed the situation to get worse. I remember priding myself on my crazy good memory, barely needing to take notes in school which lasted all the way through college, then next thing I know, I need to write down my *own *name lest I forget it. I don’t know what day, exactly, the memory started looking less like a steel trap and more like a sieve, but it was a sad day indeed. Still, even I had something near total recall, fuck if I was good with names. I would remember every stupid detail of everything you said to me, except all I could remember was your name began with a J… or maybe it was a G. These days I have to make a very serious effort to remember names, and have gotten better, but please don’t be offended if I meet you and forget what you call yourself five minutes later. I remember your drink, though.
Edit: :smack: Goddamn it, fooled by a zombie. Skald, please tell me some spammer whose post was deleted bumped this and not you!
All will come true. If you put in the effort to remember something, you will remember it. The example I always use is: How often do you forget how to tie your shoes, which signal means to cross the street, or how to use a fork/knife/chopsticks? Usually, the answer is “never.” A truly bad memory means forgetting these things. Willful forgetfulness (not putting in the effort to remember something) tends to be the main culprit.
I’m terrible with names but I started to think of a famous celebrity with the same forename. So if I met a George I might think of George Clooney, especially if that person had similar hair or something. I think just doing the exercise seals the name in my head. I distinctly remember forgetting a person’s name and then saying to myself, “who was the celebrity? Ah yes, George Clooney”.
And when I started a new job recently I sketched a plan of the office on the back of my notepad and got one of my new colleagues to help me fill in the names. I had to refer to it a few times for the first couple of weeks but the names soon stuck.