[MBTI General] How's your memory?

[Rebe]

I have terrible memory which I am now attributing to inferior Si. Not memory like reading a novel and not remembering specific details - I am actually fairly good with that stuff. But memories with people, conversations, emotional memory maybe.

Someone said something very important to me about a year ago. It was so important. It was an essential part of our relationship and it really could have helped me a lot when I have tried to go back and understand. I have the hardest time trying to understand the past. I much prefer to just move on and create future possibilities than to try to understand something that happened in the past. I hate doing it but I find myself stuck in the Fi-Si loop a lot when I am, well, just stuck and cannot implement external plans to move forward yet.

We had an important, long conversation where I asked for clarification many times. But even if that happened last week, I can guarantee that I still won't remember most of it. I will remember the gist of it and the outcome, but all the important facts in-between, I wouldn't have a clue. I am also fond of deleting memories and just closing doors on the past.

My Si-dom friend sees me as confused, which is true because all I have is Fi and Ne and blunt Te. How am I to understand the past and stick to one 'theory' or 'fact' of what happened if I have so much Ne. Even when I think of the past, I still focus on possibilities of what had happened, completely forgetting what actually did happen. And these possibilities of mine are more cynical and dramatic that what actually transpired. And I get stuck in this loop of making the past worse than it actually was, not because I want to or because I have so much free time on my hands. It's because I want to understand, I want to remember, but I cannot. Maybe Event A happened but I can still find reasons to believe the evidence for Event A is false and misleading and the possibilities of Event B/C/D are still there.

It's like having an ocean of positive and negative tidal waves for a foundation instead of a sturdy layer of bricks to keep me steady and keep the scenarios down to one.

So I was washing the dishes when this tiny little piece of information decided to laser itself into my brain and I feel like such a fool because I forgot something so, so important. It wasn't the code to my secret bank account or something, it was a piece of conversation, an emotional memory. I just can't god damn remember what happened in the past in the midst of all these possibilities my brain is just endlessly generating.

 

[animenagai]

lol I totally relate. I've come to the conclusion that I don't actually have a bad memory - something I thought I had when I was younger. I only remember things I find interesting and that's often stories or ideas rather than details or plain facts. For example, among my group of friends, I would never be the one who knows how to get from A to B, but I'll be the only one who remembers who my friend's childhood crush was. I can't remember the dates of my exams but I can quote ads from 10 years ago. lol it's just what I have fun with I guess.

 

[Moiety]

My problem isn't my memory but the way I filter things before I store them.

 

[sleepy]

My memory is weird. Of certain things, it's almost photographic. I can bring up mostly intact images. Conversations I can play back almost from a tape recorder. But there are a few glitches. It's selective-very and with large missing pieces. So outside of what triggers these recordings, it's not good. My main problem is my lack of control of my memory, and bring them back at demand. They seem to live their own life.

 

[Forever_Jung]

When it comes to physical details, I have virtually no memory. I remember faces pretty well, but clothing, physical surroundings, sounds and smells and I am virtually oblivious to. I always get lost because I can never remember how to get places and the one time the police asked me for a description of some criminal I was face-to-face with all I could recall was: average height, maybe tall...he might have been wearing a hat...I dunno.

But when it comes to ideas and connections and feelings I have a very good memory.

 

[ilovelurking]

When it comes to physical details, I have virtually no memory. I remember faces pretty well, but clothing, physical surroundings, sounds and smells and I am virtually oblivious to. I always get lost because I can never remember how to get places and the one time the police asked me for a description of some criminal I was face-to-face with all I could recall was: average height, maybe tall...he might have been wearing a hat...I dunno.

But when it comes to ideas and connections and feelings I have a very good memory.

Story of my life!

 

[Southern Kross]

For me it really depends on what I'm trying to remember.

My memory for useful information (names, faces, numbers, things I'm supposed to do, where I left my sunglasses/keys etc): absolutely abysmal

My memory for utterly useless information (trivia, stupid facts, funny stories): exceptional

 

[Vamp]

For me it really depends on what I'm trying to remember.

My memory for useful information (names, faces, numbers, things I'm supposed to do, where I left my sunglasses/keys etc): absolutely abysmal

My memory for utterly useless information (trivia, stupid facts, funny stories): exceptional

lol, this is pretty much how I am but I am good at physical stuff (smells, sounds, what things look like). ...except for directions. I will forget what I'm told in seconds no matter how many times I'm told. Like how to get to the same school, the same floor, the same classroom I've been going to for a year.

The amount of useless information stored in my brain could fill several books.

 

[Snuggletron]

long term I'm pretty good at generally, short term memory is bad though.

I will remember almost everything about someone I like enough. Sometimes even to their surprise.

 

[Snuggletron]

x2 post

 

[MrRandom]

I'd say my memory is exceptional. I can't figure out any memory area where I'd be bad. Or maybe I just don't remember them

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Memory is one of my greatest strengths.

 

[5231311252]

I too use to think I had a horrible memory, but now I know I only have a terrible memory when it comes to spoken words. My random facts memory seems to have deteriorated as well, as I've spent over a thousand hours reading such things and yet I can barely produce any of them.

 

[Arclight]

Ask me about yesterday today and I will have trouble with details.. Ask me about yesterday a month from now and I will recall details with vivid accuracy.
So I guess that means my short term memory is pretty crap.

 

[skylights]

my detailed memory is shit.

my concept-memory is awesome.

 

[Eckhart]

My memory works very selective too. Some conversations I remember very well even with several years having passed, some actually word-by-word. Some odd passwords or numbers I remember like months or years later although I barely used them. Some study or school exercise solutions I remember still very detailed a year after when I get to do them again. Then again, sometimes I cannot even remember what I had thought or done 2 minutes ago, or when I had to do something very important and thought about it the same day, I will often forget it still.

What is also odd: when I think very much about one thing and then repeat it in my head for a few times, I sometimes suddenly start to forget what I thought about while doing so?