Have you ever been told to memorise something and thought to yourself, “Do I really have to?”

No, really…

Do you have to?

🙇🏽‍♂️ Why bother?

As a medical student, I was tasked with memorising heaps of information for my exams.

My problem with that? Most of it wasn’t necessary.

Do I really need to know the milestones of a child’s motor skill development if I’m not going to be a paediatrician?

Do I need to memorise the exact dosage of a non-emergency drug when it’s readily available on my ‘BNF’ app?

Yet, if I didn’t know these things, I’d drop significant marks in my exams.

If I couldn’t recall them immediately at the request of a senior doctor, I’d be scolded for it.

Memorising half of the things we do is outdated.

It just isn’t a consensus to think so yet.

💡Is there a better way?

Why do we create tools to outsource the storage of information if we’re still going to dedicate large amounts of time and value to memorising that very same information?

Having the ability to memorise in the short and long term is an amazing feat of the human brain.

It just isn’t so crucial for the world we live in anymore.

Aside from emergencies and situations where you wouldn’t want to delay the retrieval of that information, why should those things be memorised?

We need to focus on delegating the task of a hard drive to computers and notebooks rather than our own brains.

Only then can we utilise our cognitive power towards higher-level thinking and problem-solving.

Now, as a doctor, I retrieve most of my information from a google search, my Evernote library and one of many medical apps.

Nice and easy.

It also saves me from the stresses of recalling incorrect information and the time needed to ensure it stays in my head.

The brain expels what isn’t deemed important and doesn’t pop up frequently.

So why should we force it to go against itself?

⏳Change is Coming.

If something crops up frequently, that’s the world’s way of enforcing spaced repetition. You’re more likely to remember it now.

If it causes you immediate stress to forget something when you needed to know it, your brain will help to consolidate that information so that you don’t experience that same stress again.

Doesn’t that sound like a healthier, more efficient use of the brain?

There’s a radical shift brewing in the way that we process and memorise information.

People will tell you that you’re incompetent and unsafe for not committing everything to memory.

They’ll come around.

See you next week,

Faisal.

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🔗 The Weekly Link-Up

Links to things I’ve enjoyed this week and think you might enjoy too:

1. I read this great article about how to improve our posture when we sit. I’m still sitting awkwardly as I write this though.

2. I really don’t like using more apps and tools than I need to, so I never gave notion a try because I never needed it. However, I really struggled to create an efficient workflow for my newsletters and Youtube videos until I started using it’s linked databases. I’m a fan now.

3. My good friend Mohammad Farwana (or ‘That Medic’) just got accepted into a surgical training post. I’m super happy for him! Check out his video here.

🎥 This Week’s Videos

✏️ About the Author:

👨🏽‍⚕️Faisal is a Junior Doctor working in the NHS and the founder of YoungAcademics, a Collaboration Platform for Students and Researchers (sign up to the new beta waitlist).

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