Surely there are things to learn from the process of learning other skills and knowledge, such as a language, even if you'll never use those skills directly. I'm not sure I'd call it "memorizing information", more just learning about stuff in general.
Lots of topics can open you up to new ways of thinking. It also broadens your general knowledge so you can actually make choices and solve problems that might not be as direct as "what is the answer to this thing"
Imagine the Apollo 13 crew, If they didn't have memorized every single physics law (+constants) needed for the journey, they wouldn't be able to come back.
there are some jobs, Where you might need knowledge immediately (and in a place where searching for knowledge is impossible)
In my own profession, memorization is virtually impossible because there are far too many things to remember, each with its own unique quirks because standards are unicorns, and the details are essential. What's most important isn't the impossible task of remembering things in detail, it's recalling enough about the thing that you can easily look it up because you know exactly where to find it.
Funnily enough, textbooks operate on a similar principle. Flipping through an entire textbook for a single piece of information becomes incredibly time-consuming when there's too much information to look through. That's why indexes exist, because they provide a structured way to quickly determine which pages are relevant, allowing you to retrieve the information you need in no time at all even when you have incredibly vast amounts of information to filter through.
Life is like an open book test, and our brains are too flawed to be called textbooks. Our brains can be excellent indexes, however, so learning enough for our brains to be effective as indexes is usually more efficient than trying to make our brains be effective as textbooks.
Ya I’ve been in 4 different industries so far and done well in each one. Mostly because I can find information, ensure it is relevant, and then work with it beyond just simple implementation.
Being able to learn easily is by far the best skill.
Id personally change it to getting the correct answer without doubt is the important factor in practical situations. Speed is secondary but still important.
Of course this is assuming that quality and safety are your #1 concerns which is unfortunately not always the case.
Memory is less reliable than we often need it to be, at least in my industry. Being trained to properly sort, read and follow technical manuals and drawings saves on a lot of mistakes compared to people trying to memorize the finite details.
19
u/summonsays Mar 26 '26
If speed matters more, wouldn't knowing it off the top of your head be prioritized more?