I feel like my PhD program literally gave me brain damage. There are a ton of things from physics (my initial undergraduate background) that I used to have memorized, like Avogadro's number.

Now, I mostly just remember the qualitative relationships and some of the explanations for them, but the precise numbers and formulas have mostly drifted into the ether.

Undisciplined

The million sats question, do you remember any of the obscure economic theories you were forced to gulp down in your undergraduate years?

During a memory workshop last year, the facilitator asked me to recite Avogadro’s constant since I said that I was trained in chemistry. I have not thought about this number for twenty years, but to my surprise I recited the constant even before my conscious brain kicked in to process his question. 

cryotosensei

health

How is your memory prowess?

You said almost everything I was going to. I never had to know my mom's bank account number, but no doubt I could have remembered that too. I still remember several of my childhood friends' phone numbers, and yet, I have no idea what their current phone numbers are.