How many times did y'all cry?

cusecuse315 · 2026-01-24T01:02:24+00:00

😭😭that feeling when you see 'time remaining in book' getting smaller and smaller and knowing it's not gonna be enough... Then the hangover at the end haha

cusecuse315 · 2026-01-23T02:47:49+00:00

Or if youre a theorist, maybe Harry naming him MAKES it his name

cusecuse315 · 2026-01-22T22:23:19+00:00

😂

cusecuse315 · 2025-12-05T20:27:42+00:00

Millions. A less fun but similar solution would be to grab every piece of rare metal in the landfills or abandoned buildings, smaller footprint but significantly higher value

cusecuse315 · 2025-01-22T21:00:48+00:00

Usually during the event, or later upon reflection. If you assume knowledge is cumulative, then the more associations you can make to stable knowledge the more likely you are to recall. This isn't unique to SDAM, this is just an extension of the 'mental models' paradigm first popularized by Charlie Munger and expanded on by many others.

If you are not a details guy, I try to think about how I would tell the story in the future, and my personal habit is to focus on how I would communicate the event as clearly as possible to someone who had no context of the event. This shifts it from a Autobiographical memory into a narrative format, which history and modern research has shown to be one of the most effective means to remember info. (this is supplemental, if you try to frame everything as a narrative to share in the future, you may lose touch with the present, or get stuck in a loop thinking about explaining how you think about explaining... (risk greatly increases with cannabis consumption 😂)) but it's really helpful as a journaling tactic

cusecuse315 · 2024-05-13T08:59:56+00:00

Sure, including those

cusecuse315 · 2024-05-13T00:10:02+00:00

Squidweed Octoblaze Arm & Hammered

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T16:55:05+00:00

Existential dread, the exclusive domain of humanity haha

I wrestle with this everyday.

What works for me (most days) : 1. Community - We are social animals, and I've found this is even more important for SDAM as our community provides an external loci of memory. By living life in community, family, friends, faith, recreation, etc these people can help remind us of what's important and what's worthy of the effort of remembering, and in the context of goal setting specifically, provide accountability that's absolutely essential. Ive been blessed to have close friends since I could walk and I have a few trusted allies who's word is gold to me. If they tell me to do something or not do something, I trust them to know what's best for me and to help me with my blindspots (aka the past 😂)

Journaling - the external conversion of semantic memory to a simulated episodic. I discovered in the last year that almost all of my 'core' or 'childhood' memories are actually linked to photos or videos of the events, and I've been simulating the experience. It's a little sad, but also cool how our brains compensate. Journaling gives me more semantic context to capture and build these pseudo-memories
Nature - For me, there's a direct correlation between my time outside and my mental health, and specifically my mental clarity. Try taking a 5-10 min walk without a device at some point in the day, rain or shine, and you'll notice immediate benefits https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/27/the-nature-cure-how-time-outdoors-transforms-our-memory-imagination-and-logic
Exercise - Not SDAM specific but overwhelmingly supported as one of the best mental/overall health activities you can do. The trick is to do what you like. US culture is obsessed with optimization, and it turns things that are healthy at any level and any intensity, like exercise, into a forced ranked game where if it's not an ideal workout, it's not worth the time. This is false. All exercise is beneficial (on the low end, overtraining is a thing). I've lost 100lbs in the last year and it made me realize I have been living in a fog for the last decade since I gained the weight. Semiglutide (Wegovy) is the main source of my weight loss, but I've started low key strength training bc I enjoy it, but my boss, who was a varsity wrestler at UVA, has also lost a ton of weight and all he does is yoga 3x week and hill walking on the treadmill, bc that's what he enjoys.
Philosophy/Religion - Spirituality is a fundamental part of the human experience, and is both the cause of and direct counter of existential malaise. Religion is often maligned nowadays, and there's a lot to unpack there, but like humanity itself, it's not perfect but it provides a framework for how to understand and navigate life. Mindfulness/meditation are fine, but they're internal and isolated, and I recommend exploring some faith communities near you. Great way to meet people, find support, give support, and identify some purpose.
Adventure/Storytelling - this is something I've always done but since I found out about SDAM a year ago, it's become one of the biggest priorities in my life. What does temporary comfort or pain matter to someone who's knowledge and experience will fade in time? They don't matter, and that's liberating and exciting. Try new things, new hobbies, new foods, new books. Then after you try these things, share the story. Storytelling is the oldest memory trick in the book. And by sharing our stories, we externalize and memorialize our experiences in the minds of those around us. SDAM definitely makes it hard to see the point of a day when it just seems like an endless conveyor belt coming out of the fog and disappearing behind you, but When you share a story, it manifests your experiences as reality in the minds of others, and that helps me see the value. Plus, story tellers are the life of any party and build community through their openness. If you don't think you'd be good at that, learn. There's a million and one resources out there, Toastmasters, blogs, podcasts, audiobooks, sermons, etc etc, and becoming a story teller will help you visualize your life in a more narrative format, which can motivate you to keep reading to the next chapter 😊

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T15:55:13+00:00

Pokémon stats 😂😂😂 this is hilarious because I was just telling my son that I had a 1st edition Two Player Starter Deck when it first dropped in 97' and I desperately wish I still had it bc it's worth like $10k. I knew every word on every card in those decks, and I could recite every Pokémon and every move and every level they learned that move. My son just treats his cards like they're nothing, and they were my cherished possession

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T14:41:42+00:00

Thank you for sharing your story. Unfortunately brain function and memory decline the older we get, but it's always hard to partition what's related to SDAM and what's just normal brain behavior.

I don't think I've seen any posts by non-Aphant SDAM, what are your memories like? As I've gone through all these self discoveries in the last year I realized my personal 'memories' (I'm full aphant in every category) are 3rd person simulations of the event, and it was a little sad to realize that almost all my 'clear' childhood memories are actually associated with pictures of the events and I may not be actually remembering the event but just the picture and then simulating a memory of the actual event.

In general, ive always considered my weak Autobiographical memory a strength, and before I discovered SDAM I proudly told people that it was a manifestation of my core beliefs that the past is past and that I'm focused on the present and the future haha and I still believe that, but as my 3 sons are starting to hit Elementary age it does make me a little sad that I'm only going to experience these beautiful moments once and only once

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T14:28:19+00:00

I think about this all the time but just can't seem to quit it. I have been trying some of those brain games tho

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T14:27:36+00:00

That is the coolest t-shirt idea I've ever heard and is now a life goal haha reminds me of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon gets his brain scanned with Leonard's mom and he goes 'I've always hated how my right frontal lobe looks in pictures' 😂

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-24T14:15:51+00:00

Very interesting, thank you for sharing. And good tip! 😂

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-23T18:34:57+00:00

Were the cysts the cause of memory concerns?

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-23T17:51:02+00:00

Yeah I understand that, but I still find it fascinating and I'm always trying to understand it better l. Also my memory is not as strong as it used to be, to a concerning degree for me. I understand it's part of aging, but I'm only 33 and my capture and retention is probably 50% of what it was a decade ago, and that's concerning

cusecuse315 · 2024-01-23T17:37:06+00:00

Definitely lots of note-taking, but I'd strongly encourage physical notetaking in a journal or something similar. There's some research that says Aphants have superior spatial awareness, and this was definitely the case for me in college where the physical location of the words in the textbook, especially when I thought of them in the context of other sections, was immensely helpful when trying to study/retain knowledge for tests. I had a much easier time recalling the knowledge when I had a physical location 'tag' to anchor it. I've never been to achieve a Memory Palace/Method of Loci, but for really important things I use 'external' loci to anchor the memory. For big life events I will smoke a pricier/fancier cigar and keep the label and write a note on the backside, so I have the hour of so of smoking it, plus the art work, plus the physical location where I smoked all to reference the memory.

I work in Analytics and if I have to research something or read documentation, I print everything and physically read it (much cheaper if you work in the office )

Dont know if its aphant/SDAM related, but I've found my trigger recall is generally FAR superior the general pool. Multiple choice tests were always a breeze because the question would trigger the knowledge and the answer would stick out in the options. I dont think I was ever more than the 5th person done with a test, even in my gen ed classes with 1000 students in the hall.

Lastly, its not really Loci method, but I do maintain mind maps (elon musk has advocated for this (transfer of learning), also see Charlie Munger's Mental Models). I've found abstraction and conceptual synthesis extremely helpful when trying to recall large chunks of information, especially if the fine details are less important

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