The Value of Inconsequential Knowledge

The inconsequential and inane are useful practice tools.

A Bold Resolution

I made a resolution a few months ago to never forget anything that I want to remember. My intuition could sense the loftiness of the ambition, a bit like eating with your eyes, and told me to temper it back. We came to an agreement:

"Let's treat this as an experiment and see how things go after about 90 days."

Agreement made between my ambitious, uninhibited self and the wiser adult, I was able to move forward with this experiment.

Anki: The Chosen Tool

My main tool with this experiment has been Anki -- using a tried and true spaced repetition software to keep information in memory. While I had used Anki before in spurts, it never fully stuck to my day-to-day routines. Regular practice of information is essential to long-term memory, so even if I could remember some information with a week of review, I would forget in a couple of months.

Finding the Right Routine

So how did I get it to be a regular practice? I tried several different times of the day -- in the morning, before bed, as a dedicated pomodoro time block. The dedicated times proved a bit cumbersome. What ended up working was integrating the review during my weight training at the gym. Between sets, I would need a 1.5 to 3 minute break -- and those were the gaps that I would use to review my flash cards. A time for training both the body and the mind!

Key Components of Effective Practice

The most important parts of making this practice a regular and effective part of my life were:

1. Choosing the right tool (Anki)
2. Finding a way to make practice regular (habit stacking at the gym)
3. Breaking down content into the smallest parts
4. Using a multi-lateral method to learning an atomic fact (multiple card types [basic, reverse, cloze], image incorporation, mnemonics)
5. Iterating on methods for content capture (writing something down in the moment, summarization from notes, voice memos)
6. Practicing different mnemonic techniques

The Value of Inane Facts

I went a bit off track here due to my excitement. Let's refocus -- really, I just want to note one thing: we can use inane or fun facts as practice iterations. I often stop myself from doing something because I can see ahead -- I really need to know if it's worth my time, because there's infinite things to do in this world, and our time is limited.

I have this urge to memorize EVERYTHING but know I need to use discernment. Is it really worth memorizing the birth and death dates of historical figures I learn about? What good does that do me? The utility may be limited and not worth the time if it takes significant time and effort to memorize something. But what if the method for remembering things like this makes it so it only takes a few minutes to remember?

If those facts can be easily learned and remembered, it could well be worth remembering them -- as a collection of these facts can create a network of understanding and connections, the ability to connect information from multiple sources.

A New Phase of the Experiment

So I'm on a new phase of the experiment: permission to learn inane facts like when Charles Eugster died (2017) or what hipposudoric acid is or that Cucurbitacins are the class of compounds that make cucumbers bitter. These inane facts are part of my practice -- they are exercises. In the same way that I may practice scales or exercise on guitar, I would not perform those scales or exercises. They are exercise, part of a larger training routine.

So even though these facts are inconsequential in of themselves, they are components of a larger practice. They are the iterations that allow me to get better each day, to put my new memorization techniques into practice.

Conclusion

What other inconsequential things can we allow ourselves to do that might become part of a larger practice? By embracing seemingly unimportant information, we may discover unexpected connections and improve our overall learning capacity. The journey of knowledge is not just about the destination, but also about honing our ability to learn and remember along the way.