I have always had a poor memory - or perhaps more accurately a poorly-disciplined and untrained memory. And for most of my life I have bemoaned this as a real disadvantage, while continuing to do nothing to try and improve the situation. I forget names, routes, facts, almost anything but especially jokes.
Lately, however, I have been wondering whether this can at times be an advantage, not just in the sense of being able to revisit books and films for the fifth time with almost as much pleasure as the first, but in the world of business. My thought is that a poor memory acts against the forming of strong preconceptions, formulaic solutions, or mental comfort zones. I realise that, by not having a vast memory bank of reference points to draw on, I tend to approach situations relatively openly. As I obtain facts, I'm not usually mapping them against an existing model, because I've forgotten what those models were. So if there is an advantage to a bad memory, it might be that any new case is judged on its specific merits, not against a history of similar but perhaps entirely misleading cases. The downside is that this potentially makes for a longer, less efficient process. The upside is that any solution offered is as unclouded and fit for purpose as I can make it.
Of course I would say that, wouldn't I?
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