Is the Outsourcing of Working Memory a Problem?
When people struggle to be understood, both the speaker and the listener need help
Ever felt like your thoughts or ideas didn’t quite land with others the way you intended? That’s one of the reasons I’ve been drawn to Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s work, which I first discovered on Nathalie Nahai’s fantastic podcast ‘In Conversation’. He tackles topics I’ve wrestled with in my own work. In a world where signal to noise feels an insurmountable barrier to effective communication, it’s encouraging to find someone who articulates things the way he does. So encouraging in fact that sometimes I go off and write more of my own thoughts, which I would not have otherwise! Today's topic is the impact recording apps have on our memory from an article written in the The Wall Street Journal by Joanna Stern.
Ever since discovering the work of Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on Nathalie Nahai most fascinating podcast 'In Conversation' (my go-to favorite one, you might also read her book!), I've been paying attention to what he posts. The reason is simple, he seems to get paid to write & talk about what I do for fun! Dream job.
It's no secret that when people are paid for an opinion, those opinions are typically listened to by others, even if if the net output is identical in depth of analysis & quality of output. It's why I've had to bring firms like McKinsey & Company in to a few companies & pay them handsomely just to rubber stamp my work while passing it off as their own to the higher ups. Partners careers are made with their ability to upsell clients, what better way than owning information flow like that? A realization I'd had even before I spent time as a global partner for EY ! (ftr, I had no revenue targets). So I appreciate when his raises topics that I've been challenged by when working on the inside. Topics often seen as mere bones I was ostensibly picking by colleagues who don't do what I do for a career.
Not trying to sound bitter or accusatory with this article by the way, just expressing that the feeling of not being understood gets old & so I find solace in not being alone in how I think about stuff.
Tobay, he posted an article about recording conversations published in the The Wall Street Journal, written by Joanna Stern.
For me, one of the most interesting realizations after I started using note taking apps was a few years ago when I started using Otter.ai . What I noticed was that I immediately externalized my working memory, I new habit that developed FAST. The ability to quietly scroll up while still talking is handy given my circuitous communication style & (I'm told) esoteric thoughts.
My teenage son made a similar comment abt wanting to start using it when he & his friend took walks because they would sometimes forget what they were talking about. For people who already have poor working memory it feels a little risky to have to pay a software company to use their own mind. Socrates was famously against the use of writing, that began with Plato, which is presumably why Socrate's female teacher Aspasia has largely been lost to time. Wonder what be must be thinking were he to see us now.
I feel similarly with people who rely on ChatGPT to make every decision, especially considering OpenAI are the ones that have set us on path towards extinction by putting their technology on the public web with no consideration for containment. The # of subscriptions ppl now pay simply to maintain relationships & buy groceries must already be astounding.
Of course there are true benefits too, for me is the one I call ’the quantum entanglement feature’. The ability to participate in a past meeting not only helps pick up on nuance or list action items, but serves to remind me at least that I’m not an imposter simply bc I’m not always understood.
Let me explain…
I am often faulted for rambling in a way that sounds incoherent, technical, or abstract for most people, even those at the top of the food chain. If I think my point is important, I scrunch my face up while looking around in my head for new words, it’s offputting for all of us.
As every organization in today’s world requires a level of technical sophistication beyond the ability of most, the hope is that we trust the other so we don’t have to fully understand everything in that moment. But from experience, I already know that notes taken by a human always do a disservice to the sole tech person in the room.
Impossible not to seem frustrated when repeating the same concept each and every meeting but never see progress. It gets to you.
However, in conversations where a note taking app is used, I’m a genius! (imo obvs 💁♀️) I don’t share them often because people see it as self justification & an attempt to relitigate the past, which it’s often not. But I do think it’s fair to my contribution to the conversation to be captured somewhere.
People don’t appreciate the suggestions we use them for some reason, they take it as if they’re being tricked. I find that so odd. Why would I be trying to trick anyone by wanting to be understood? Or to give the person responsible for note taking a bit of a break, bc there is no way that job can be fun.
I have been offered coaching many times, so I can learn to communicate in a way others can understand me, what a waste of time & money! I really do speak fine, just ask my buddies Otter & Tio (the nickname I gave my chat bot).
So, if someone could explain to me the most efficient way to get someone who has never written a line of code to understand the complexity of the Ai landscape & the strategic impact on their bottom line in a succinct manner, it would really save everyone a lot of time & bruised feelings.
But honestly, trust me it’s better if we just record it & they use the quantum entanglement feature to ask me what I’m waffling about later. I guarantee I would use 1/8 of the words needed to explain it.
The beneficial byproduct of using these apps in media is that ppl typically behave themselves a bit better.
A few suggested metrics that might help determine ROI:
-reduction in number of eyes being rolled in session. Visualized in a histogram by the person rolling them.
-the reduction in frequency of the same topic being raised by the same person longitudinally. A line plot would be fine.
-increased number of [coffees had, emails replies, saying hello when you pass them in the hall] between pairs over a lifetime. Scatterplot with trendline, tho I saw that beautiful heatmap of network nodes yesterday, that might be fun.
🐝