How the world’s best memorizers remember things

Hint: It involves more creativity than you might think.

We’re living at a time when the act of memorizing isn’t a requirement to get through day-to-day life. Worried about forgetting someone’s birthday? Just set an automatic reminder. Don’t know the route you’re supposed to take to that restaurant you’ve only driven to once? Enter the destination on your GPS of choice. Forget about remembering your emergency contact’s phone numbers. In a 2023 survey of 423 respondents over the age of 16, 21% admitted to typing “What’s my own phone number” into Google.