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"Memory"
Gustav Flaubert wrote:
That is from his quite interesting Bouvard and Pecuchet. This unfinished book is a parody of self-education and perhaps of gay marriage as well.
Why are we willing to disparage our memories so much more than we will admit to failings in our other mental processes?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 18, 2009 at 01:15 PM in Books | Permalink
Comments
Good memory makes you dangerous. Bad judgment makes you dangerous.
Posted by: Constant at Apr 18, 2009 1:42:10 PM
Before Flaubert, the 17th century French epigrammist La Rochefoucauld wrote in his Maxims: "Everyone blames his memory; no one blames his judgment."
It's easier for us to blame our memory than our judgment, because there's no intention to harm when we forget. We can forgive a friend who says, "I'm sorry, I forgot to drop off the book that I promised to lend you." There was no harmful intention in his slip of the mind (at least, that's his claim and excuse). But we would rebuke a friend who says, "I judged that you did not deserve the book, so I decided to break my promise and not to lend it to you." In that case, our friend has bad judgment, which tends to form pernicious intentions with destructive effects.
Posted by: Minh Ly at Apr 18, 2009 2:22:38 PM
As important as class or status is, in the occidental world we associate identity more closely with actions and decisions than with resources available. As such, our memories are something that is available to us (or not), so a slip here doesn't necessarily speak poorly of who we are. If we make poor decisions, though, that implies an immediate negative aspect to our character.
Posted by: Norman Maynard at Apr 18, 2009 2:30:11 PM
We like to praise and blame people based on their intentions, because only intentions (not outcomes) can be influenced reliably by social incentives.
If we wish to avoid blame, blaming a bad memory is convenient, because forgetfulness is considered unintentional whereas bad judgments are not.
Posted by: Tom Powers at Apr 18, 2009 2:51:17 PM
A Tolstoy character pointed out that nobody is satisfied with his wealth, but everybody is satisfied with his intelligence.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Apr 18, 2009 2:57:05 PM
"Why are we willing to disparage our memories so much more than we will admit to failings in our other mental processes?"
That's not true. Millions of people are downright proud to admit their failings in quantitative thinking: "I'm not a numbers person," they like to say. Almost nobody goes around saying, however, "I'm not a letters person."
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Apr 18, 2009 2:59:41 PM
Consistently or no, my judgment is part of what is me, my memories are part of what is mine.
Posted by: Cyrus at Apr 18, 2009 3:04:39 PM
People readily blame their judgment after drinking. Sure, they are blaming the booze, but they admit to having poor judgment while drunk.
People also often admit poor judgment in the past. I've heard people say, I was an idiot in high school/college/my 20s/my 30s/during my 1st marriage/before my 1st heart attack/etc.
So people are comfortable saying, I was an idiot *then* but not now. And the time periods can be separated by mere days if there is a socially acceptable intervening event (sobering up, life-altering experience, sudden maturation, death in the family, job loss, divorce, etc).
Posted by: jim at Apr 18, 2009 3:37:47 PM
It's also common, among males at least, to boast of having poor judgment while bragging of physical bravery and prowess -- the whole Jackass-style shows and movies are prime examples of this.
But it's common in regular life, too. A buddy of mine loves to tell the story of when he ran the NY marathon while hung over and nearly died after finishing it. Another friend likes to tell the story of how he stupidly almost shot himself with a spear gun while deep sea shark hunting.
The surface story is, I'm an idiot, but the real story is, I'm strong and brave.
Posted by: jim at Apr 18, 2009 4:06:00 PM
i'm not a punctuation person [period].
Posted by: babar at Apr 18, 2009 4:41:08 PM
failures in memory are more observable/objective to others and less easily defended, so the next best thing is to pre-emptively mock your own memory problem; failures in judgment are more subjective and defensible.
Posted by: anon at Apr 18, 2009 5:38:17 PM
It's also cool to mock one's head-math, and hand-art skills. Maybe it is because of technology - paper > memory, calculators > math, and computers > art.
Posted by: Isak at Apr 18, 2009 6:56:24 PM
Tyler, you and other commenters seem to be missing the point Flaubert is making, which is about the hollowness of these kinds of truisms and received ideas.
Posted by: Larry Rothfield at Apr 18, 2009 7:06:45 PM
Minh seems to have it right; memory failures are not intentional, and so serve as convenient excusable excuses for our failures.
Posted by: Robin Hanson at Apr 18, 2009 8:09:59 PM
Because memory is the new cognitive trait of fashion, and modesty would entail disparaging ones own.
Memory, is, of course, only a small part of a human mind but it is the most easily measured quantity, and probably is a focus of research because of that.
Posted by: tehdude at Apr 18, 2009 8:33:26 PM
One reason: Because for a given amount of intellectual output lower memory increases your conditional IQ, which is more status enhancing.
Posted by: Tino at Apr 18, 2009 9:21:01 PM
That's right, I forgot to file the correct returns. Silly me!
Posted by: Timothy Geithner at Apr 18, 2009 10:07:10 PM
I think it's much easier to detect our lapses in memory than it is to detect our lapses in comprehension.
When you can't find your car keys, that's clearly because you don't remember where you put them, but if you, e.g., make a bad investment, or have trouble hooking up a stereo, then you were probably fed a tip, or the manual was badly written, etc.
Posted by: Jason Malloy at Apr 19, 2009 2:04:01 AM
Fed a bad tip, rather.
Uh... I must've been distracted by some loud neighbors.
Posted by: Jason Malloy at Apr 19, 2009 2:07:24 AM
Why did so many feel compelled to address this issue? If indeed it is one.
Posted by: Brent at Apr 19, 2009 6:17:51 AM
this is what for we are human as best creation of allah.
Posted by: buland at Apr 19, 2009 8:34:24 AM
I wonder if people in pre-literate societies were so disparaging about the value of memory, compared to judgement.
Good observation by S S that it's OK somehow to admit that you can't do maths. In fact I think it's OK to admit you can't do numbers, but I've yet to see anyone admit that they're bad at logic.
Posted by: improbable at Apr 19, 2009 1:01:28 PM
People will readily admit, "I'm bad at math", but who would admit that they are "bad at writing", which is much a much more difficult task to be proficient in?
Posted by: Billare at Apr 20, 2009 12:44:18 AM
Larry Rothfield :
Tyler, you and other commenters seem to be missing the point Flaubert is making
Well, they forgot it.
Posted by: yabonn at Apr 20, 2009 7:53:10 AM
Public figures sometimes judge it expedient to have a poor memory.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai at Apr 20, 2009 11:41:41 AM
