# The Logical Consequence of the Einsteinian Approach to Memorization By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-05-17 Albert Einstein allegedly said, “never memorize something you can look up.” Prior to smartphones, people had a great deal of information committed to memory. A simple example would be phone numbers. People would routinely commit a great deal of information to memory. Consequently, humans developed their ability to memorize things. All sorts of things. At the time of Einstein, a great deal of information committed to memory was perhaps relatively trivial and the ability to commit some things to memory was not in question. Looking up a few things not committed to memory opened mental space for deeper thinking. Today this isn’t necessarily the case. First, it could be that because everything is easily accessible on the phone, and not committed to memory, we are now at single points of technical failure. If the phone dies, one can no longer call anybody or access a phone book. This is irksome when it is a simple phone call. This is potentially consequential when important information cannot be accessed. Second, the ability to memorize has potentially atrophied. In today’s age, if everything can be looked up easily, the logical consequence of the Einsteinian approach to memorization is for one to know nothing. Is this the collective path we are on? Is this beneficial to society? #### Related Items [[Memorization]] [[Thinking]] [[Knowledge]] [[Society]]