Facts decay

The desk is brown. The coffee is going cold. The notebook is open. The magazine is creased. The monitor is dusty.

If we held onto every piece of information, our minds would explode. Our brains are excellent at “thoughtfully forgetting” information, holding on to only that which is most obviously pertinent to our wellbeing.

Good stories are the exception.

We remember our spouse’s birthday because it has a story associated with it. It could be, “I love buying them a gift, I love the way they light up when they open it” because its part of our own story of “being a good spouse”. Alternatively, it could be “I must not forget to get them a card or they’ll rip me a new one” because its part of our own story of “preferring not to sleep on the couch”.

Two different stories. One outcome: remembering a date.

Facts may help people intellectually understand, but brains treat stories just like lived experiences. There is movement, tension, consequence, meaning, emotion, and self-preservation all at play when a story shows up.

That makes our brains deem them far more likely to be worth remembering.