The Great Forgetting
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Thoughts from the July 2025 TSE newsletter; written by Jeremy Beyt, CEO.
This month, I’ve been reflecting on Digital Amnesia, or The Great Forgetting, or is it The Google Effect?… I can’t quite remember.
When I was a kid, I knew the phone number of every friend on my street.
Today, I struggle to remember my wife’s number.
The concept of digital amnesia is simple: we’ve outsourced memory to digital tools. We confuse saving with remembering, cluttering our lives with digital junk drawers assuming we can “just find it later.” But too often, later never comes.
If this rings true, consider the cost:
- Knowledge workers spend 1.8 hours/day searching for information instead of acting on it. [McKinsey]
- 30% of project time is lost to rework caused by forgotten or inaccessible knowledge. [APQC]
- 91% of people rely on digital devices as a memory extension, but most never revisit their saved content. [Kaspersky]
In the age of AI-meeting summaries, it’s hard to imagine this phenomenon getting better.
As the ability to remember increasingly becomes an advantage and a strategy, here are a few proven principles that can help you beef up your brain:
- Take handwritten notes
If it’s worth remembering, it’s worth writing down. - Draw your ideas as pictures
Pictures are easier to remember than words. - Take time to reflect
Reflection is critical for deepening understanding and recall.
How might improved memory give your team and your brand an advantage?
