I'm really bad at remembering names and also somewhat faceblind.
You have no idea how much 'masking' I do for this.
The answer is to look for pretty run-of-the-mill mnemonic exercises that develop associative memory in general, and the necessary name-face-person associations that you need in order to function in society.
So look for trivia associated with a person. Look for *linkages* - where do you meet them, with whom, for what activity?
The bare text of the LJ friendslist is astonishingly effective as a tool for building name-to-name linkages that describe a person's interests, cliques and origins.
That context-based linkage-building effort will get you to a level in which you can at least associate their name successfully when you're in the settings where you usually interact with them...
Recalling a memory - and linking things with an associative memory - is always easier in a context like a place, or a regular social event: but very difficult outside it.
So you need get to work with building linkages out of generic trivia: and one trivial fact or whimsical falsehood *will* stick to two or more facets of them - name, face, person - one among dozens or even hundreds of trivial things that run through your mind when you encounter them.
I won't tell you who it is that I mentally associate with hoovering; but I can always see *the person* hoovering the hallway, and the fact that it's pointless to hoover a tiled hallway floor plays out a pun on their written name.
I discovered later that their partner's name is a commercially-successful brand of vacuum cleaner: well, that's one more name-and-person sorted, then.
One or more puns, visual or verbal, will stick to two or more facets, and form an associative memory.
...One of the dozens or hundreds of puns *that you cultivate the habit of thinking* when you see them, and observe a distinctive phrase, feature or gesture that goes with each of the facets that you need to link up.
Also... Faces are useless as an identifier, but expressions are very distinctive indeed: talk to a cartoonist about how few dots and lines with a biro completely capture a personality that way.
Practice with a biro and sign each post-it-note sketch with their name (or social media handle) until you don't even have to take out a pen to have mentally and mnemonically done it.
I strongly recommend that you do *not* replicate my habit of composing a Limerick for people you meet: I did that for every member of the Bethnal Green Ki-Akido Club and they were, without exception, utterly filthy.
Perfect in meter and rhyme but... Filthy.
I'm like that, but it's not necessarily a good thing.
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Er, masking for a friend
Date: 2019-11-22 07:33 pm (UTC)From:I'm really bad at remembering names and also somewhat faceblind.
You have no idea how much 'masking' I do for this.
The answer is to look for pretty run-of-the-mill mnemonic exercises that develop associative memory in general, and the necessary name-face-person associations that you need in order to function in society.
So look for trivia associated with a person. Look for *linkages* - where do you meet them, with whom, for what activity?
The bare text of the LJ friendslist is astonishingly effective as a tool for building name-to-name linkages that describe a person's interests, cliques and origins.
That context-based linkage-building effort will get you to a level in which you can at least associate their name successfully when you're in the settings where you usually interact with them...
Recalling a memory - and linking things with an associative memory - is always easier in a context like a place, or a regular social event: but very difficult outside it.
So you need get to work with building linkages out of generic trivia: and one trivial fact or whimsical falsehood *will* stick to two or more facets of them - name, face, person - one among dozens or even hundreds of trivial things that run through your mind when you encounter them.
I won't tell you who it is that I mentally associate with hoovering; but I can always see *the person* hoovering the hallway, and the fact that it's pointless to hoover a tiled hallway floor plays out a pun on their written name.
I discovered later that their partner's name is a commercially-successful brand of vacuum cleaner: well, that's one more name-and-person sorted, then.
One or more puns, visual or verbal, will stick to two or more facets, and form an associative memory.
...One of the dozens or hundreds of puns *that you cultivate the habit of thinking* when you see them, and observe a distinctive phrase, feature or gesture that goes with each of the facets that you need to link up.
Also... Faces are useless as an identifier, but expressions are very distinctive indeed: talk to a cartoonist about how few dots and lines with a biro completely capture a personality that way.
Practice with a biro and sign each post-it-note sketch with their name (or social media handle) until you don't even have to take out a pen to have mentally and mnemonically done it.
I strongly recommend that you do *not* replicate my habit of composing a Limerick for people you meet: I did that for every member of the Bethnal Green Ki-Akido Club and they were, without exception, utterly filthy.
Perfect in meter and rhyme but... Filthy.
I'm like that, but it's not necessarily a good thing.