Med World: On the Myths of "Memorizing"

I had an epiphany today as I walked down Peel in the sharp, mauling cold after class, under a deceitful sun: we intellectual snobs need to stop hating on "memorization". How often since I started medical school have I heard my peers (and frankly, my own disdainful voice) ragging on the drag, monotony and general lowliness of all the "memorizing" we have to do? We do it most of all in anatomy, in biochem, histology... actually pretty much every 'level' requires a degree of it. Here's the thing though: that we know anything at all is thanks to "memorizing", and memorizing is essential to our everyday social interactions. We memorize each other's names, how to get from place to place, any prayers that we might say on a regular basis, words that we read and then decide to use later... we are memorizing all the time. We would be ignorant to relegate memorizing to the no-personality, robotic-like side of science, technology and medicine. And for all the advocaters of "applied knowledge", what on earth are you applying if nothing's in there as an initial 'baseline'?

I think this gets to the heart of the issue really. There's the first baseline (ABCs, 123s), but then there's always a new, higher 'baseline' for the next level up. Like nobody questions the fact that one has to memorize the alphabet and numbers, so that we can make words and sentences, do arithmatic, read, write and engage in more complex mathematical and financial endeavours. And don't give me the "it's the concept" not just the "thing" -the "thing" and the "concept" are so intertwined. By memorizing the representation, we can focus our energies on what it means. If we had to think about each letter every time we spoke, read or wrote a word, or even think about each word for every sentence, there would be no Descent of Man, Principia, Mathnawi, or Jane Eyre. No epic symphonies or ballads to pass on to future generations. No string theory. And no sophisticated (or unsophisticated) medicine.

We scoff at those intense, book-worming, memorizing-types in our classes. But who ever frowned down upon the child who was just learning how to read? I remember being applauded for many a slow, laborious pronounciation of syllables as I learned to read such ridiculous, 'useless' phrases as "The king decided to eat steak for supper every Tuesday". I learned to quickly recognize (and isn't a lot of memorization about recognition, identification in some kind of automatic way?) each of those words, so that I can now read the menu at The Keg, analyse historical writings about the kings of the Ottoman Empire, and organize my life in Google Calendar.

And you don't have to pin it down to reading, the same goes for learning about some foreign delicacy and how it's prepared, or the random trivia we store in our brains, which we then randomly pawn off onto some unsuspecting victim or another (this is really the perfectest of examples in terms of quanitfying what we memorize, and proof that it is memorized knowledge that we pass on in 'units' of trivia). Those sports stats, the ability to quote the famous and infamous, knowing which Broadway musical ran for 15 years at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York (which may or may not be a trick question), knowing the periodic table, rocking back and forth reciting religious texts, rattling off every psychoactive drug that can be used to treat depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder... it's all memorizing. And (brace yourself) -all of it is useful because all of it makes us more socially fit, whether we can bond better with each other over the random things we know (the extent to which 'trivia' may also communicate about our interests), whether we can make a million dollars because of it, whether we can at least seem more 'well-read' or 'hip', whether it makes us more competent in our professions... there is a point, and that point is mainly that we gain social currency. Memorizing gives us street cred in life, for whatever different streets we have to walk.

I think a lot of people get confused and try to separate "real" learning and "memorizing". They seem to think that if you memorize something, then you don't really know why it is the way it is. But true memorization is a kind of total memorization -you memorize what, you memorize why, you memorize how. And sure, you will use various devices to better memorize all of it -and so you'll make those "more intellectual connections" in order to better memorize, just like how we use mnemonics to memorize the order of the planets or the points of a compass rose. If I memorize the anatomy of my arm, or all the hemoglobinopathies (including their genetic basis, clinical manifestation, diagnostic tests and treatment), then I am so much better equipped to take any of it "a step further" later on. And memorizing and understanding / gaining insight are not mutually exclusive -they can be mutually reinforcing. It's also worthwhile to recognize the fact that we can't understand everything, and there are a lot of things that we cannot understand right away (but that if we can commit to memory, we may understand better at a later point in time). And as a doctor, I will have to know things, so many things, and I may not be able to philosophically, existentially, thoroughly understand it all from A-Z, but I still have to know what is known.

Memorizing is to commit to memory, and we can only remember what has been committed to memory. As a clinician, this means that the more I remember, the more I can apply to help my future patients, in which case memorizing is, in fact, a very noble endeavour.

Also, I am loving hematology so far.