Forgetting enables growth by clearing space for change

Notes

Claim

Forgetfulness is a double edged sword of human behavior.

Explanation

When we forget things, we can more easily fall pray to Distractions while failing to return to the important thing. We might experience cases of Insight Gap, where we know what we should do, but fail to do it because we keep on forgetting.

Why it matters

It can also hurt our learning, our relationships, and basically every aspect of our lives.

Examples

Supporters

However, forgetting also has a positive side. Without forgetting, we could have never changed Fixed mindset assumes capabilities are unchangeable from birth, because we couldn't have been freed from the past, and would have continued to act in the same way. We also would have drowned in the Noise obscures truth with external interference and confusion, unable to separate the important from the irrelevant. Our mind is a processor and not a warehouse. Forgetting therefore is essential for learning Learning adds new knowledge layers instead of replacing old understanding, for growing, and changing. Progress emerges through cycles of destruction and reconstruction

Opposers

One might even ask, are we truly the same person (or the person we claim to be), if we constantly forget who we are Identity persists across time through psychological continuity.

Open questions

Visual