I’ve never had a brilliant memory. I remember discovering in second grade that it was often easier to figure things out than to rely on brute remembering. I did manage to memorize the multiplication tables up to 12, but Peter can still quote long passages from Shakespeare and poets like W.H. Auden and remembers facts that have passed into oblivion for me.
And these days I’ve noticed I am increasingly searching for lost words. Being a compulsive researcher, I even contemplated keeping track of just how many words I found myself searching for in a week. I now sort of wish I had gone through with it, because something interesting has happened.
Lack of vitamin B12 is often a cause of memory loss, particularly as we get older, so a month ago I started to take a vitamin B12 tablet every morning with breakfast.
The question is whether my memory has improved.
I am lacking any hard data on the number of times I am currently searching for lost words. But I do play various computer games like Solitaire and Free Cell, which keep track of my win/loss rate. My Solitaire win rate has gone from 20 to 35%, and I’m winning all 100% of the games on Free Cell.
I know it’s not an intelligence test.
But do you think I might be developing into a genius?
The Other I 