It’s strange, the things that we remember.

Memory is a fascinating thing. Why do we remember some things and forget others? Why are some people better at remembering (and forgetting) different things?

I know that the capital city of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar, but I’ll forget the name of the person I had a deep conversation with a few nights ago.

This is a blessing and a curse.

I am the socially awkward person who knows your face but can’t — gun-to-head — remember your name. But rest assured, you want me on your trivia team.

And I know I’m not alone.

It’s likely due to some old survival mechanism in our brains, something that kept us going as our species wandered the landscapes of our early evolution.

Some people remembered that Dave is the guy who is good at throwing rocks, while others remembered that blue mushrooms are fun but grey mushrooms once killed half of the tribe.

Individually, we can’t remember everything. There’s simply too much incoming information. So we evolved to subconsciously triage the data, with different members of the group remembering different details of each situation.

And now, thousands of years later, I know that Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jeane — but I can’t find my fucking car keys.