Questions about mind, memory and information

I am reading an excellent book "Late Bloomers" by Rich Karlgard. I came across a point mentioned by Rich which triggered a lot of thoughts in my mind. He mentioned : "Old people take time to recall things because the more information we store, the longer it takes to retrieve information". This is an interesting insight which triggered many more questions in my mind.

1. Should we avoid dumping unnecessary information into our head ?

Yes, of course. I believe this will limit the overall information in our mind and help us with faster retrieval of information. So avoiding the nonsensical videos on Insta, FB, YouTube is indeed a good thing. A plan has to be put in place regarding consumption of posts on FB, web series on OTT platforms, televisions shows, movies, messaging platforms, news on Twitter or any news platform for that matter. The plan should help us decide on what can be avoided completely and what can be consumed in moderation. These are the times of information overload, and limiting such information is the way to go.

I have learnt that high number of multiple requests can put a strain on a database. A stronger CPU can help the DB to deal with higher number of requests. Similarly a healthy mind and body can help us deal better with information overload. Perhaps that is the reason why physical exercise is so important. 

Although a better approach is to think about how can we reduce the high number of requests in the first place. Does a calmer mind have the potential to reduce such requests. Yes, and that is where relaxation and meditation come to our rescue.

2. Garbage in, garbage out.

If there is garbage going in, then garbage will be coming out for sure. Was this the reason why Mahatma Gandhi said "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"?

Another aspect is the company that we keep. Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. The company that we keep has an impact on the amount of garbage that we have to deal with.

3. What about cleaning up unnecessary information ?

Everyone has certain experiences in their lives which play again and again in their minds e.g. "How could I make such a mistake, how could someone treat me in particular manner, what if I had acted differently etc." I believe such mental loops are an energy drain (more brain cycles) and definitely impact how our mind performs. We can write down such experiences in detail, remove them out of our system. We can document the lessons that we learnt from such experiences. We can forgive those involved (including ourselves), try to forget the negative experiences and remember the lessons. Basically we free up memory for better use, also save on the brain cycles spent to deal with such information.

4. I have learnt that indexing helps faster retrieval of data from databases, can we create an index for our minds too ?

I believe daily journaling can be helpful in creating such an index for the mind. It will help us organize the information that we already have. Journaling will help us defragment our information i.e. group our information together for better access. It acts similar to a database performance analyzer tool, gradually it will provide us with the right insights.

5. How can we accumulate information that is beneficial to us ?

First, we must list down the priorities in our life, what is that really matters to us in our lives, what do we value the most. I guess you get my point, now the information that we gather must be in line with our priorities, our values. This way we will be absorbing the right kind of information. 

Let us treat information like food, it has to be of good quality and in the right quantity. Let us strive for creating an environment where we can process information according to our values and our priorities.