Hey Tom Brady, you nerd, why are you learning all these plays?

The question of whether to memorize or understand something is the wrong one to ask. It is a false dichotomy. This is true for all domains of life — be it high school math, a college athlete honing his skills or a virtuoso preparing for the umpteenth live performance. If the goal is to gain new insight, then memory and understanding are parts of an iterative process in service of this goal.

However, memorization and rote learning is typically frowned upon.

Many claim that memorizing--equations, maps, formula--stifles creativity. If it did not, it is still a pointless endeavour as the information can be outsourced. These naysayers fail to realize that any information outside the brain is sterile but when grasped by a human, it is fertile with new insights and intuition. This is because the information that we consume is now part of a living context where nothing is permanent or fully known. Moreover, knowledge builds on itself. Sir Isaac Newton famously said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." You need to know what you know, which also lends itself to knowing what you don't know.

Creativity and invention can flourish when the mind has mastered the triflings or at least is unburdened by them. Memorization and rote learning are prerequisites for perceived effortlessness and building intuition. Think of athletes and the artists who are lauded for their relentless commitment to their craft. Do these performers do something new or creative every single day? No, on the contrary, they practice the same stroke, the same note over and over again until they have mastered it.

One of the best quarterbacks of all time, Tom Brady, appears near effortless when on field. Moreover, he won the Super Bowl seven times with this apparent demeanour. Roger Federer, another GOAT, is perceived the same way. This perceived effortlessness is a common feature in elite athletes.[1] They have reduced brain activity compared to a novice because they have embodied — memorized and understood - their teams' and their opponents' movement. Brady would spend hours obsessively watching film; so much so that he knew what the defense would do before they did it themselves.[2] Federer, in his Dartmouth speed, acknowledged that the apparent 'lack of effort' is earned after countless hours of drills and practice.[3] His own movement and that of his opponent becomes embodied knowledge — again, memorized and understood — so that during a match all he has to do is follow and adjust his strategy and not worry about triflings like where to keep his feet, how to move his racket. As one of the most decorated American weightlifting coaches, Greg Everett, said, "if you are thinking, you are not lifting".

It makes sense to speak of embodied knowledge pertaining to the world of sports. However, this also applies to any field where the goal is mastery. Ramanujan — the mathematician nicknamed 'man who knew infinity' - had a mysterious ability to know what was 'significant and what could be deduced from it'.[4] To readers who do not know this man, finding his lost notebook of mathematical formulae was akin to 'finding a manuscript of Beethoven's Tenth Symphony'.[5] Modern math still has not caught up to his discoveries. How did Ramanujan build such deep intuition about what is relevant and what can be deduced from it? My guess is that being a human calculator and knowing the veracity of certain mathematical relations cold helped him explore the mathematical universe to greater heights and depths than his contemporaries. Similar to athletes and performers, he had a firm grasp of the fundamentals — plays in football, drills in tennis, scales in music, numbers and their relationship to each other — and that allowed his mind to explore without any restraint. 'Every integer was Ramanujan's best friend.' He is famous for having attributed his insights to a goddess (Goddess Namagiri) that spoke to him through his dreams. Just like elite athletes, Ramanujan — by his own account — was not fully conscious of his movements or calculations that led to the final insight. The German chemist August Kekulé had a dream where a snake was biting its own tail. This dream inspired the structure of the benzene molecule and was a key milestone in organic chemistry. These greats could not have done what they did unless they had mastered — memorized and understood — all existing knowledge. Knowledge builds on itself. Secondly, memory serves as a web of association. It allows one to connect seemingly disparate fields of knowledge. James Clark Maxwell, for instance, when developing his theory of electromagnetism, analogized it to a moving fluid with vortices; although both had different physical mechanisms.

Developing one's baseline skillset is more relevant in today's day and age since so many tasks can be outsourced. The common argument is, "Why learn to calculate if I have a calculator? Why memorize this concept or fact if I can Google it? Why remember this route if I can use GPS? Why learn how to write an essay if ChatGPT can write it for me?" Well, would Tom Brady have won seven Super Bowls if he hadn't memorized his and his opponents plays? Would Federer be the champion that he is if he were thinking about how to serve? Would Ramanujan, Maxwell, Kekule make advances if they weren't well-versed with the existing body of knowledge? The answer is no. Tools are great but they have their limitations. You need to know these limitations or they will get the best of you. You should use these tools to hone your skills, not be enslaved by them.

Another overarching theme here is that your conscious self is not the most powerful piece of machinery you have. You should use it to direct your attention to memorize and understand the necessary building blocks. This is a prerequisite to explore new horizons. That said, exploring new horizons is an arduous task and we can't go on such adventures with anything and everything we come across. We need to pick our battles and choose what is worth the effort. Identify the one entity that brings you awe and makes you insatiably curious. Memorize and be fluent in this entity. Now once you are comfortable with the material, try to figure out why it is the way it is. Start mixing together the individual units, identify new sequences that work and push the limits of what can be done with the building blocks. Remember what the limits are and what all you have tried and iterated.

Even if the goal is not to master a skill or concept, you should at least be cognizant of what you can memorize easily or not. This gives a glimpse into what makes you curious and brings you awe, which is fundamental to discovering yourself. One remembers best when there is a combination of innate curiosity, a powerful emotional tug — positive or otherwise — and an embodied experience. If something moves you, then there is a good chance you will remember it. So, reverse-engineering why you remember what you remember, it could tell you what you care and are passionate about.