I suspect that I’m like many readers in that I’ve increasingly lost interest in people and, therefore, learning peoples’ names. Richard Harris of Kansas State University has researched the topic:
Most of us have experienced it. You are introduced to someone, only to forget his or her name within seconds. You rack your brain trying to remember, but can’t seem to even come up with the first letter. Then you get frustrated and think, “Why is it so hard for me to remember names?”
You may think it’s just how you were born, but that’s not the case, according to Kansas State University’s Richard Harris, professor of psychology. He says it’s not necessarily your brain’s ability that determines how well you can remember names, but rather your level of interest.
“Some people, perhaps those who are more socially aware, are just more interested in people, more interested in relationships,” Harris said. “They would be more motivated to remember somebody’s name.”
It might be interesting for those of us who’ve read Roissy and Roosh and been introduced to human social dynamics and reacquainted with human nature to consider if our ability to remember peoples’ names has declined as a function of our familiarity with “Game” (the entire porfolio of Game, not just the sexual side). A decade or even five years ago I was really good at remembering names. I often knew new co-worker’s or classmates’ names before they knew mine. But I cared a lot more about interacting with people and being on peoples’ good sides. But now, I go months without learning some co-workers’ names. There are a couple that I interact with regularly who I constantly have to call out to with either a “man” or a “hey” because I just can’t nail down their name. Initially I chalked my increasingly poor name recall up to age, but that doesn’t seem to be a good explanation. I have much better reading comprehension and movie/book plot recall than I did a decade ago.
So there will be a natural decrease in the level of interest individuals’ pay to learning peoples’ names. In college or when we don’t have many priorities to attend to, we might be better with names. So there is a natural drop-off that comes in correlation with age and business, but then there is the drop-off that comes with digestion of the red pill. We maybe care less because of our life circumstances, but we also care less because we felt that we previously cared too much. Changing that is partially what “Game” is about.
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The best way to remember someone’s name is to repeat it when they are introduced to you. I make it a point to remember the names of people who are especially nice to me or my kids. Other than that, I don’t care. If you don’t like someone, a way to show that is to intentionally call them by the wrong name. Make it something close to their real name, so it seems like you at least tried to get it right. The game angle on this is because game teaches you to only be nice to people who are nice to you. I’ve completely stopped kissing up to people who aren’t nice to me.
If I worked with you and you called me by the wrong name, I would just call you Charlie until you got my name right.
“We maybe care less because of our life circumstances, but we also care less because we felt that we previously cared too much. Changing that is partially what “Game” is about.”
Spot-on. Brilliant. Place in public in huge, easily visible letters.
You’ve captured the essence. Forget MGTOW, it’s MWRDGSA (Men Who Really Don’t Give a Sh*t Anymore).
I’ve always had trouble with most people’s names. I never thought about it as an expression of disinterest and instead assumed poor memory, but I can hang on to a variety of other useless, but interesting, info.
If you’re a social butterfly who attends a lot of cocktail parties and soirées like me, keeping a running list of the names of people you’ve just met can be a challenge.
I think a large part of the problem is that people tend to have such absurd names, such as ‘John’, ‘Robert’, ‘Elizabeth’, or ‘Jennifer’.
I’m already required to recall so much useless shit, it can be difficult at times to remember people’s preposterously quotidian names.
\”We maybe care less because of our life circumstances, but we also care less because we felt that we previously cared too much. \”
we also care less because of diversity. another unsavory aspect of human nature is that we give more of a shit about our own tribe. when we move in a sea of tribes, our inclination, and perhaps our ability, to connect with people decreases. this includes our own people. in order to escape the added stress of diversity, we cocoon. you see that happening now on a wide scale, which the blogger agnostic has been documenting at his blog.
you could trace name forgetting to increased diversity. i bet it would map.
As a woman reading game blogs, I’ve tried to remember names more. It seems to me that being interested in others and remembering personal details is charming on a woman. I wonder if I’m correct in thinking that men like the opposite of “game” behavior in women. For example, men like supplicating, warm, demure women.
name games, childish but effective….
hahaha, here’s a trick-Dave Futrelle-If I eat too many donuts today I will be Fat in the Future-Futrelle…
Anna Bannana….
Chuck, he likes to F#ck, and smells like Crudd….
O’Bama, not Osama is hiding in the Barracks….
Game is social skills. If you can’t remember names you aren’t running Game.
You know something.. I stopped caring about other people’s names once I started using whores.
People will only remember or care about things that matter to them. We now live in a society of disposable relationships where nothing is stable and knowing people personally does not improve your interactions with them. Therefore, it is not surprising that we seem to ignore names or anything that might make a person more human in our minds.
Initials AD + disdain for fellow man + mentions using prostitutes right off the bat. Hmmm. I’m guessing there’s no way you’re Devil’s Advocate and just not linking to your own blog, right?
Oh man! That explains it!
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Chuck is bang-on with this little observation.
It’s not age with me. Ten years ago, i was scrupulous about trying to get along with people and remembering peoples’ names. Now I don’t care much, beyond their utility, unless I’m being friendly. Especially with co-workers, those who endlessly ingratiate themselves on others I find grating.
Since I generally stopped licking boots, lfie has improved immeasurably. This attitude literalyl makes women wet and friendly and open up. But more, it makes my work relatoinships more fluid and people defer to me much more, both men and women. One guy last year said I was the only competent person in the team (not true) and it was as if I were a natural-born leader. had he seen me a decade ago, he’d have thought me a boot-licking pussy.
The unmanning of America should be considered a major crime.