One insight from my worsened memory in recent years (whether a Covid after effect ot aging or something more ominous) is how clear  the link between emotions and memory is. Things that never evoked any emotion are most easily forgotten.

I used to think strong emotions reinforce the associated memories. Now I think all memories are intrinsically sentimental. If you could truly care about nothing you’d have true amnesia. Identity is memory is temporally coherent sentiment history.

People with very strong but not eidetic memories simply have a high baseline of caring mildly about almost everyone and everything in the world. My mom is one such person (in her 80s she still remembers like a hundred plus birthdays of extended family members; it’s her freak superpower). 

I used to have a strong general knowledge memory of history, science etc, but not for personal info.

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

You are the sum of all the emotions you have felt so far

This feels both more true and more poetic than being a sum of all memories.