We’ve been thinking a lot about what actually sticks in your head and why that matters more now than ever.
AI can give you any fact instantly. So why remember anything at all?
A recent paper called The Memory Paradox by Prof. Barbara Oakley makes a sharp case. The more we outsource memory to machines, the less we are able to think clearly. When you stop remembering things, you are not just forgetting facts. You are erasing the internal scaffolding that helps you reason, create, and learn. And that connects directly to why we are building Schema.
The memory paradox
Over the last two decades, a quiet shift took place. We were told that remembering was unnecessary. If something could be looked up, why keep it in your head? Meanwhile, our devices got better at storing everything for us.
The outcome should have been more capable people. But that is not what happened. In high-income countries, IQ scores are now falling. It is the first reversal of the Flynn Effect in modern history. The research points to over-reliance on external tools as one of the causes. We thought we were freeing up brainpower, but we were losing something essential.
Why remembering matters more than ever
Your brain is not a storage device. Remembering rewires how you think.
When you truly learn something, it becomes part of how you see the world. You stop needing to recall it. It just shows up, instantly and automatically, when it is useful. That fluency is what allows experts to move fast, spot patterns, and catch errors before they happen.
Skip that process and you lose the shortcuts. You can still find information, but you move slower. You miss the connections. You default to reaction rather than insight. In a world where everything is searchable, the real edge comes from what you already know.
How the brain learns
Learning is not about repetition. It is about prediction.
Your brain constantly guesses what should happen next and updates itself when it is wrong. That moment of surprise is called a prediction error, and it is one of the strongest learning signals we know.
If you have memorized your multiplication tables, and a calculator tells you that 5 times 10 is 500, you feel it instantly. Your brain corrects it. But if you never learned those tables, nothing feels wrong. You just accept it. No surprise, no correction, no learning.
Why Schema exists
Schema helps you build these internal shortcuts. We are not trying to cram your brain with facts. We are giving you a system to create mental models you can use automatically, without breaking your flow.
We follow how the brain naturally learns:
Spaced retrieval to strengthen memory over time
Interleaving to connect related ideas
A focus on fluent concepts you can use without effort
This is not about rote memory. It is about thinking with clarity.
What changes in the AI era
Now that everyone has the same external memory, what matters is the quality of your internal one.
People who can think clearly without pausing to search will move faster. They will see opportunities others miss. They will connect ideas in real time.
That is the paradox. The better the tools get, the more it matters what you already know.
In a world of instant access, remembering is not outdated. It is a superpower.