Creative forgetting
forgetting something is not always bad. by forgetting, you allow yourself to look at the same thing with "fresh eyes".
stuff to add to this page:
- some stuff from the SuperMemo wikis
- keywords: functional fixedness, Einstellung effect
Andrew Wiles quote: "I really think it's bad to have too good a memory if you want to be a mathematician. You need a slightly bad memory because you need to forget the way you approached [a problem] the previous time because it's a bit like evolution, DNA. You need to make a little mistake in the way you did it before so that you do something slightly different and then that's what actually enables you to get round [the problem]."[1]
Richard Borcherds says similar things in a youtube interview with curt jaimungal.