My mother relied on her memory to do things because she couldn't read. Part of that was not really knowing numbers.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My first memory - at about four - was of numbers. The doctors who study me think a combination of mild autism and seizures I had when I was three have made me experience numbers the way I do.
I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew up on.
What makes this story so remarkable is that throughout my early childhood I had ongoing learning difficulties, particularly in mathematics. I struggled to learn the multiplication table, and no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn't remember 6 times 7 or 7 times 8.
Numbers of the old people cannot read. Those who can seldom do.
My grandfather could barely read. My grandmother had a sixth-grade education. They were people who were industrious. They were frugal.
Once I'd reached the point where I could squirrel away more than 30 digits a minute in memory palaces, I still only sporadically used the techniques to memorize the phone numbers of people I actually wanted to call. I found it was just too simple to punch them into my cell phone.
I didn't learn how to read until I was at the end of fifth grade and 11 years old and held back.
When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings.
I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read constantly. If I used words that might have seemed surprising at a young age, she would recognize that and it would please her.
Well, I can't remember not being able to read. I was told I could read by myself very well at the age of three.