Unloading Information is Important

Throughout our lifetime, we accumulate and utilize information—language we use to communicate, values building our foundation, lessons we learned at school, names and information of the people around us, algorithm of our decision-making, memories through the years, understanding of ourselves, shaping of our future.

Each information has a lifespan. Some information are more permanent than others. Some things are just short-lived and do not matter whether or not they existed in the first place. Some memories get remembered for longer even if they are not intentionally held onto. Some thoughts get forgotten even if they are supposed to be remembered.

Our brains have a certain storage capacity, or that is what I believe in. I think of it as a hard drive with a finite amount of bytes it can hold. We collect different kinds of information during different eras of our life—semantic knowledge during our childhood, awareness of ourselves during our adolescence, harsh truth of the world during our young adulthood, stories to share during our mid-life, beauty of life during our late years.

As we grow old, our thoughts wear out through their individual lifespans—estimated useful lives. They get obsolete or overwritten by other information, so much that we sometimes have false memories because of our loosening grip over the past. Our brains retain and release memories for certain reasons. And, this is a natural process. I am not sure, but maybe this is part of our natural selection.

This is why unloading information is important. Our brains stay loaded with a lot of knowledge, but unused. Some were lustrous, but then rust. Some were fresh, but then rot. Some were solid, but then melt. Some were rough, but then crumble. Just like how a machine breaks down when unused for too long, stocking a lot of information without regular checkup and maintenance does more harm than good. The cost of storage is high—most of the time, it is better to flow things and grow through them, instead of holding on to things just for decoration.

And even if we happen to forget something which comes out important later on, we can always relearn what we unlearned. If it cannot be relearned, someone else can learn it and help us. There is no point in prioritizing a gone concern over a new experience.

I didn’t realize this early enough. So far on my life, I have been only on building-mode, just collecting and collecting from wherever I go and whatever I do.

I didn’t realize that intentionally letting go is an important part of growth.