Now that my kids are older and more social, I’m constantly meeting new people through school or sports, etc, and its really exacerbated an issue I’ve always had which is difficulty remembering people’s names after the first meeting. Faces? I’m great with faces. But I hear the names, and they just don’t… stick. I’m assuming it’s because my brain is so preoccupied with trying not to look like a complete idiot that there’s just no room to absorb whatever you just said your name was.

Similarly, I’ve had no luck remembering to do the mnemonic tricks like repeating their name, or making an associative connection, so mostly I just rely on my wife, who is much better at keeping track of all the people we now know. At least until I’ve met them 2-3 times and my brain gets the hint that maybe this is information we’re going to need to hold onto going forward.