Memorization, Creativity, and Invention

One thing that strikes me as profoundly misguided is the trend to disparage memorization in educational and other contexts. While rote memorization certainly is problematic, there is no way to creativity and expertise but through careful curation of memories. (No hyperinflation of class discussions as a proxy for learning can muzzle that truth.) Nor is there a self to be had apart from memories. It was that reminder that struck me as I read Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. Among other things, he notes that

remembering and creativity seem like opposite, not complementary, processes. But the idea that they are one and the same is actually quite old, and was once even taken for granted. The Latin root inventio is the basis of two words in our modern English vocabulary: inventory and invention. And to a mind trained in the art of memory, those two ideas were closely linked. Invention was a product of inventorying. Where do new ideas come from if not some alchemical blending of old ideas? In order to invent, one first needed a proper inventory, a bank of existing ideas to draw on. Not just an inventory, but an indexed inventory. One needed a way of finding just the right piece of information at just the right moment. This is what the art of memory was ultimately most useful for. It was not merely a tool for recording but also a tool of invention and composition. (203-204)

When I read those words, I took them to heart, validating that they were of my personal experience.