Learn to Think in Color

Why do we remember what stands out from its surroundings? How distinctiveness, surprise, and emotion hack your memory Big Picture Framing We remember what stands out from its surroundings because the brain is wired to notice contrast, not sameness. When something breaks the pattern—a bright red folder in a sea of blue, a joke in a serious meeting—it gets tagged as important. That “this is different” signal draws attention, stirs emotion, and strengthens the memory trace. One way psychologists describe this is the “distinctiveness effect”: we remember what’s unusual, isolated, or surprising compared to everything around it. Understanding why we remember what stands out from its surroundings helps you design information, meetings, and even your own habits so they’re far more memorable. The brain loves contrast, not copies Your brain is constantly flooded with sensory input, and it can’t store all of it. So it cheats: it looks for contrast. Most of everyday life is repetitive and predicta...

  🕯️ Why Do We Remember People Who Gave Their Lives for Ideas? We remember those who died for ideas because their sacrifice transforms principles into legacy. On Memorial Day, we carry that torch forward. 1.  It Starts With a Silence Not the kind that fills a room— but the kind that lingers. Reverberates. Echoes through generations. On Memorial Day, we don’t just remember names. We remember  why  those names mattered. Some people died defending borders. Others died defending something harder to define— an idea . Freedom. Justice. Peace. Not for power. But for principle. 2.  When Someone Dies for an Ideal, It Becomes Real Ideals are fragile. They begin as words. They stay invisible—until someone stakes their life on them. Take Private First Class Jesse G. Dietrich. He was 19 years old when he died in 1944, fighting in the Netherlands during World War II. He’s buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, where local Dutch families have “adopted” Amer...