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If you are strong with languages and memory skills, how about law? If your minds works around the logic that the legal field requires and the memory you would really have a good law practice. Impressive in a court room.
You would have to have the ability to reason, remember, communicate (orally and in written word).
Are you any good at recognizing patterns? My son has an exceptional memory though not total recall by any means. He uses it in mathematics and physics by recognizing patterns and solving problem based on previous patterns.
When he was taking his last actual class(some kind of advanced quantum physics) before he didn't have to take any more classes and just work on his dissertation, he and his fellow PhD students were given a final exam from heel. The last question was one that his peers had no idea how to answer because they said it made no sense that they understood. My son was the only one who tried to answer it. He recognized a pattern in it that he'd seen before. So he wrote, "I have no idea how to do this problem, but I do know how to do another problem that is similiar so using the same data I will answer that." Turned out that it was a problem that they didn't have time to answer even if they did know how, but my son's answer was actually step one in a three stage step process of answering the problem. The prof simply wanted to know if there was anyone in his PhD group who could see the familiar in the unknown.
If you can use your memory to recognize patterns in things, then you can make your actual skills go way way further. There are so many occupations where having access to everything, without having to look anything up, can serve you enormously, but you have to be able to inter-relate the data that you can remember or you are just an idiot savant---a Rainman.
FWIW, I happened to be talking to my friend yesterday who is a psychologist. She stated that there have been no conclusive studies that support a "photographic memory" really exists. She believes that people like my daughter may just have incredible pattern recognition and mnemonic creation skills - i.e. they are not taking a "visual snaphot" of a page, but are instead quickly recognizing patterns and creating sophisticated mnemonic devices in order to retain/retrieve the information. Just thought it was interesting...
Yes you are correct, I used the term 'near-photographic memory' simply so that laypersons could understand. There is no such thing as photographic memory. Some people have abnormal brains that usually interfere with other brain function (like Rain Man), but all this is is a sophisticated mnemonic skill with no distractions, kind of like being in theta-stage right before you fall asleep and can lucidly hallucinate. And even Rain Mans recall is somewhere between 80-98% depending on the book, not 100%.
You want to earn a million dollars before you are twenty-seven??
6 figures <> 1 million
100,000 (6) <> 1,000,000 (7)
To OP - like many others have said, focus on something you enjoy. Learn a language or 2? Instruments? Learn about history, economics, language, culture... life long learning is a great thing
Last edited by Athair; 10-21-2013 at 08:37 PM..
Reason: Adding in my own input
I have a near photographic memory (although it's a misconception that photographic is instant) and I'm trying to decide what to go to college for.
What do you think is the most lucrative career field for someone with near-perfect memory? It can be any type of data from pictures, charts, precise facts, signs and symbols such as numerical data, etc.
I've been able to memorize entire textbooks that are over a thousand pages. Keep in mind though that it takes time - about 6-11 seconds per sentence, but once memorized it is there for life.
I know of many IT fields that require many hours of 'studying' for tough exams, which I could easily pass - however they also have requirements like '5 years work experience' to work your way up the certifications, even if you could ace the tests before that. I'm looking for something that I could climb the ladder up in quickly to make over six figures.
Thank you for your ideas!
If you finish a computer science degree, you have a better than average chance of finding a job. Just do a search for "average java salary" to see one salary example.
Programming as a whole changes very fast. What you learn one year may be obsolete 2 years later, so you have to constantly read and read if you want to stay relevant. Most people with average memory, like me, can only remember generalities and not details. If you can recall the details, then you are much faster at solving problems. You can become the 'guru' or 'go-to' guy/gal at your job, and then you call the shots. My last job was working with a company that had about 900 engineers and software engineers in one building alone. The few 'gurus' who just seemed to know everything were the ones that were basically immune to layoffs. In this day and age, that is a big deal.
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