I have commented about this idea several times before but the “problem” is becoming far more common for me.

I develop a mind model (AKA mind map) and can go for long periods of time getting down ideas I have had and those I “discover” as I develop the model.

I go away from the window on my Mac and almost totally forget what I have been working on. Heck, sometimes I forget I was working on a mind map at all.

When I open the map back up I can look at it for 10 seconds or less and know immediately what I was doing and recover my train of thought. That is I can LOOK AT IT …

as in LOOK AT IT!!!

This is …

I really do not know what to make of it but I do believe that this is very important and illustrative of how the demented or healthy brain is adapting to other information channels using cognitive reserve and brain plasticity.

I cannot figure out exactly why and how this works but I do observe it is getting much more common as I progress further into neurocognitive disorder (dementia) over the months. I forget but I remember and that maintains a creative process.

I do think this is IMPORTANT and I wish that the research to fully understand this phenomenon could be done during my lifetime, although I know it cannot.

Although research cannot be completed in a decade, one can try these methods for yourself and see if they work for you in the way they work for me. I guarantee nothing regarding whether it will work for you. But if they do …

This is a topic I believe needs to be addressed immediately so other folks facing neurodegenerative disease can use these methods to retain a continuity of thinking on important and complex projects. Note that important and complex projects could be developing a new theory of mind modeling (mapping), researching and experimenting to discover the world’s best recipe for a vanilla cake, presenting one’s own life in a visual autobiography, or making irrefutable cases that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare or elephants can fly.