On False Memory—Tron, Thor, and Basic Football Knowledge
All of us harbor memories we are sure are true, but knowing that much of them aren't is half the battle.
It’s 2011. I’m a freshman at Baylor. For the first time in my life, I actually have consistent schoolwork to do, so I end up listening to a lot of movie soundtracks to aid in the process. One of my favorites was Daft Punk’s soundtrack for Tron Legacy, a movie I really enjoyed. I studied to this soundtrack, exercised to it, and proselytized to my friends about it. It was dope, as I probably said at the time (as if I wouldn’t currently).
One day, I was studying with a friend, and we had the soundtrack on in the background. “I love how you can see the visuals of the movie when you’re listening,” I said. “Especially this part — I’m pretty sure this is when he calls his hammer down from the sky when he’s by that rural gas station.”
Needless to say, this elicited a quizzical look from my friend. “What? … Dude, that’s Thor.”
That was the moment I realized I had never seen Tron—a movie I thought I loved, that I thought had an awesome soundtrack. But no, I had never seen it. I didn’t even know what it was about. But I would listen to that soundtrack and was sure I knew where those songs happened in the movie; I had just mashed up Tron and Thor into some mono-product that didn’t actually exist.
This was a funny instance, but has stuck with me for more poignant reasons. My fake Thor-Tron mashup serves as an eternal reminder that all of us harbor some version of false memories and ideas. A circumstance where we encounter these the most is probably at family gatherings whenever old stories are told or photo books get pulled out. “You’re telling that story as if you were there — you weren’t!” “Yes I was!” Etc. Who knows.
Some memories are lost to time and the truth cannot be attained. And most of the time, this doesn’t matter.
But sometimes it does. Especially within domains of expertise where you build your current plan upon a foundation of prior knowledge, it matters that that foundational knowledge is true.
A common question I get about my football writing is, “How did you learn so much?” After I do my best to explain that I actually don't (this is not false modesty, y’all, your average high school position coach knows a lot more than me), I explain that football is not something that can be learned in a day, week, or year. It’s a process of repeatedly acquiring small bits of information and placing them where they fit in the larger picture.
Integral to this project is ensuring that you a) haven’t learned false stuff, and b) you don’t incorrectly remember what you’ve previously learned. Like most (all?) domains, understanding football is an additive/multiplicative process. You make decisions based off of what you’ve previously learned.
I know that somewhere in what I think is true about the game—about its scheme, organization, coaching, etc.—I have some fake Tron-Thor knowledge in there, and you have to be intentional about rooting it out. Thomas Jefferson had his tree of liberty quote; Descartes stated his method of doubt (assume all is false, find what is true one by one). You can’t trust your memory. It will lead you down the wrong path even when you’re sure you’re right. Reevaluate and your plan will be better for it.