From: mcvos@cs.vu.nl (Vos MC)
Subject: Re: GURPS Absent-Mindedness and Disads in General
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 19:19:34 GMT

WARNING: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED IN ABSENT MINDEDNESS


Michael Woodhams writes:
: As a real life absent minded person, I can add a little bit of reality
: checking to this. The biggest problem is not forgetting things
: (although this happens to) but just not remembering them at the right
: time. This means that if somebody asked me "when is your doctor's
: appointment" I would (probably) immediately be able to reply "2:30". I
: can even think at 12:00 "I must remember the doctor's appointment",
: but at 2:15 when I should be leaving, it has completely slipped my
: mind, and I don't remember again until 6 or something.

What usually helps with me is thinking about it just before I go to
sleep. Often I remember it when I wake up, and who knows, maybe I
still think about it when I have the appointment (or whatever).
However, the more important the thing to remember is, the bigger the
chance I forget it (Murphy's Law..). So with real important things
I lay notes on several places I will probably look at (next to my bed,
my shoes, the door, on my plate at the table..etc..). And my mother
usually reminds me of everything.

: The other
: reasonably major problem is forgetting people's names and faces.
: Anyone who I meet only once a week has a fairly small chance of having
: their name remembered. Somebody I've met a couple of times can come
: up to me and I will not even recognise them.

I've once asked someone her (I think it was a girl, I'm not entirely
sure) name *three* times one evening, and at the end of the evening
I still had forgotten it again. Next day I didn't even know which face
belonged to the person who's name I had asked three times. (I hadn't
been drinking (I never do)) When someone tells his/her name I usually
remember it again, and can't understand why I had forgotten it.
: 
: The mental "leaving the world" also happens, but it is nothing like as
: severe as in GURPS. This frequently happens while walking, or reading
: a dull text. I maintain sufficient awareness of the world to navigate
: and wake up sufficiently to cross roads. (Unfortunately for the world
: and Marie, Pierre Curie fumbled this roll once.) Simply being
: addressed is usually sufficient to retrieve my head from the clouds.

It can also happen when reading or doing something very interesting.
It can happen that I absolutely don't see or hear anything other than
what I'm concentrating on. When reading or doing something utterly
boring (like homework) my mind goes off wandering, thinking about
other, more interesting things.
I think this is the main problem of absent-mindednes: the mind needs
to be occupied, or it will occupy itself. High IQ might even have a
negative effect here. A mind that can handle more is also more easily
bored. On the other hand, willpower can force the person to concentrate
on what he/she's doing. (It's a pitty that GURPS doesn't have a
seperate Willpower stat. Absent minded, High IQ, low WP characters
might have severe problems here.

: However I did have a conversation like this once:
: 
: Friend: "Why didn't you talk to us in town today?"
: Me: "Huh? When?"
: Friend: "Half an hour ago on Queen St. We were a couple of metres in
: front of you."
: Me: "I didn't see you."
: Friend: "We were waving and calling you."

Yeah, I recognise this situation. Happens to me a lot.
: 
: Bad spelling is another side effect of my absent mindedness. (To
: demonstrate this, I've not run this post through a spell checker as I
: normally would.) Sometimes I will start going to do something, get
: lost in thought, and then suddenly realise I no longer know where I
: was intending to go.

I have never had much problems with spelling. A problem I do have, is
in a discussion forgetting in the middle of a sentence what I was
saying. This is really a _huge_ problem to me. This doesn't happen
very often while writing (I can always reread the sentence..) but I
can still create weird sentences because the end of the sentence
doesn't fit with the beginning.
Another thing is that I sometimes go to my room to get or do something,
forget what I wanted to do, do something else in my room, go back down-
stairs after a while, remember what I wanted to do, go back upstairs,
forget again, etc.. this repeats several times sometimes. Really
annoying.
: 
: The example GURPS gives of the detective who forgets to reload his gun
: is a good one. I get around some of these problems by cultivating
: habits: my keys ALWAYS go straight back in my trouser pocket after
: use. I ALWAYS transfer everything from the pockets of what I wore
: yesterday into my clothes when I dress in the morning. I ALWAYS have a
: collapsable umbrella in my bag, which I take with me almost
: everywhere, so that by habit I take it away with me when I leave
: somewhere.  I know that if I had a non-collapsable umbrella, it would
: last about 3 days before getting lost. I try to compensate for my
: absent mindedness by writing myself notes on the back of my hand,
: warning people that I may forget their appointment etc. (Writing this,
: I've just remembered I have to report an intramural bridge score from
: Friday to the gym by tomorrow.)

Yeah. That's the only way to really overcome it. Doing things by habit.
The detective in question should cultivate the habit of reloading his
gun as often as possible, or immediately after it refuses to fire. If
he hasn't the time for it, he can only hope to remember on a more
suitable time he still hasn't reloaded his gun.
My sister (who, I think, doesn't suffer from absent mindedness) always
loses everything. Her shoes, the keys of her bike, and whatever else
someone could forget. I don't, just because I put my shoes always on
the same place, I put the keys of my bike in my pocket, and I think
quite a long time before deciding to put on other trousers today.
: 
: In game terms: About 50% chance to forget an appointment, unless it is
: very important. Roll under 5+number of times somebody's name has been
: told to you to remember it. (Modified by how important the person is
: to the character. The new boss's name will be remembered.) Roll under
: 6+3*(number of times you've met somebody) to recognise them (but
: probably not remember their name.) On near misses, you know you know
: them, but have no idea from where.

Actually, this is the thing that happens me most. I always see people
I think I've met before, but I never know from what. Some of those I've
actually never met. I only think I did.

: When the character has their head
: in the clouds, any unusual event or being addressed will bring them
: down, with a couple of seconds to orient themselves. It is likely that
: whatever was said to bring them out of it will have to be repeated.
: Putting an absent minded character on guard duty would indeed be a
: very bad idea. I don't think IQ affects chances to remember things
: except in the amount of intelligence used in thinking of compensating
: mechanisms.

I have said something about IQ and WP already, so I wont do that here.
Maybe there should be some sort of skill or something, indicating you
can handle most of the problems, you have acquired certain habits, etc.
My absent mindedness doesn't cause me to 'wander off' very often. I had
that years ago, but got used to it, and can concentrate on the right
things now.
Well.. that's not really true. I do it on more suitable moments. Or
during homework. (Something that really helps against this, is
listening to music. Especially quite rough music. I used to listen to
the Cure, but that's not really enough. Now it's The Animals, Claw Boys
Claw (it's almost impossible to think with this music on, so ideal for
doing homework), Killing Joke, and that sort of stuff. As long as it
keeps you occupied, but you wont go thinking about nothing else but the
music. (Somehow I get the idea that this belongs in another newsgroup..
Guess I'll atract severe flames here))

Anyway, I think it's possible to get over most serious problems of
absent mindedness, although you'll never really get rid of it. So I
think a skill, or an buyable advantage (Can Cope With Absent Mindedness?)
is a good idea. It shouldn't be too expensive, as you learn it almost
automatically (although the absent mindedness may cause you to spend
less time on study. hm.. Maybe should people with absent mindedness
put more hours of study in a skill to raise it. (this will cause quite
a lot of book-keeping, I guess. And flames too.) 

Anyway, I'm too absent minded to come with good working rules
for this now.

Great Greetings,
mcv


(mcvos@cs.vu.nl)
B
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: 
: Michael W.