Phone Numbers:

My old phone stopped working a few weeks back, and I ended up losing all the phone numbers I had stored. While I only remembered a few numbers off the top of my head I just decided to wait for people to call me so I would end up having their phone numbers again. As I recall, my old phone had close to 200 entries, but at the time of this writing, my new phone has 27. Fortunately my contract has expired, so I was able to get a new phone relatively cheap, and went with the Motorola Droid: A smart phone to match its equally smart user. ;) In the future, I will probably back-up my phone numbers in case this happens again. However, if you haven’t heard from me in awhile, it’s not because I don’t care, I just don’t care enough to send an e-mail, facebook message, instant message, and/or call other people looking for your number. :D

Anyways, all this talk about phones and numbers got me thinking to a conversation I had with a plant operator named Mark at the water treatment plant in Oregon City.

Me: So do you know how much bags of filter aid you go through in a year?

Mark: Ah, good question. You’d think I’d know that off the top of my head, but I’m going to have to look it up. Did you ever hear the one about Albert Einstein and memory?

Me: No, I don’t think so.

Mark: Well, there was this big conference that had the best and brightest of the science community in attendance where Einstein gave the keynote speech. Afterwards, a journalist in attendance approached the great scientist and wanted to ask him some questions about the speech he delivered. Not expecting the genius to have time for him he was surprised when Einstein told the journalist that he would very much like to discuss the speech and answer any questions over dinner sometime and for the journalist to give him a call to set something up. The journalist was ecstatic and asked Einstein for his phone number to which Einstein replied, ‘I actually don’t remember my phone number. You’ll have to get it from someone else.’ The journalist was bewildered and asked him, ‘How can someone with as great as a mind as yours not remember his own phone number?’ Einstein answered, ‘My phone number is on my desk, and is readily able to be looked up. I try to not fill my mind with things I can look up with ease.’

Me: So you’re Einstein?

Mark: I’m nowhere near in his league, but if worked for him, I’m hoping it might work for me.