William Rumley "Memory of a Goldfish"

My colleague and friend Evan and I once taught fabrication to college students. We’d give a demonstration, and very often, some of the students would return only moments later to ask questions—as though their memories had been wiped.

Evan likened this behavior to the attention span of a goldfish in an aquarium. The goldfish would swim past a bubbling treasure chest decoration and react, “Oh! Look at that.” Then, after circling the tank a few seconds later, it would have already forgotten the treasure chest and say again, “Oh! Look at that.”

The bad news: when I observe political leadership today, I see our collective memory is just as fleeting. Public outrage over important issues flares up, social media lights up, promises are made—and then, before long, it all fades. Issues like climate change, pandemic mismanagement, and racial injustice resurface as if for the first time, as we repeat the same mistakes and forget the lessons.

But, more often than not, we have a political memory span of a goldfish rather than the learning capacity of a common rat—a nod to B.F. Skinner. We forget what has happened; we repeat what we should have learned.

Oh! Look at that.