I think I can still remember a lot of what I learned when studying mathematics at university. But (to whatever extent it’s actually true; I haven’t tested myself) that may be because after studying mathematics at university I did a PhD in mathematics, and then some mathematics research, and I now work in the allegedly-real world as a mathematician (though in practice that work uses very very little of what I studied at university). If I’d finished my mathematics degree and then gone off to become a painter or bricklayer or chef or something, I would probably now remember a lot less of the mathematics.
(The comparison may be unfair; my impression is that learning law and learning mathematics are quite different, and that one way they’re different is that learning law involves a much larger proportion of memorizing brute facts that one couldn’t deduce from other things one knows. Whereas in principle a sufficiently hyperintelligent being wouldn’t need to learn anything in mathematics other than definitions, terminology and notation; the actual theorems could all be deduced from first principles. It seems plausible to me that the first kind of knowledge decays faster when not in active use than the second.)
Are you now working as a lawyer?
I think I can still remember a lot of what I learned when studying mathematics at university. But (to whatever extent it’s actually true; I haven’t tested myself) that may be because after studying mathematics at university I did a PhD in mathematics, and then some mathematics research, and I now work in the allegedly-real world as a mathematician (though in practice that work uses very very little of what I studied at university). If I’d finished my mathematics degree and then gone off to become a painter or bricklayer or chef or something, I would probably now remember a lot less of the mathematics.
(The comparison may be unfair; my impression is that learning law and learning mathematics are quite different, and that one way they’re different is that learning law involves a much larger proportion of memorizing brute facts that one couldn’t deduce from other things one knows. Whereas in principle a sufficiently hyperintelligent being wouldn’t need to learn anything in mathematics other than definitions, terminology and notation; the actual theorems could all be deduced from first principles. It seems plausible to me that the first kind of knowledge decays faster when not in active use than the second.)
I agree with this. A lot of the things I do remember are things I regularly use for my job.