I have no working face/name pattern recognition and I am hanging out with you at a conference and I must scream
@cwebber that is why I started approaching people and telling them who I am and where we have met before. Takes out my insecurities about having every face hammered into my brain forever.
@cwebber
Good to know, now if we ever met I can just pretend this isn't a parasocial relationship at all, it's just that you don't recognize faces and forgot my name
@cwebber Nametags, please conference organizers, Nametags! And in a legible size and font, too
Whenever someone comes up to me at a conference and says "Hi Christine, my name is <$NAME> and we last encountered each other in <$CONTEXT>" I am *SO GRATEFUL*
@cwebber When I was active in the conference scene, I tried *so* hard to find ways to deal with this.
Total stranger comes out of the crowd, "GeePawwwwww," grabs my hand or even gives me a hug.
I'm like, "Hey . . . yooooooooou! How you been?"
@cwebber @GeePawHill 😁 i try to be honest about it. “Sorry, I know I know you but could you remind me of the context?”. In my first two years of uni I kept running into this guy in the canteen that I was obviously in a “👋 but never speak to” relationship with. Only when I finally stopped and asked him how we knew each other I realized he was living in the same building as me. For two years I’ve been 👋 the same guy in two different settings not connecting the dots. At a conference where I’m working full speed soaking up info through my tired ears my skills at recognizing people is below 0, no reason to pretend otherwise.
@cwebber ahead of this year's busy round of work-related social events where I see many people who only see me once a year, I invested in a little necklace that says SARA in an easy to read font about 1/2" high
it looks tasteful and hopefully helps people know who I am
I had a brain injury last year and while I've never been great at names it's such a struggle now, I figure other people must also have this problem so I can help by labeling myself clearly
@cwebber it shows that they understand variable expansion. :-)
@cwebber Oh yes, definitely. I have a dreadful memory for faces. If I just met someone briefly at the last conference a year ago then unless we went out for dinner or something the chances that I'm going to remember them unprompted are close to zero.
@cwebber never been there …
@cwebber this is good to know! I've come away from some of our past interactions thinking you must have been very overwhelmed or distracted by something but now I'm considering it may have been this 💛💛
Obligatory Inigo Montoya meme
