Maybe because it's one of the algorithms that's been showing up lately, but I've been thinking about sliding windows as an analogy. Specifically, as a way of thinking about memory. There's some sort of cutoff point where I might be able to recall things, but it no longer feels "recent" or directly connected to my identity.

The feeling of recency is quite interesting to me because it seems to imply that important things are going to fade over time. And if you want to preserve certain parts of your identity, there's some sort of "upkeep" you'll need to pay, i.e. having more of those sort of experiences consistently so they stay in recent memory.

Anyway, that's if you equate identity with memory, and that's definitely an oversimplification. But, whatever.

As new things filter in, older things drop out. I'm unsure how to square this with the theory of compounding experience. Presumably if something has effects, even if it falls out of the window, then things it influenced can continue to resound, ala domino effect, but that feels quite contrived. The obvious answer, of course, is that there are several factors at play.