I remember the names and contents of the conversations of nearly everyone I've ever met, and even the names of people who are otherwise complete strangers to me. Chat up a girl in line at the movies for a few minutes a decade ago and never see her again until just now, "Hi Sarah, do you still hang out with Jill?" Overhear a guy at a coffeeshop say hi to his friend Bob that just walked by, now his name is cemented in my mind. If I so much as glance at an employee name tag I'll remember that to.

For business, it works great. If I see a former coworker or client out I can chat them up, remembering the names of their kids and wives, ask them about projects they were working on, etc. I have a decent reputation for being easy to work with an reliable, so those interactions usually go very well. For other social situations...it seems to be a mixed bag.

I hate to feign ignorance, because it makes me feel incongruent and puts me inside my own head, but I also feel weird for remembering so much shit. If I remember things about a girl from several years ago and she doesn't even recognize me, to her it must seem like I've been obsessing over her or something. To me, she's just another drop in the memory bucket.

I feel like I have either an amazing skill that I'm completely under utilizing, or a damned curse that sets me apart from others in a bad way.

What would you do in my situation? Pretend to be ignorant or not?