Just as a brand new nickle is extremely shiny, so is everything when it comes to processing the intake of something new. Your brain seeks means by which to intrepret the data into usable knowledge, this is usually done through association with an already known element. Take for example the title of this topic discussion "too shiny", many of you immediately thought of the movie Rainman as the image of Dustin Hoffman stating that line is an example of episodic memory. It was neither formally presented or required, yet you learned it anyway. To me, it becomes easier to remember episodic memories as an episode of something you have lived through or witnessed. Yes this also covers your "high school education" as well as you may have survived it, yet the elements do not seem so easy to recall. Does anyone really remember having fun in high school geometry? This might be a key to finding out how you recall things.