See here for an interesting interview with Rav Herschel Schachter:
The whole article is fascinating, however this one paragraph sticks out in my mind:
Rabbi Soloveitchik was not a towering baki. He couldn’t tell you on which daf one would find a particular din. He couldn’t even tell you what amud; rather, he would remember the progression of topics in the order in which they appear in the Gemara. People would be surprised. How could he not even remember if it’s amud aleph or amud beis? The truth is that he didn’t have that kind of bekius. He would often introduce a shiur
by quoting a completely different Gemara in order to expose its
underlying principle, which would then shed light on the Gemara at hand. The shiur would thus have a bekius background in order to set the stage for further inquiry.
by quoting a completely different Gemara in order to expose its
underlying principle, which would then shed light on the Gemara at hand. The shiur would thus have a bekius background in order to set the stage for further inquiry.
Torah, one does not necessarily need a photographic memory, but rather a
structured and orderly understanding of the concepts.