I’m also normally terrible at learning names, but I’ve learned how to get around it. This may be terribly specific to people who learn like me; if so, I apologize.
I have found that I am incredibly focused on learning through actually seeing things written. I am excellent at spelling because I see the written form of words in my head, and even when I can’t immediately recall the precise letters, I always have an accurate sense of how many there are (which is often enough to select the correct spelling from a shortlist of plausible alternatives).
Given that, I find that I can trivially remember people’s names after having emailed them and typed their names.
Hi, long-time lurker. Fell in love with the blog after two posts, and spent some productive hours reading the Quantum Physics sequence. I think I introduced the blog to the XKCD readership, or at least the ones who read the Science forums there.