I'm not so sure that the memory of the average person back then was really any better than the memory of people now.
Nah, from what I've been told by folks that focus on that time period, the general recall was magnitudes greater than what most people can manage now. Can't remember if there was a (even remotely justifiable) why attached, but apparently the history we've got points to it. Now mind, that's second hand coming from me (Not my specialty, oi), but it's what I was told.
For harder evidence, see this article. Much like writing once remapped our brains, the personal computer and the internet are substituting a lot of functions we once had to manage ourselves... and our brains are adapting to become better at finding and connecting data, but worse at remembering said data ourselves. It's happening right now, and though it's not necessarily a bad thing (we're gaining new aptitudes as befit the world in which we live) the minds of today's people are changing.
How much patience do people really have, for things that take a long time to accomplish, these days?
I have very little, and it doesn't help if people have very little patience, in the same vein.
I have a rather decent amount of patience, for what it's worth. As for my tolerance of people, that's a different matter. Used to be my mind and memory was mapped more for development (ideas and such) rather than retaining memory. As adulthood rolled around, it went the other way around, although fortunately, laziness overtook development, and suspended it, rather than an exchange of power taking place. At least for the Lent season, I've been working on reactivating that part of my brain again (by giving up laziness, but the difficulty of that seems a bit high, so instead, I'm offering up making an effort to exercise my body and mind; a bit of a loophole around my laziness: don't make it feel like work.), while retaining the memory spaces in order to maximize my capabilities for doing stuff and remembering things as well.
Looking back at that level, actually made MegaCon worthwhile (despite hellish traffic), especially since I hung out with the artists and artist-types that were there, rather than the fanboys/gals. Got the inspiration and kick I needed to get the gears in my head rolling again.
EDIT:
I think it also helped describing (and illustrating) a few things I made for my own uni/multiverse again after tucking it away after a massive criticism/dickishness/trolling wave made me discouraged that it wasn't it's time to come out, despite the fact I was doing it for fun/for the art, and no longer wanted to publish it for any reason other than art. But yeah, explaining the unique nuances of various parts of the uni/multiverse (including the engineering of some of the ships, and how surprisingly practical they were designed, despite some impracticalities (SEE: Bladeships)) really re-inspired me to continue work or give that uni/multiverse a reboot/update (sorta like when I played the reboot/360 anniversary edition of Halo). With my improving skills, and better use of Photoshop and such, as well as picking up Blender, these things with a more proper update will look more badass than they originally looked.
EDIT EDIT:
Also, regarding Lent, I decided to instead of giving up laziness, offer my time to exercise mostly because recently, I almost pulled a muscle tendon on my shoulder working, and doing a bit of heavy lifting. Just as well, I'm also going to take advantage of any opportunity of an idea coming to mind to at least get them started (at least an outline or skeleton), and also take on more puzzles again to get some neurons firing as well (always open to riddles and puzzle games (continuing Spacechem definitely)). Found a few good things that can help me keep up with this; and unlike my giving up laziness, I'm not putting in any limits (like a minimum of 4 hours of work a day, or something like that), but instead, going free-form, taking as long as it takes to feel satisfied (and also exploiting how my brain works, and how much of a lazy-ass it is).