I got a lot of mileage out of Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley, which includes strategies for memorizing decks of cards.
It's a fun trick and it does help strengthen your day-to-day memory. I definitely recommend learning.
Memorizing a Deck of Cards
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Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#12I haven’t internalized this method yet, but I’m a fan of this video by a YouTube maker-type (“Crafsman”) explaining how to memorize numbers: https://youtu.be/zyqoCZIKsN0
Separately, I’m paranoid about forgetting people’s names, so for me (as other people are describing here) I find it helps to come up with a visualization or link their name to an idea: This guy I just met is named Dylan is bald, and Bob Dylan has crazy hair. The person up the street is named Beth like the KISS song. My favorite was a person named Mika, who was from Yakima, and who introduced herself by saying “I put the _mika_ in _Yakima_.” That was someone I barely knew more than five years ago and I’ll probably still have that one rolling around in my head if I still exist twenty years from now.
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#13A few years ago I got down to memorizing a deck of cards in less than 2 mins. First assign a person for each card. Use the initials of the card. So Ten of Hearts would be someone with the initials T H(eg Ted heath, Thomas Hardy). Choose a person that is visually easy to remember. Then when you are memorizing the cards use the method of loci. Go on an imaginative journey with 52 places and put the relevant person in t…
What is the benefit to such an exercise?
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#14A few years ago I got down to memorizing a deck of cards in less than 2 mins. First assign a person for each card. Use the initials of the card. So Ten of Hearts would be someone with the initials T H(eg Ted heath, Thomas Hardy). Choose a person that is visually easy to remember. Then when you are memorizing the cards use the method of loci. Go on an imaginative journey with 52 places and put the relevant person in t…
What is the benefit to such an exercise?
Testing your mental limits.
Cheating at cards.
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#15Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#16A few years ago I got down to memorizing a deck of cards in less than 2 mins. First assign a person for each card. Use the initials of the card. So Ten of Hearts would be someone with the initials T H(eg Ted heath, Thomas Hardy). Choose a person that is visually easy to remember. Then when you are memorizing the cards use the method of loci. Go on an imaginative journey with 52 places and put the relevant person in t…
Did you clear out your Palace for the next deck or use a new one? Not sure what's the best strategy there, I usually find echoes of past uses at the locations I've previously cleared out. How do you deal with this?
Used the same one every time. I founded the easiest one to use was based on my house. The shorter the distance between objects the better.
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#17“Moonwalking with Einstein”, a book by Joshua Foer ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein ), is all about memorization techniques and memorization competitions. It’s a great read. He found that while practicing with specific techniques allowed him to win competitions, he still tended to forget where he put his car keys.
> he still tended to forget where he put his car keys.
I find it just easier to develop a protocol on where the keys go. In fact, I organize my entire space so that everything has a place and as soon as I am done with it I put it back in the place. Reduces cognitive load. Since a thing is in a place every time, eventually my brain builds a detailed map of exactly where everything lives, even down to the inch within a shelf, drawer, etc. At this point I could almost operate blind.
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#18A few years ago I got down to memorizing a deck of cards in less than 2 mins. First assign a person for each card. Use the initials of the card. So Ten of Hearts would be someone with the initials T H(eg Ted heath, Thomas Hardy). Choose a person that is visually easy to remember. Then when you are memorizing the cards use the method of loci. Go on an imaginative journey with 52 places and put the relevant person in t…
What is the benefit to such an exercise?
It made me much better at deliberately remembering information. I also believe it improves imagination. In the first place ( incidentally a phrase that originates in mnemonics) you are practicing making mental images. The less quotidian the better. Secondly you are required to put together wildly different objects to make easy mnemonics
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#19“Moonwalking with Einstein”, a book by Joshua Foer ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein ), is all about memorization techniques and memorization competitions. It’s a great read. He found that while practicing with specific techniques allowed him to win competitions, he still tended to forget where he put his car keys.
> he still tended to forget where he put his car keys. I find it just easier to develop a protocol on where the keys go. In fact, I organize my entire space so that everything has a place and as soon as I am done with it I put it back in the place. Reduces cognitive load. Since a thing is in a place every time, eventually my brain builds a detailed map of exactly where everything lives, even down to the inch within a…
I've heard a similar technique: always picture the keys as "living on that shelf" or "sleeping in that bowl".
Re: Memorizing a Deck of Cards
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the benefit to such an exercise?
It made me much better at deliberately remembering information. I also believe it improves imagination. In the first place ( incidentally a phrase that originates in mnemonics) you are practicing making mental images. The less quotidian the better. Secondly you are required to put together wildly different objects to make easy mnemonics
> In the first place ( incidentally a phrase that originates in mnemonics) [...]
Do you have a source for that or is it a gut feeling? In a quick Google search I couldn't find anything about the history of this idiom.