31–38 of 38 posts
Are most people able to just "picture a room" as required by this technique? I've never been good at that. Whenever I try to picture a location, I just see objects and landmarks with no real sense of place, kind of just floating in an impressionistic aether.
There is a great TED talk about this: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...
And a great book called Moonwalking with Einstein
There's an active memory-improvement community at http://artofmemory.com including forums and a wiki of techniques. Why bother? Because these techniques increase the capacity of "cache" that is closer (low latency) to human "computation". This can lead to faster traversal of the OODA loop, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop , which is relevant to lean startups, business competition, combat and more. See the HN…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And a great book called Moonwalking with Einstein
Yes, I second (or third) this book. I used the method to chain Japanese kanji onyomi (the Chinese reading) together. Even went so far as to build out the location in minecraft so I could walk around and "study" Took a while to build and stopped after 20 groups, but still an amazing way to leverage your memory skills.
I've even bought the game for my iPad so that I can traverse it time to time to refresh my Palace!
Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein' I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49! That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffl…
In your example, "the ISS crashed down into $city" requires remembering the city name, and that's just a few words in. By the time the novella gets to the 50th word, there are a ton of details one must remember, aside from the story itself that houses them (which in your case seems custom made for those words; I'd be surprised if that was your general purpose loci).
This problem is compounded by the system described on ArtOfMemory's wiki (http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Method_of_Loci) where they use a fixed story but with interchangeable items in the rooms. I'm sure with enough reciting of that story, I could remember the corn and milk, but the second time I need that memory palace, only this time with different items, I'm screwed because the two stories will bleed together.
I recognize this comment might sound like I'm deriding the method, but I promise that's not the case. I just want to know if someone else has the same "stories don't work for me" and to know if there is a twist or alternate which makes them work for the kind of brain which isn't helped by loci.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I second (or third) this book. I used the method to chain Japanese kanji onyomi (the Chinese reading) together. Even went so far as to build out the location in minecraft so I could walk around and "study" Took a while to build and stopped after 20 groups, but still an amazing way to leverage your memory skills.
Minecraft eh? I did the same with GTA San Andreas. I played that game so much when I was young, that I have the whole map memorized. Given the fact that the map is huge, I use that as my Palace. I've even bought the game for my iPad so that I can traverse it time to time to refresh my Palace!
Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein' I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49! That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffl…
The one problem I've had with these "construct a story" mechanisms is that I have just as hard of a time remembering the specifics of the story as I do some of the things I'm trying _to_ remember. In your example, "the ISS crashed down into $city" requires remembering the city name, and that's just a few words in. By the time the novella gets to the 50th word, there are a ton of details one must remember, aside from…
There are more tips on the memory palace page (http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Memory_Palace), and you can ask more questions in the forum.