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An ultimate guide to memory palaces

metacognitive.me

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Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#31

Post by coremoff »

mrock wrote: post #28
coremoff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so many questions :) > So I memorized books. Convert a book into 100-250 bullet points, memorize them in a memory palace do you have one palace per book? Many bullet points per location? Very big memory palaces? do you memorise as you read, or do you take notes and learn those? any guides that you found particularly useful?

> do you have one palace per book? Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace > Many bullet points per location? At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and…

many thanks, that's really useful - I've been wanting/trying to sort out my memory for a while (I did use PAO for a while before it fell out of use, and I've used a small palace for trivial things like shopping lists), and this will really help, particularly:

> Later, I store "memories within the memories"

This is such a good idea - I had been thinking about many many different points in a single palace, which is a lot of work; this would make everything much more manageable.

thanks again

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#32

Post by mrock »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #30
mrock wrote: post #10

I've trained my memory over the last ~5 years. I became fascinated with oral cultures. How could they transmit enough knowledge to survive and basically confer PhD level knowledge of survival without books? How could they remember it all? How does your experience of the world change when every place you find yourself is (mentally) chock full of (your most prized) memories? I also wanted to get more out of reading. I…

Have you seen this? "Ancient Australian Aboriginal Memory Tool Superior to ‘Memory Palace’" https://neurosciencenews.com/aboriginal-memory-technique-184...

Yes. There have been many follow up interviews with these researchers. It's an early "is this interesting" proof-of-concept study. But, they are getting funding for a study which should generate more reliable data.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#33

Post by jamesash »

Moonwalking with Einstein de-mystified memory for me. As mrock described, in the beginning it was a lot of work building palaces and making associations, but like a muscle, things quickly got easier. In time, memorizing a list of 30 or so became pretty easy. I was able to memorize a list of 875 North American bird species and then recite it from memory. Took about 35 min to read it all back.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#34

Post by [deleted] »

coremoff wrote: post #31
mrock wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you have one palace per book? Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace > Many bullet points per location? At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and…

many thanks, that's really useful - I've been wanting/trying to sort out my memory for a while (I did use PAO for a while before it fell out of use, and I've used a small palace for trivial things like shopping lists), and this will really help, particularly: > Later, I store "memories within the memories" This is such a good idea - I had been thinking about many many different points in a single palace, which is a l…

[deleted]

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#35

Post by coremoff »

mrock wrote: post #28
coremoff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so many questions :) > So I memorized books. Convert a book into 100-250 bullet points, memorize them in a memory palace do you have one palace per book? Many bullet points per location? Very big memory palaces? do you memorise as you read, or do you take notes and learn those? any guides that you found particularly useful?

> do you have one palace per book? Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace > Many bullet points per location? At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and…

one more question, if you'll indulge me: do you keep a number of empty palaces ready for when you'll next need one, or do you create them on demand?

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#36

Post by mrock »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #25
jhgb wrote: post #19

> Close your eyes and visualize your way to the shop in the head So I guess people with aphantasia are out of luck?

With aphantasia, you simply cannot "visualise" the way other people "visualise". But you can still "visualise". Not using images but using the other mechanisms you developed. Many people with aphantasia are unaware of it because they can function just fine and have workarounds that fills almost all their needs. They simply cannot add an image to it. Personally, I can make memory palace work fine. There's simply no im…

> So, for the sake of etymology I guess it would not be visualise but factualize or some other word.

In terms of the process, it's like imagining something using all of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, balance. You want to make the abstract concrete so you're recalling an experience.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#37

Post by mrock »

coremoff wrote: post #35
mrock wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you have one palace per book? Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace > Many bullet points per location? At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and…

one more question, if you'll indulge me: do you keep a number of empty palaces ready for when you'll next need one, or do you create them on demand?

I used to try to do that. Now I keep a list of potential palaces and do everything just-in-time.

Preparing a memory palace is just yet another skill. At first it seems like a big "job" to do. Later, it's like nothing, you float through it once, done. Especially if you reuse systems like Roman room because that makes a lot of decisions by rules.

Also because you're trying to link knowledge to what you know well you don't need to have amazing recall of the place. Just a sense of a room that you know about, eventually will be enough. If you can recall furniture or whatever, then use that it will help. But if you're straining to recall... you might not get much additional benefit by trying to photographically document the space in your mind.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#38

Post by adiamond4 »

I am creating a personal knowledge management platform called Memory Maps that enables users to build and maintain spatial mnemonics alongside their notes.

-It is built on Google Maps and allows you to create memory journeys anywhere in the world where there is Google Street View coverage.

-It will include an AI based copilot that can learn from the images you create, autosuggest good encoding images, and remind you of what you have already used.

-Spaced repetition based active recall practice is built in and optimized for mobile.

Check it out! https://www.memorymaps.io/

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#39

Post by coremoff »

mrock wrote: post #37
coremoff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one more question, if you'll indulge me: do you keep a number of empty palaces ready for when you'll next need one, or do you create them on demand?

I used to try to do that. Now I keep a list of potential palaces and do everything just-in-time. Preparing a memory palace is just yet another skill. At first it seems like a big "job" to do. Later, it's like nothing, you float through it once, done. Especially if you reuse systems like Roman room because that makes a lot of decisions by rules. Also because you're trying to link knowledge to what you know well you do…

thanks again.

> photographically document

I have aphantasia, so it's a little more abstract for me, but I can still walk around spaces and pin concepts to them :)

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#40

Post by rolisz »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #25
jhgb wrote: post #19

> Close your eyes and visualize your way to the shop in the head So I guess people with aphantasia are out of luck?

With aphantasia, you simply cannot "visualise" the way other people "visualise". But you can still "visualise". Not using images but using the other mechanisms you developed. Many people with aphantasia are unaware of it because they can function just fine and have workarounds that fills almost all their needs. They simply cannot add an image to it. Personally, I can make memory palace work fine. There's simply no im…

Exactly. I can't visualize visual stuff, but for example, I can imagine and "see" code very well. I have a graph in my head of how various functions call each other or how data flows through the program. Sometimes the connections have different flavours/colours, such as build time, compile time, run time, frontend/backend/network call.
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