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In Praise of Memorization

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Re: In Praise of Memorization

#51

Post by bambax »

jasode wrote: post #32
bambax wrote: post #28

Very much in agreement with the article. The analysis about the current Ukrainian situation is a little bit limited, though, because Russia controls Sevastopol since it annexed Crimea in 2014; it didn't need the current war to control it more. Also, probable typo: > A second example: at the time of the writing of this article, Russia is a month into an invitation into Ukraine. invitation => invasion? I don't think an…

>, because Russia controls Sevastopol since it annexed Crimea in 2014; it didn't need the current war to control it more. Crimea's fresh water supply came from a canal originating in Ukraine. After Russia's annexation, Ukraine retaliated by blocking the water flow with concrete so Crimea was running out of water. Deep link to explanation: https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE?t=16m27s So it was no surprise that on the 2nd day…

> Deep link to explanation: https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE

This video is fascinating and explains a lot. Many thanks for this!!

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#52

Post by afarrell »

> Subconsciously, when you learn a piece by heart, its message penetrates deep inside you. It lies at your fingertips, ready for you to make use of it. Many cultures have long understood this. In Islam, people who memorize the entire Koran are given the special title of hafiz, or guardian. In a secular equivalent, I know people who have memorized Rudyard Kipling's poem If— to give them a moral helping hand at times of crisis.

What poems you all think serve as good reminders of truths of how to work well in teams and build good software?

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#53

Post by bambax »

FearNotDaniel wrote: post #42
jasode wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>, because Russia controls Sevastopol since it annexed Crimea in 2014; it didn't need the current war to control it more. Crimea's fresh water supply came from a canal originating in Ukraine. After Russia's annexation, Ukraine retaliated by blocking the water flow with concrete so Crimea was running out of water. Deep link to explanation: https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE?t=16m27s So it was no surprise that on the 2nd day…

I'm obviously missing some facts about the region, as per the OP's hypothesis, because a naive look at the map suggests that even without Crimea, Russia already has coastline onto the Black Sea between its borders with Ukraine and Georgia... there must be a strong reason in favour of invading another country rather than developing ports on the land they already have, if the goal is simply "control over the Black Sea…

As per the video https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE), above and beyond the geopolitical reasons for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the main motive is economical:

1. Russia is in effect a petrostate; it lives and dies by its exports of natural gas and oil.

2. Immense fields of underwater natural gas and oil were discovered in 2012 in the Crimea maritime exclusive economic zone.

3. If Crimea stays with Ukraine, it lets Ukraine become a new petrostate and challenge Russia (take over its European customers), which to Russia is an existential threat. Hence the annexation of Crimea in 2014: not only for Sevastopol and access to the Mediterranean, but to exploit the oil fields (and/or prevent Ukraine from exploiting them).

4. But the supply of 80% of the fresh water to Crimea comes from a canal [0] that connects it to the Dnieper river in Ukraine; after the annexation, Ukraine shut the canal down, effectively thirsting Crimea to death.

5. If Russia wants to stay in Crimea (which it believes is necessary for its own survival), it needs to reopen that canal, and therefore control at least the southern part of Ukraine and possibly its whole Mediterranean coastline.

(It's not just about the canal, but the canal is a very big part of it.)

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Crimean_Canal

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#54

Post by ColinWright »

izzygonzalez wrote: post #10

I memorized half of If when I was younger. It seemed especially impressive to certain people. These days I combine mnemonics with memory palace journeys. In a few hours of practice I went from being able to memorize 6 digits to around 70. My penultimate challenge is to memorize texts verbatim. I haven't been able to find a straightforward method. My next thought is to research theater performers' methods and Hafiz me…

> If anyone has any specific pointers to share I'd be grateful.

I recite a pair of lines multiple times until they feel natural. Then I put overlapping quintuples of words into my Spaced Repetition system. So with Ozymandias I read the first section:

  I met a traveller from an antique land who said:
  "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand ..."
Then into my SR system I put:

  I met a traveller from | traveller from an antique land ...
  traveller from an antique land | antique land who said: "Two ...
etc. This has worked extremely well for me.

YMMV.

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#55

Post by raju »

This reminds me a brilliant article [1] by Barbara Oakley, who has a _superb_ course on Coursera on "Learning How to Learn" [2].

In this article, Barbara talks about how memorization helped her with Mathematics, a subject that she had previously struggled with. In particular, this line stands out to me

> Continually focusing on understanding itself actually gets in the way.

[1] https://nautil.us/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in... [2]https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

P.S: Her book is really good too https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/...

[Update: Apparently she wrote a book based on the course—https://www.amazon.com/Learning-How-Learn-Spending-Studying/...]

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#56

Post by protomyth »

I still believe one the biggest problems new students have at community college from their math classes is lack of memorized basic math. When you have to take any time to do the basic math when learning college math, you are at a time disadvantage. Flash cards are apparently the devil, but you don't need to work out the simple stuff and calculators are context switches.

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#57

Post by queuep »

quartesixte wrote: post #15

Disclaimer: Anecdata. I volunteer tutor high school kids in my local community. Particularly math and history. The biggest differentiator between the students who scale up quickly and those who scale up a bit more slowly is their aptitude for memorization. Recent history curricula and pedagogy in HS has placed an emphasis on “analysis” and “critical thinking.” But the students who struggle all struggle for the same r…

> Good memorization skills are a huge leverage and it is something that can be learned and practiced.

Any recommendations in how to get better at memorization?

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#58

Post by text_exch »

queuep wrote: post #57
quartesixte wrote: post #15

Disclaimer: Anecdata. I volunteer tutor high school kids in my local community. Particularly math and history. The biggest differentiator between the students who scale up quickly and those who scale up a bit more slowly is their aptitude for memorization. Recent history curricula and pedagogy in HS has placed an emphasis on “analysis” and “critical thinking.” But the students who struggle all struggle for the same r…

> Good memorization skills are a huge leverage and it is something that can be learned and practiced. Any recommendations in how to get better at memorization?

Highly recommend Memrise https://www.memrise.com/

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#59

Post by _bfhp »

Dave3of5 wrote: post #29

I've worked with devs who never looked up anything on the internet and tried to do everything from memory and their code was shit. I think here it may have been something else that made this team highly productive. Maybe they had more autonomy than most dev teams are allowed to have. I know I would have never been allowed to create a compiler for any of my previous jobs (to high risk). I do agree you shouldn't just G…

[flagged]

Re: In Praise of Memorization

#60

Post by text_exch »

rasterino wrote: post #26

Understanding that memorization should be key for the reasons laid out in the article, would it be better to forgo note centered workflows such as Zettelkasten or Wiki for flashcard centered workflows such as Anki or Supermemo? What gives the most value? I'm going back and forth between these two workflows and I feel like progressing at a steady rate before getting bogged down, not because I have difficulty with the…

I've found the most success with Memrise: https://www.memrise.com
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