In Praise of Memorization
pearlleff.com
In Praise of Memorization
1–10 of 152 posts
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#2There was an HN poster a few months ago who claimed that memorizing the Python standard library made him much more productive.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#3Or as we call it,in infant school "rote learning" which incurs a huge penalty in popular opinion, despite driving recall of basic arithmetical facts like the times-tables, alphabet order, spelling "rules" &c
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#4Yeah it's a huge differentiator. But there's limits and tradeoffs. Likely those guys were super productive in one very narrow thing.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#5I've never regarded memorization highly. Whenever we had to learn the times tables or the squares at school, I would just work them out in my head instead of memorizing them.
Of course, I still ended up learning the squares and the times tables by heart, but not because I actively memorized them, but because I just used them so much that I couldn't help but remember them eventually.
I'm of the opinion that this leads to a good rule of thumb: never memorize anything - if you use the thing often enough, you can't help but memorize it anyway.
Of course, you could argue that how often you use something isn't necessarily equivalent to how much utility you might get out of memorizing said thing, and I don't disagree with that.
All that being said, I do agree with the article's premise that an expansive knowledge base aids reasoning, which does seem to be in conflict with my principle. I definitely do possess a basic knowledge of geography, and it does definitely aid my reasoning, but I don't ever remember actively memorizing that - not at school, nor elsewhere.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#6Memorization is one of God's greatest graces to the intellectual.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#7Understanding is easy, memorizing is hard.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#8Memorization alone and in itself is nothing but just a curiosity. But coupled together with good analytic and connection skills it is an incredibly powerful asset.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#9Memorizing is a lost art. It breeds understanding, because the symbolic surface makes itself apparent to the mind so readily—and without understanding, the symbolic surface has no grounding.
Only once the lines are memorized can you say them with feeling. And, when you know the feeling, you can make up new lines.
Understanding and memorization should not be seen as opposites.
Re: In Praise of Memorization
#10I 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 methods. If anyone has any specific pointers to share I'd be grateful.