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Unfortunately my day job requires a tie each day. Thanks to you, though, I'm now a windsor knot guy. Peace.
To remember a list of thousands of objects in sequence you can use another technique called the link technique, where you make ridiculous associations between the sequence of objects. Eg: Phone, Book, Comb, Fish...
1. Imagine yourself talking into a huge Book instead of a phone.
2. Imagine yourself studying for an exam reading a massive comb
3. You are fishing at a lake, and you pull out combs instead of fish
and so on...
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Hi Mo,
This "peg" technique -- often referred to as the "loci" technique -- actually originated in Greece, from what I've read, where Socratic-era orators would use it to remember speech points, as written notes were forbidden. Harry is a smart man, though, to be sure.
Cheers!
Tim
You could be right about the greek origins. Btw, using these techniques to remember speech points is an excellent application of this method. Thanks for mentioning that. I wonder if world leaders use these techniques in their seemingly fluent and long speeches.
regards,
Mohit
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Hi Victory,
If followed with a repeat session of about 1 hour on the slower items the following day, I've generally seen an 80-90% retention rate after 24 hours. The forgetting curve is typical Ebbinghaus after that.
For the VA questions, I'd recommend you hit the resources I recommend in 4HWW, especially www.elance.com, but you can also try www.odesk.com, which has good tools. Just post your criteria on each marketplace you choose.
Cheers,
Tim
The mind is better used for *thinking* than for storing endless facts. Yes, being able to remember Pi to 10,000 places is interesting....
...Wouldn't it be far more efficient to use the ancient reference method "pencil and paper" and then go spend the rest of your time doing something *fun*? ;)
The limitation of this system relative to Tim's/Tomoyori's is the up-front time commitment. A ten-number system probably takes much less time to master than a 100-number system, especially where each number maps to three different things. However, it's much more determinate -- instead of making choices about how to shoehorn the number-sounds into words, you've got a fixed image for every location -- and more efficient (6 digits per image instead of 1-3 in Tim's example).
In theory, you don't have to limit yourself to two-digit numbers; obviously a three-digit system would be more efficient, since each image would be worth nine digits instead of six, and so on. But apparently almost no competitors have had success with three-digit systems -- I'm guessing it's just too hard to come up with 1000 people, actions, and objects that are so distinct that you won't confuse them with one another. However, I think there's at least one guy who's used a three-digit system extremely successfully.
Sorry to be so hand-wavy about all this -- I've gotten it only from conversation, so I don't have any references for any of it. But the guy I was talking to did definitely memorize 120 decimal digits in 2 minutes, and describe the images and the route he used, so I'm confident that he knows what he was talking about.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
The peg system that mbm was referring to in an earlier comment is actually the link system where you link one item to another until the end of your list.
As I understand it, the peg system is great unless your peg system isn't based on phonetic mnemonics. For instance if you just randomly pick words to associate with the numbers 1-10 in order to memorize a separate list of ten items, you'll do fine but what if you have to remember 100 items or more? How are you going to remember what number stood for what item? That's where the phonetic mnemonic system comes in ... and you covered it in your post, sort of.
Each number has a sound, so if you ever forget any number, you can sound it out with the phonetics and that will remind you of the object associated with that number. This is unlike a random list of objects associated with numbers.
Example: 1 can't be ball because it has the 't' sound. But one can be tie! The sound of the number (phonetic mnemonic) will remind you of the associated word!
Making phonetic mnemonics from 1-100 even 1-1000 etc, or using someone else's pre-made list will prepare you to use the link method (and drop the loci method) with a great advantage over the loci guys.
For instance, you could memorize PI to as many digits as you'd like by just linking your image for the first three numbers to your image for the next three. Then linking your image for those three numbers to the next, etc.
Of course, as mjw has said, learning those initial 1000 or 100 numbers might be sort of a [short] time commitment, but it could be worth it for some people.
If you can memorize the first 100 peg words, or whatever you'd like to call them, the next 900 will be a breeze! How? All you do is take your image for the number 1 and set it on fire to mean 101 or put it in ice to mean 201 or smother it in jelly to mean 301, etc.
The system is pretty easily expandable. Lets say you don't even want to go that far. Lets say you just want to memorize 100 items. Ok, just memorize the first 10. Your image for 1 might be "t"ie, and your image for 2 might be "n"oah. Don't link these, because you want 100 separate items. Now what would the image for 12 be? It could be a frozen noah! And 11 could be a frozen tie? 22 could be a burning noah, and 21 could be a burning tie! Etc.
Anyways, I hope I helped spread some ... memory love.
Thanks!
In our school systems (in the US) today, classes require students to memorize junk. Here are some examples:
Elementary: memorize the pledge of allegiance
Middle School: memorize all the presidents
High school: memorize the periodic table
College: memorize all kinds of units
Med School: oh the agony!
So while the brain is a great tool for coming up with new ideas and such, it's great at memorizing too, and we definitely have no choice but to memorize stuff in this day and age ... until the robots take over. 0.o
Just because some people don't have brains that aren't doing these memory tricks naturally doesn't mean that these "tricks" are crap. They're still good methods for memorizing a bunch of stuff real fast. Plus most of what we humans do nowadays are stuff that we learned from others - i.e learned habits.
Anyways. I still believe genius can be learned, along with everything else ... including a photographic memory and whatnot.
"...Using the above conversion table, 8209 could equal “fan� (82) and “soap� (02)..."
shouldn't 02 here be 09?
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Oops! Good catch! Corrected... Thank you.
Tim
I'm wondering if there's some aspect of the technique that I missed, that helps more for the long-term memorization? In my case, the more hokey the image I used (and it recommended that), the more difficult I found it to isolate the key parts of the image later.
Jim has written a book called Memory Smart, which was actually written to help parents and teachers teach kids how to memorize things. He reminded us of some mnemonics we used to learn things as kids--like the year 1492(Columbus sailed...) and the ABC song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...There are many of them, and the fact that we still remember them today attests to their ability to work.
Jim describes 9 different techniques, applying visual, audio, and sensory inputs, and applies them to the various things kids are required to memorize in school, such as multiplication tables, states and capitals, atmospheric layers, etc. (Many of the techniques use the silly but very memorable pictures someone described above. These are linked somehow to the actual subject, or name, or word as in a foreign language, to keep the images from being confused.) He even goes beyond the basics to show techniques for learning the consonant code for memorizing numbers, how to memorize a whole book, and how to become a “Memory Black Belt.� Like a Martial Art, the memory techniques must be practiced regularly to work. And like a martial art, much of the benefit is not in the actual practice, but where it spills over into your life.
The book is geared toward kids, but the techniques are the same. Just for fun I decided to revisit my childhood and re-memorize some of this stuff, and the techniques really work. It's been less than 2 weeks since the class and I've already memorized many things, including half of the 100 numbers of the consonant system. What I have found is that my mind is becoming sharper--I'm much more attuned to paying attention to things. It seems that it is really good exercise for the mind, and from what I understand, like the body, it's use it or lose it. And it's fun. So for those who say they can just look things up, I agree, there are references for when you need them, and it may be pointless to memorize long strings of numbers. But life could be much richer if you can spend a minimum amount of time to develop memorization skills and a few facts so you have a better foundation on which to hang new insights and observations, and a better chance at retention...
Jim Wiltens works with faculty at Stanford University on Memory skills. He is a great speaker if you can get him. The technique he recommends for learning languages can be found at 200words-a-day.com We used this in the class –it was fun and it worked very well….
By the way, Jim runs what looks like a great wilderness summer camp for kids, called Deer Crossing Camp-- check his website. (JimWiltens.com)
thanks!
mark
To practice, I picked 4 numbers at random:
7821.
At first, I couldn't come up with a word, until I tried:
CVNT = Savant!
Then I remembered the 7 is supposed to be soft c, but you can bet I'll remember the number either way!