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Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything?
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Integrating the right hemisphere is the way. Music is the simplest…memory palace is another option.
This is a great book that goes over the latter.
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143120530/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_DFTSKV40W19561PP8FS4
Read Moonwalking with Einstein. It covers how to practice improving your short term memory. It will take time and work, but you can make it better.
Thank you for this a lot!
First my apologies I made bold assumptions when framing my question. To answer your question about "or are they all in some way shape or form reading to commit to memory" What I really was trying to say was: "I am not sure how memorization works truly deep deep down. In order to commit to memory does a topic always have to be broken down into text, read / rehearsed and memorized?" I was mostly curious because I have never really heard of anyone memorizing a video (with the exception of movie quotes). I ask because I am really good at memorizing movie quotes like I am one of those people who after we all go see it in the movies I can quote like 20-30 lines easy.
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Also I do like the idea of "Memory Palace" I read about that in the book Moonwalking with Einstein which I loved! Thank you for all your help, seriously!
> Like unconsolidated raw video-spatial/audio data from events you were in that you review at a later date to formulate definite facts cuz you weren’t paying attention back during the event and that’s like the primary form of memory you use?
Big yup. Sometimes it's photographic. Sometimes gross situations are boiled down to the cliff's notes/highlight reel version. Sometimes I can scrub the footage backwards or forwards, like through a flow-chart.
Concepts are linked to visualizations and each iteration tends to jog other, related items. Like each overarching memory may be like a jigsaw puzzle and working on filling it in reveals how one puzzle links to other memories/puzzles.
Visualizing things to remember is one technique the author discusses in this book, it's a fun read: https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530
Remembering names and whatever else require practice. If this is something that really bothers you, maybe you should use some advanced techniques. There is this really interesting book about the subject.
https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530/ref=nodl_
It is not a guide to learn how to remember things, but gives a nice insight on how this works and some cues on where to find information on that subject.
Read this book: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. Seriously. Great techniques that make it so much easier to remember things and keep them in your head. Helped me so much.
Just so everyone knows, mind palaces are a method of memorization. It's the main topic in this book, "Moonwalking with Einstein". The gist is you envision a space that's very familiar (like your house or yard) and place outlandish items as markers that help represent the thing you wish to remember. It's much easier to recall the ridiculous things you made up as representation than the actual thing you wanted to remember.
It's actually pretty effective, I still remember vividly stuff from college that I used the technique for on exams.
Though I don't think this guy knows anything about it besides the word itself.
I'm not good at names, but I've been learning to associate - I recommend as a fun education read Moonwalking with Einstein. The husband of my friend's sister is a guy named scott, but I could never remember his name. So I associated his balding head with the idea that scotch tape, torn of of his head quickly, would cause a similar result.
Now every time I see him in the first .01 seconds I notice his lack of head hair, and immediately I know his name is scott. Because I would never think his name is scotch. works for me...
This is a really great idea.
Last year I read "Moonwalking with Einstein", in one of the chapters they were talking about how time seems to pass so fast nowadays, unlike our parents and older people used to perceive time before all the smartphones and such, and one of the theories discussed that I really liked was the idea of doing something out of the ordinary, get out of the routine once in a while in order to retain more memory (for example if you travel, you are going to remember the trip, but you are also retaining whatever happened days before and days after) and by doing these 1 second a day moments I guess it's the best way to retain every little bit of your past, developing more memories and when remembering the past your brain will perceive all those years as really long years hence time seems to have passed slower
The Feynman Technqiue can be a good place to start. Basically entails learning a concept and then writing it down (or explaining it in your head) in a way that would be understandable to a class of 3rd graders. That way if there's any gap in your understanding you can figure out where you need to improve your understanding. Makes the ideas very strong in your mind like you are looking for.
You could also check out Moonwalking with Einstein. It sounds like that's more the sort of thing you're looking for. It goes into teaching the reader how to use the memory palace technique to develop a near perfect memory.
EDIT: Added the second paragraph.
I find a common theme in these kinds of posts is a family member telling someone what to do, not how to do it. It's especially frustrating when it's something we already want to do but are having trouble doing.
People today just assume memory is spontaneous, and that some people just have a good memory and others don't.
If you read about it, though, there is a history of memory being something you do, not just something you have. There are techniques you can use to memorize things like names.
A lot of these techniques use things our brains are good at, like remembering geography and remembering shocking and disgusting imagery. Disgusting imagery is so helpful that there was a debate among medieval monks as to whether the sin of using obscene thoughts was allowed since it made it so much easier to memorize holy scripture.
So in your case, imagine you meet a group of golfers. You might "geographically" imagine each of them at a spot along the course you are familiar with. The first person in the group is named Fred Granger, FG, so you imagine him standing on the first hole, butt naked, fucking a goose. You won't forget that name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530
I don't know if it counts as self-help, it's about improving your memory: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
For creativity just practice whatever you want to achieve and you will get better at it. It can be easily explained with composing music. You just take a simple 3-4 note melody and practice till you are comfortable with it.(If you can't come up with one on your own just take any existing one from a song you like.) Then play it upper lower on keyboard or strings or whatever the instrument is. Then play it in reverse. Then change a note. Or another. Add notes. Take notes out. Speed it up. Slow it down. Do whatever sounds/feels good to you. Then you try playing two notes at the same time. Alternate between two variations. Just have fun with it. At the end you choose of all of this stuff what sounded best. The next session will be even better. Do this every day or when you time or when you're in the mood and before you know it you will be surprised how much better you're at it. This applies for anything you want to learn. Start small then build up to whatever you want to achieve.
For memory there are a lot memory techniques you can apply to remember stuff better. The Feynman technique is a good one. This video explains it pretty good. And Spaced repetition. There's a software named Anki what can make things easier. Also the memory palace. This is a good with book about it. You can just google them, or memory techniques or mnemonics, there are tons of resources and how to use them. Try them out and find out what works best for you.
I'll recommend you two things:
- take a look at udemy courses, maybe you find something that you really like, and you can master it eventually, idk, I'm trying that too, somehow with some hope we can find something;
- try the book "The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer (you can find the free pdf file online too), I think you would like, for real.
But yeah, there's no stimulation in this education system and it only train us for memorize. Even math can be fun sometimes, but not in school, it's like they pick the worst subjects and throw on us.
Props for the Foer quote at the end. Moonwalking with Einstein was a fun book although it often treats memory as a parlor trick (e.g. memorizing a deck of cards or strings of numbers while being exposed only once). I completely agree having crystallized intelligence is underrated in the era of Google, but I wish I could slightly rewrite the article with the thesis that understanding is the goal and memorization is a byproduct.
First, chess is a poor example. I've played chess since I was a boy and until you're in the upper echelon most coaches specifically don't encourage memorization. Whether my coach growing up or the hugely popular Ben Finegold now, everyone says understanding is more important. The example also misses the "in the age of Google" aspect since chess players aren't allowed to use engines like Stockfish or Leela while playing.
Second, and I have nothing against cobalt, but knowing the sound associated with an atom with 27 protons is useless. If everyone suddenly decided to cobalt "peter," nothing would change. Tom Lehrer's amazing music aside, chemistry cares about valence electrons and how they enable bonding. Knowing the name of a thing isn't the same as knowing the thing.
And yet, I think someone with zero knowledge would find themself at a large disadvantage in the world. As the article notes, such a person would lack cultural competency. They wouldn't be able to draw historical analogies. They couldn't see connections behind seemingly disparate sets of data. They'd bark up previously explored trees only to find someone else already has an answer, and often subsequent counterpoints. And, perhaps fortunately for the rest of us, they'd struggle to express their ideas to the rest of us!
So, instead, I like to think of memorization via understanding. The oft-memorized Gettysburg Address is but words until placed into context. Why did Lincoln invoke a Biblical style? Why emphasize our ancestors and the slain? Was he, perhaps, taking notes from Pericles as transcribed by Thucydides? Was he specifically trying to draw a parallel between the Peloponnesian War fought between the slave-economy of the Spartans and the still-slave-owning-but-maybe-not-as-bad Athenians? Now -that's- a speech worth memorizing. The text leaps off the page, no longer mere words but a piece woven in the fabric of history with touch points throughout.
I'm only sad that rex-of-rhetoric Cicero didn't make the cut.
Beyond speeches and poetry, facts are organically memorized via use and repetition. To my earlier example of the uselessness of knowing the name for an atom with 27 protons, I'd be surprised if people make it through basic chemistry without knowing the names and properties for oft used elements. Same for chess where, even without trying, players are likely to learn standard opening patterns, associated names, strengths and weaknesses.
Focusing on understanding with memorization as a byproduct also serves to reinforce accumulated knowledge. An example from my background in math, it's useless on its own to memorize the Taylor series for the sine of an angle. Seriously, when was the last time anyone had to calculate by hand? Except for that one time I forgot a calculator for a Physics test. Of course I never set out to memorize that derivation specifically but, in learning calculus, I picked up on it and managed to still get an A.
In the end, Google is a tool. If frees us from having to memorize every datum but is useless if we lack sufficient knowledge of what to query. That memorized knowledge is largely gained via understanding.
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[1] a younger DrunkHacker, homeschooled in the era of Google, also hated memorization. Only as I got older did I come to appreciate the importance of crystallized intelligence.
[2] there probably are some data like times tables where it's worth purposely developing automatic recall because they come up frequently. What other items fall in this list?
I stated with Joshua Foer's moonwalking with Eintein.
https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530
My favorite program for moving information from STM to LTM is called ANKI. This app actually uses spatial repetition, to utilize a concept called the forgetting curve Great info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve
Awesome book: helps you study how to study
https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530
The book goes into a journalists journey to become a memory world champion. This helped me in college, should be a first year read for everyone.
Try amazon smile to donate to a charity of your choice automatically at no cost to you!
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Memory champions use a technique I've tried and it works. Turn facts into images. Our minds do not forget images.
I think it's this Moonwalking with Einstein
There is a very interesting book on this topic - memory competitions - the book is about how ordinary people using an ancient Roman technique (Memory palace) becomes extraordinary memorizers. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
I could pickup the technique to help me in my day to day life. For very little investment in efforts it managed to drastically improve my life.
Context: I consider myself quite challenged when it comes to memorizing numbers.
The technique described in the book (and in this article) allowed me to remember details of a financial instrument which involves 32 numbers without any pattern. Whenever I have to use this instrument I have to input random 6 numbers out of those 32. Before I discovered this technique I had to pull out the hardcopy of the instrument every time for reference (it was painful - sometime it will be not in my possession, or it would be buried inside some cabinet etc.)
The technique that I use/adapted essentially is, I use mental map of a roadway which I’m intimately familiar with to place the 32 numbers on the various 32 landmark along the way (landmarks can be anything - a funny looking rock next to the road will also do. The key is one should be able to visualize it very clearly). So, whenever I need to retrieve numbers I mentally ’drive’ on the road and start checking out the landmarks. Example: I need to retrieve number corresponding to landmarks 5,9,15,20.. I start ‘driving’ reach landmark no. 5 and able to remember immediately this landmark is associated with number 29, then I move on and reach to next landmark, when I ‘reach’ that one I’m able to recollect that this landmark has number 89 associated with it, and so on…
Somewhere I read that it works so well because as a human species we have ability to remember geo spatial things much better than abstract things like numbers. I would guess that it has to do with our hunter-gatherer days when we were primarily dealing with spatial concepts; brain is hard wired to store those information much better than things like numbers.
Two books that really helped me with this are Moonwalking with Einstein, which lays out a good narrative and overview of how various memory devices works and How to Develop a Brilliant memory. The authors, Joshua Foer and Dominic O'Brien both competed in memory competitions, doing rather well using techniques used here.
For lists and such I particularly like the Memory Palace method.
For more specific and complex things like passwords I like the Dominic System.
There are several other methods mentioned in these books, some help linking names to faces (very helpful and very easy). Alot of the things they suggest seem ridiculous, and take practice, but the strangeness is part of what helps you remember.
Anyway, hope that gives you a good starting point!
It's a technique described in a lot of detail in a super entertaining book called Moonwalking with Einstein. http://smile.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530?sa-no-redirect=1
A good book on how to learn these memory tricks is Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
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