In the last few months I read one of the most fascinating books that really changed how I think about knowledge and wisdom. I may write a follow up review on the book but for now just know that there are "Memory Champions" out there who compete and can remember whole books of numbers and words for memory.
We live in this age of Artificial Intelligence, where intelligent systems can perform so many incredible tasks and may replace a lot of work that was done by people previously.
Artificial Intelligence is also a topic for another time but in this post I want to talk about real intelligence, the kind we carry with us everywhere we go, whether or not we have a phone or an internet connection.
Let's say you need to memorize a phone number and you have no pen, paper or phone. Maybe you are trying to get a phone number to an attractive woman or you are at a police station and you need to call a family member.
Could you recall a phone number easily?
This is a very pragmatic and useful skill, one that appears out of reach from us in the age where we all heavily rely on technology to memorize for us. We have allowed our imagination to atrophy as well as our ability to use our beautiful brains to remember something as simple as a ten digit number.
I can proudly say I have learned to improve my once very shallow memory to remember information relatively easily by practicing certain methods.
I am currently 4/5 in my attempts to remember a phone number of an acquaintance or new friend. A fun skill that has come in handy when in the hot tub at my gym. The first attempt I was unable a few digits but since then practice has improved my results.
Our brains are beautiful and so is our ability to remember. A few years ago I set out to memorize The Prophet by Khalil Gibran so I could recite his poetry by heart while looking at the audience. I got about 1/3 the way through my favorite poems before moving on. That was before I actually learned the appropriate techniques, rather than just brute repetition.
The Memory Palace
The method for remembering anything is to break the number/words down into pieces and to make it memorable, the more outrageous and ridiculous the better.
You also want to visualize a place that you can walk with your eyes closed because you are so familiar with each step. I have been recently using a house I rented while living in Austin for a few years. I visualize myself walking in through the front door and can put 2 numbers together, 4 and 3. Those numbers can look like giant cartoon characters. One smoking 4 cigarettes and the 3 is angrily reading a book. Next I step into the living room where 7 and 9 are kissing on the couch. Next I walk into the kitchen and .....
This actually works. The more you create a memory of smells, taste, sights, and absurdity the more likely you are to remember the sequence of events. If you have ten separate areas you can walk into then you have ten spaces where you can have words or numbers or anything else you want to remember. Need more space, pick a larger house or palace.
I haven't yet committed my credit/debit cards to memory but I see that as the next useful task so I can save time when making purchases. I just now re-memorized my Passport number by walking through my parents house and making a story in my head. Previously I tried to use "brute force" by simply repeating and repeating the numbers but that wasn't effective as I couldn't recall the numbers easily.
What do you want to remember? This blog is a written repository of my own memory for me to revisit when I become forgetful, thank you for reading.
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