79 karma · joined February 7, 2018
A few ecom folks manage to acquire customers without losing money.
Typically it's via a "welcome kit" that costs $150+ to cover ads.
"C'est pas socier" and "Numberblocks" are excellent.
You can also input practical information ;)
Yes. I often add on things. So let's say I read a book and years later I realize that the author omitted something very important (IMHO). Then, I just add that knowledge to the appropriate room. I naturally remember what was or wasn't part of the book. With these systems you're training your mind to think a specific sequence of thoughts (in the act of recalling the experience of your mind palace). With training even the recall becomes fast. However,... you can't easy delete (not after rehearsing something for years). It's about as easy to delete something as it is to change a bad habit. It's just easier to make new habits (or add new information).
> Do connections between different areas stand out or form?
This is one of the coolest things that happens. A kind of thinking becomes possible that isn't available without the "whole topic" loaded in mind. You can see broad expansive connections. One fun activity (that you can do right now with two decks of flash cards) is to compare and contrast different books. Mentally walk both of them simultaneously forwards and backwards. You'll see how the connect and differ.
> Do you have examples of notices patterns or structure in knowledge because of it? Sure
First with encoding... _where_ things occur in your memory palace is "free" information. So some people when learning foreign languages store different genders in different cities. Say you're trying to recall the gender of Boot (boat in German). You think, "where is that boot shaped like a boat?" instantly you know it's in a cafe in Williamsburg which is where you put all the "das" verbs making it "das Boot".
You say you're encoding the periodic table, if you put all the columns in the same room, you know instantly that you could replace your Gallium doping with Indium in your Si wafer (in this toy example).
If you want to learn the party trick of knowing which day of the week someone was born on. You can either get good at mental math and learn the equation and calculate it. Or, you can make a system of rooms in which you stick people who represent all the possible years to "cache" part of the calculation. Then the problem reduces to addition of small numbers.
Preparing a memory palace is just yet another skill. At first it seems like a big "job" to do. Later, it's like nothing, you float through it once, done. Especially if you reuse systems like Roman room because that makes a lot of decisions by rules.
Also because you're trying to link knowledge to what you know well you don't need to have amazing recall of the place. Just a sense of a room that you know about, eventually will be enough. If you can recall furniture or whatever, then use that it will help. But if you're straining to recall... you might not get much additional benefit by trying to photographically document the space in your mind.
In terms of the process, it's like imagining something using all of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, balance. You want to make the abstract concrete so you're recalling an experience.
Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace
> Many bullet points per location?
At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and he could have something on his head, in his mouth, on each hand, etc and he could store an additional 10 ideas.
> Very big memory palaces?
They are places I've been like houses with 5-10 rooms. I tried using the British Museum because it has google street view.
The key to memory is link ideas to what you already know well.
>do you memorise as you read, or do you take notes and learn those?
I've tried both. If it's a "concept book" then I read it once, take short short notes of only 3-5 bullet points per chapter, then memorize those at the end.
With "course/class/do-it" books where you're learning by doing and spending a long time with the book, I paper clip a folded sheet of paper in the book and do it on the fly.
> any guides that you found particularly useful?
I'll share some below. One point to share is that this is a skill (like bike riding). So studying the method (at first) is almost useless. Just try it, learn by doing. Answer your own questions by doing the experiments yourself. Start with memorizing something you actually care about. You will totally suck at first, and rapidly improve. :)
Links:
With "random access" memory within a multi-use palaces, then, there is a little mixing. Sometimes you are thinking about a topic, the mind "goes" to the appropriate palace and then you recall maybe all the various unrelated topics, but your mind focuses on what matters. In the mixing, topics take a mythological feeling because the characters within them are involved in so many stories. Like fables or comic books.
Augustine of Hippo (later Saint Augustine) from 354 AD:
And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses. … When I enter there, I require what I will to be brought forth, and something instantly comes; others must be longer sought after, which are fetched, as it were, out of some inner receptacle; others rush out in troops, and while one thing is desired and required, they start forth, as who should say, “Is it perchance I?” These I drive away with the hand of my heart, from the face of my remembrance; until what I wish for be unveiled, and appear in sight, out of its secret place. Other things come up readily, in unbroken order, as they are called for; those in front making way for the following; and as they make way, they are hidden from sight, ready to come when I will. All which takes place when I repeat a thing by heart.
I also wanted to get more out of reading. I used to read a book, maybe take notes and hopefully take some new action. Next year it's gone, maybe I recall 3 ideas. How could I get more out of reading?
So I memorized books. Convert a book into 100-250 bullet points, memorize them in a memory palace. If I don't practice recalling my palaces, at least once every 6 months or so, I'll forget it. However, this isn't a negative. When recalling you can ask yourself questions about the knowledge. How is the relevant to my life right now? How can I apply this? How does the world look using this knowledge as a lens? How does this compare or contrast to other things I've memorized?
At first this was an enormous effort. But with all training it gets faster. We've all spent thousands of hours learning to read. Now reading is unconscious, you see a word and instantly you know the concept behind. My first book took about 4 hours and reviewing it took an hour. Now reviewing a book (250 items) takes under 15 mins, and I can do it while making dinner or driving. People can memorize a deck of cards (52 facts in order) in two minutes. Eventually, I believe it's clearly possible to be able to memorize at the speed of speech (250 words per min).
At the moment, I develop software. I decided to memorize the packages of the python standard library. Why? Is it going to help? It provides a link to attach concepts to. When I find a better solution than something in the standard library, I attach that memory to the standard library. Like when I think of argparse, I automaticaly think of clicklib and fire. Before coding I review the software development palace. I can hold it all in mind... because those packages have become one chunk in my mind.
With all this training, my ability to visualize has just gone through the roof. At the end of the day, I can mentally re-watch my whole day and catch interesting, things that I missed in the moment. It feels like watching a vivid (albeit dreamy) movie.
Anyways, like anything the deep end of this mind training is totally amazing and unlike the initial "lifehack" quick wins.
HTH!
Thank you!