HN Books @HNBooksMonth

> Socrates felt the same way about books actually a lot of big thinkers in that era felt that writing and reading would lead to the degradation of the human memory.

They probably did lead to degradation of human memory--not in the underlying capabilities, of course, but in how well most people are able to use them.

There is some interesting discussion of this in Joshua Foer's book "Moonwalking with Einstein" [1]. Before books were widespread learning ways to use memory quickly and efficiently was important to scholars and others who worked with large amounts of information. Afterwards, it was good enough to just go with your raw, untrained memory, and the old memory techniques were almost forgotten.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remember...

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 https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remember...

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.

⬐ divbit

For numbers, I think mapping them to consonants helps: 1-> t/d, 2 -> n (as it has two things on bottom), 3 -> m (3 things on bottom), 4 -> r (ends in r), 5 -> l, 6 -> j/ch, 7 -> g/k, 8 -> f/ph, 9 -> p/b. Now plug in some vowels and make words / a sentence for whatever numbers you need, e.g. mud riddle -> 31415 -> 3.1415. I forgot where I learned this many years ago, but its probably on some random website.

⬐ kukx

According to your technique "mud riddle" should map to 314115. There're two d's. Anyway, the method seems interesting.

⬐ matthewaveryusa

It's called the major system and it's based off the sonority rather than the spelling. Great system.

⬐ gweinberg

But then how do you remember a number that really does have repeated digits? I'd never be able to remember my phone number under this system.

⬐ JoshMnem

Most memorizers have preset mnemonic images for each number -- usually 0-9 and 00-99. Competitors often have images for 000-999 to further reduce repeated images.

Example: 123-555-2222

123 is always encoded as "tomb" in my phonetic system. 555 is always lilacs. 22 is always an onion.

When an image repeats, I place a mirror at that spot.

So 123-555-2222 becomes: a tomb, lilacs, an onion, and an mirror. I store them in a certain order with a story to keep them in order.

⬐ BeetleB

You can intersperse the vowels and the letters w, h, y anywhere you like.

⬐ Nadya

To remember the number 1111, `to do today`. Or even "today today".

You construct words by mapping consonant sounds to numbers and using whatever vowels you need to construct words.

Other people learn gibberish sentences instead. They break down the number into groups of two, three, or four and use pre-memorized words for each group of words.

So to memorize the number "102457692" they might break it up into three groups: 102, 457, 692. Then they have a word memorized for "102" (ton) and a word for "457" (rolling), and "692" (cheapen). They memorize the number as `ton rolling cheapen`.

Words are easier to memorize than numbers, even if the words don't form proper sentences.

⬐ greeneggs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system

⬐ DougN7

Can confirm this works amazingly well. A buddy and I used to do this in a high school class. We'd give each other lists of 50 random words and have them memorized in a minute or so by 'attaching' them to items in the room. It's surprising how long those attachments were maintained.

⬐ krupan

Moonwalking is a fascinating book, but it is not actually a how-to-memorize-things book. It only mentions various techniques. See other comments here for Harry Lorayne's books if you just want nuts and bolts on how to memorize things.

⬐ scooke

When you are recalling these long numbers, how do you actually do it? The road construct sounds like it would take quite awhile as you 'drive down the road'. Do you write each number down, pause and recollect the next number, write it down, pause and recollect... etc.? How does this work if there people around? It sounds like you would need some quiet to do this. Thanks.

⬐ achow

> The road construct sounds like it would take quite awhile as you 'drive down the road...

Not really. I phrased it that way ("driving down") for a simple explanation. I actually zip around at light speed on that road :-). After doing it for a while I can now 'jump' from landmark to landmark instantly.

> Do you write each number down, pause and recollect the next number, write it down, pause and recollect...

Yes. The moment I get a number I enter that in a text field (I'm actually using this to fill up a bank form for completing financial transactions). It does not matter if I'm in a noisy place or not, it does not need super focus or anything like that.

⬐ amelius

Interesting. Do you re-use the same map for remembering different numbers?

⬐ achow

Good question. Actually no, once I tried doing it and it was a mess. But it could be due to my limited capacity of handling numbers. YMMV.

⬐ e19293001

Another good books to suggest are books written by Harry Lorayne[0]. You could also see his demonstrations in youtube. His books were published long before Moonwalking with Einstein, most of them are similar to Lorayne's system and I would recommend it for those who want to improve and train further on memorizing things.

Also for those who want a book that demonstrates the use of creating a memory palace, I would recommend The Memory Palace - Learn Anything and Everything[1]. You'll just learn the 37 plays of Shakespeare wherein almost of the descriptions were funny.

I also listen to a free audiobook Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use It by William Walker Atkinson[2].

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lorayne

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Palace-Anything-Everything-Sha...

[2] - https://librivox.org/memory-how-to-develop-train-and-use-it-...

⬐ andai

And +1 for William Walker Atkinson. That man has written so much it's incredible.

Also highly recommended by Mr. Atkinson: The Power of Concentration (under his pen name Theron Q. Dumont) .

⬐ kinleyd

+1 for Harry Lorayne. I learned how to memorize long lists, numbers, dates, as well as decks of cards (backward, forward, by card number or if given a card, I'd call it's number in the deck). Fun stuff, and quite useful too.

Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks [0]. Very informative series of essays on his experiences and lessons learned with IBM. If nothing else, helps to properly frame my expectations on projects with respect to resources needed to properly coordinate with others, and the pros and cons of adding people to projects at different stages (and in different roles).

Getting Things Done, David Allen [1]. Useful toolkit for getting things out of my head and onto paper (or org-mode or OmniFocus) so that I can properly focus and prioritize my time on the things I need to get done.

Communicating Sequential Processes, C.A.R. Hoare [2]. Strongly influenced the way I think about programs in general, but specifically in the embedded field where I work. (NB: I've not actually read or worked through the full text, but mainly taken what was needed to properly communicate ideas in my designs or to analyze designs and systems others have produced. This is a task for myself for early next year.)

Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer [3]. I've always had a good memory, I actually picked this up to give to a girlfriend who had a terrible memory and read it in a couple days before giving it to her (she was out of town when it arrived). Helped to explain methods that I'd somehow developed over the years, and gave me concepts and a better understanding of other methods of memory acquisition (for either short or long term purposes). If you really want to improve your memory, there are probably better resources to learn specific techniques, but this was an informative and entertaining overview. WRT work, we have to keep large systems in our minds all the time, and potentially dozens of different systems written in different languages. Memory is critical for this, even if it's just the memory of where to find the information and not the information itself.

Fluent Forever, Gabriel Wyner [4]. This one is my current read. Goes back to Moonwalking with Einstein. While the book is itself about language acquisition, it's actually given me quite a bit to think about with respect to general learning and memory acquisition (in this case, specifically for long term retention and recall). We have a couple training programs (we need more) for our new hires on development and testing. There are some concepts in here and in related readings that I think would greatly improve how we teach these folks what they need to know and in a way that would improve their retention of that information. We have a lot of people retiring in the next 1-3 years, so this is actually quite critical right now, though management is quite lackadaisical about it.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineeri...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Produ...

[2] http://usingcsp.com/cspbook.pdf

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remember...

[4] https://www.amazon.com/Fluent-Forever-Learn-Language-Forget/...

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EDITS:

The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker [5]. I grokked Lean from this. Hardware focused, but the concepts can be (and have been) generalized to other process focused fields. This has helped with understanding what business processes really need to be codified, what feedback mechanisms need to be present for improvement, the criticality of bottom-up feedback and improvement (employee investment in the company/product cannot be overvalued if you want quality and good craftsmanship).

The Little Schemer, Friedman & Felleisen [6]. Going back to the comments on Fluent Forever. The structure of this is fantastic for conveying and helping students retain information. The Socratic method is very useful, and structuring courses and introductory material in this format is useful, this happened to be my introduction to it (well, I'd heard it before, but my first time really encountering it in practice). It's a useful tool for solo-study of a topic (pose your own questions and construct answers), and as a method of guiding someone to a conclusion or better understanding. Also useful in debugging software or decoding software you didn't write, after a fashion.

[5] https://www.amazon.com/Toyota-Way-Management-Principles-Manu...

[6] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer

That is more remembering things and not for 'quick thinking' per se - OP's goal. There is a very interesting book on the concept of 'Memory Palace' (on which 'artofmemory.com' is based on): Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...

⬐ walterbell

These techniques can also be applied to "concepts", not just objects and words. Reduced latency of human access, e.g. placing related concepts "nearby" in human memory, has similar benefits as database indexes which colocate related data. Some data visualizations help with associative thinking. "Quick" thinking may involve navigation around a high-dimensional conceptual space, which could be simplified as projections onto 2D images which can be stored in a memory palace. Flatland is a classic essay on the 2D/3D boundary.

Another way of approaching the question would be to look at people who can have "quick conversations", e.g. longtime team members. There's a shared body of experience and shared vocabulary for complex concepts, addressable by shorthand.

Memory and emotion go hand-in-hand with perception.

Memory is one of the most important aspects in intelligence. Personally, I have a lot of knowledge but low recall speed. With a little context, I have no problem though.

Anyways, improving your memory is a big first step in bettering your intelligence. I highly recommend the book "Walking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything."

http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...

⬐ JoshMnem

There's also a good video about that: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

⬐ blueking

Try PRL-8-53 for a couple of weeks 5mg/day.

⬐ JoshMnem

I don't think that's a good idea.

⬐ goldfeld

I'd also recommend The Art of Memory, which is not only an introduction to the classic discipline of method of loci (memory theatres) and a great book dealing with history and art of the Renaissance, it even goes over the text of Ad Herenium, the greek classic that brought us this lost art. It's especially interesting for applications like storytelling (know all stories from your own life with perfect recall) and rhetoric.

Also deeply related to memory and cognition, this time coming from the older yet culture of the Vedas, there are celastrus seeds, aka the intellect tree, perhaps the oldest nootropic of all, and more natural and noticeable than most.

I'm not sure it's possible to not use a mnemonic device. Our brains record information by association, which, by definition, is a mnemonic device.

I highly recommend reading Moonwalking with Einstein. It's about a journalist who got interested in memory competitions and, with a lot of practice, ended up winning the US memory championship. Anyone can do it.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...

Isn't that premise of Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer? http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...

Either way - I do little tricks like that too. This is a very good suggestion.

http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...