HN Books @HNBooksMonth

A how-to book like The Memory Book[1] is good for getting started on the techniques. When I read Moonwalking With Einstein it sounded like more and more techniques are being invented all the time, but it didn't go into as much "how-to" detail. If there's a more up to date how-to book out there, I'd be interested.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Book-Classic-Improving/dp/0...

Absolutely hands down this: http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/d...

Within a day I was memorizing lists of 75 items forwards AND backwards. Completely random items as well.

It makes remembering names a joke, you will remember them for years.

I gave the book to my 15 year old brother and explained to him how much the book meant to me and that it was a very quick read (most of the good stuff is in the first 2 chapters anyway)

Keep in mind hes 15.. 24 hours later he comes back to me with a list of 100 items (to outdo me).. lists them forwards and backwards. That's my boy.

I distinctly remember going to a salon one time and they had tons and tons and tons of bottles of gel, shampoo, hair products lined up in a styled fashion along the middle of the wall going across the wall. by the time my haircut was done I turned around and listed off every shampoo bottle in order and the hair stylist was just like "WTF!!". She probably felt like i was a freak, but I felt really good.

Trust me, its great going to the grocery store and not needing a list, and coming up with all 35 items... makes you feel like a boss.

⬐ martinced

Oh, these memory tricks... Not unlike the ones waiters and martial arts practitioners do use.

You hardly need a book for that: I saw a waiter talking on TV about what he was doing. I heard two or three sentences or so.

And, hacker way, I devised my own memory trick to remember items.

No book needed for that ; )

⬐ vikramhaer

Mind sharing what it was that the waiter was talking about? As well as the way you devised? Would be great to get some insight!

⬐ louthy

He's forgotten ;)

⬐ mitchi

You are not using the loci method are you? (The memory palace) It takes me 10 minutes to memorize a deck of cards right now. It took a lot of time to assign characters to my cards and considerable time to set up mental journeys to store the characters. It's a mental algorithm but the setup is not trivial. Maybe you are just gifted but I'll say it for the others, it's not that easy.

⬐ TallboyOne

Not gifted, but I have a very good imagination. So does my brother, and that's what the method he uses in the book I read is based off of, so perhaps that's it.

It's not sexy, but I've had great results with "The Memory Book":

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/d...

If you want to start working on it right now, then you should definitely read through the Mentat Wiki:

http://www.ludism.org/mentat/

I am a big fan of visualizing weird pictures to remember names and numbers. You have to have a system though, so your first sentence confuses me.

If you want to learn how to have a good memory, try these:

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/d...

http://www.ludism.org/mentat/