HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Similar to the story method of memorization mentioned, using the Method of Loci makes it easy to memorize all twenty.

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

https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone...

There is actually some really good ted talks on this:

* https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone...

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ebJlcZMx3c

Make more connections to the things you need to remember. Make a tune out of the specifics or make a quick phonetic story out of it.

Good stuff.

I haven't been able to forget my ex's anniversary date because I remember it as "she's a 10/10" (oct 10).

There is a great TED talk about this: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

⬐ dagurp

And a great book called Moonwalking with Einstein

⬐ brianobush

Yes, I second (or third) this book. I used the method to chain Japanese kanji onyomi (the Chinese reading) together. Even went so far as to build out the location in minecraft so I could walk around and "study" Took a while to build and stopped after 20 groups, but still an amazing way to leverage your memory skills.

⬐ pixelHD

Minecraft eh? I did the same with GTA San Andreas. I played that game so much when I was young, that I have the whole map memorized. Given the fact that the map is huge, I use that as my Palace.

I've even bought the game for my iPad so that I can traverse it time to time to refresh my Palace!

⬐ brianobush

Good idea, bonus for not having to build it out like I did in Minecraft.

⬐ pixelHD

Yes, it is a great read.

I heard about the "Memory Palace" on BBC's Sherlock. Holmes says that you can theoretically remember everything (I think this was in the episode The Hounds of Baskerville). I then happened upon this book via gatesnotes[0], and picked it up.

The author is quite successful in learning and putting this technique to use. He reaches the finals of the USA Memory Championship. However, he says this at the end - "For all the memory stunts I could now perform, I was still stuck with the same old shoddy memory that misplaced car keys and cars. Even while I had greatly expanded my powers of recall for the kinds of structured information that could be crammed into a memory palace, most of the things I wanted to remember in my everyday life were not facts or figures or poems or playing cards or binary digits."

It seems this method can help in memorizing things you consciously put effort to remember. This becomes easier as you practice. But if you were thinking of using this to remember every point of your life, as in where you placed your car keys this morning, or where you left your phone, things get murky - like what the Author mentioned. Although I do wonder how many people would try doing that.

0: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Moonwalking-with-Einstein

⬐ gohrt

I can't find a reference now, but I read about a women who had a debilitating mental illness -- she could remember very many of the mundane details of her days, and it crowded out her ability to perform other mental tasks.

⬐ schoen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia#Cases

The person you heard about might have been

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

These cases remind me very strongly of the Borges story "Funes the Memorious" ("Funes el Memorioso").

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

Edit: It was interesting to hear that Price rejected the interpretation of her condition that was given in the Wired story about her (which was how I'd heard about her).

You are not alone.

Some words I took from your post were that “[T]there is only one truth. You […] ALLOW yourself to be distracted.” and “It will never be up to anyone other than yourself[.]”

There is a theory that our default state of mind is that “racing state” that coned88 described, that most people are like that most of the time. Only few people, like both you are coned88 notice that it is happening. Fewer still learn, internalize, and practice noticing when their mind wanders and bringing their focus back to the task at hand, or as you put it, being a man.

So in short, yes coned88, you just purge thoughts, actions, and literature that are not moving you towards accomplishing the task at hand.

This can be taught. Or, as you put it, “[P]hysiologically as a human you are designed to adapt” and, more or less, we all have the same basic physiology.

In response to coned88’s first question “Any advice on what I should do?”

coned88’s, I’m tempted to tell you about my personal story, but I will focus on the advice and try to rely on my credibility as a stranger on the internet and citations for credibility.

There are secular meditation techniques based on Tibetan Buddhism has been shown to increase the practitioners ability be aware of shifts in focus. I’m primarily citing personal experience.

I’d like to recommend a book, a course, with instructions to help you increase your focus, but I don’t know of one. The books I have read focus on managing stress and healing emotional wounds instead of improving mental performance. The vast majority of stuff out there uses a lot of poetry, jargon, and generalizations I cannot recommend, but this lifehacker article was the best I found[6]. I hope it helps you.

My secular interpretation of Buddhism is that they used fables to codify knowledge before they had writing. Information is easier to memorize that way[4]. Monks were trained to decode the knowledge from the fables. Or at least that is my understanding.

Considering the short history of psychology in the West[5], as well as the cults, self help gurus, and experiments with drugs in the 60’s, it is still hard to find credible sources that validate meditation. Advances in neural imaging, as well as a growing psychological literature, as well as my personal experimentation has lead me to believe that specific meditative practices lead to increased awareness and control of mental focus.

“Our data indicate that meditation training makes you better at focusing, in part by allowing you to better regulate how things that arise will impact you.” –Christopher Moore, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT as quoted by the MIT Press[1]

A lot of the current research[2] focuses on using fMRI machines to see what is happening in the brain during meditation.

"What we're trying to do is basically track the changes in the networks in the brain as the person shifts between these modes of attention," Dr Josipovic says, according the BBC article. How you use your brain has been shown to physically change over time based on how it is used. "One thing that meditation does for those who practise it a lot is that it cultivates attentional skills," Dr Josipovic says.

[1] http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2011/meditation-0505

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12661646

[3] http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallaci...

[4] http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

[5] William James, Link to Harvard.edu http://bit.ly/1yrbVVD

[6] http://lifehacker.com/5895509/train-your-brain-for-monk-like...

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

Watch this: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

Relevant talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

⬐ prostoalex

One of the most influential books I've ever read was Foer's 'Moonwalking with Einstein' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein

Memory development is one of the best investments into yourself. A bunch of other things people strive for (foreign language learning, being great public speaking) is corollary of having a good memory.

There is likely an element of truth to OP's general point.

For example, journalist and author, Joshua Foer[1], talks about the astonishing feats of memory by average people. It becomes more persuasive, when it turns personal. While he starts out by writing a story on memory championships, he decides to take it further and delves deep into learning the techniques himself. Some time later, he ends up becoming the USA Champion!

"In 2006, Foer won the U.S.A. Memory Championship, and set a new USA record in the "speed cards" event by memorizing a deck of 52 cards in 1 minute and 40 seconds"[1]

The Ted Talk provides more detail [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Foer

[2] http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

See Joshua Foer's entertaining TED talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_.... He describes the origin and working of the Memory Palace-method, the culture and some people in the world memory championships, and his own participation in the contest. A very interesting talk.

Josh Foer gave a good TED talk about this topic, you can watch it at

http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

After seeing this I actually was able to use his technique to help remember all the parts of a long wedding toast I had to deliver. It definitely worked in this situation, though I'm not sure how applicable it would be for cataloguing every day information you may or may not need to recall.

http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_... TED Talk on the 2nd method you were describing. (At least I think it's what you were describing)

⬐ dsrguru

Exactly! He's the author of Moonwalking with Einstein, the book Bill Gates raved about in the parent article.

⬐ crazypyro

Oh haha, I didn't realize he was the author. Watched that video just a few weeks ago.

Can a moderator edit the link and change it to the ted one? http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...

Also, what is the karma threshold to edit other people's posts?

⬐ SkyMarshal

Yes, post is blogspam.

Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html