

How You Can Be a Memory Champion - motyar
http://motyar.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-you-can-be-memory-champion.html#.UMNVq1dWL6E.hackernews

======
andygcook
I read Moonwalking with Einstein recently, and although there aren't many
specific memory exercises to practice, the notion it incepts into your brain
that to recall information better you need to encode it in the first place has
changed my ability to remember on a daily basis. To remember a name, you need
to first listen to what the person actually says instead of anticipating when
you get to say your name.

I've specifically been using the mneumonic talked about in the book for
remembering names and it has been working great. The idea is to turn Billy
Baker into a visual image of that person riding a BILLY goat dressed in a
BAKER's outfit. Then the next time you see Billy, you can recall your
mneumonic and therefore his name.

Sidenote: Ed Cooke, the mneumonist who mentors Joshua Foer, is now working on
a startup called Memrise which teaches language through memory techniques.

~~~
donniezazen
I am memorizing Barron's word list which contains around 3500 words. My
experience is it is not realistically possible to use mnemonics when volume of
memorization is as much as 3500 terms which you have to do in as short as
three months.

~~~
m_for_monkey
I used a book "Remembering the Kanji" by James Heisig, which employs a special
mnemonic technique, to learn to write 2000 Japanese kanji in three months,
which was a leisurely pace (twenty-something a day). Many people did the same
in a much shorter time, like 100 a day. It works beautifully. If you have
problems learning those words, you are most probably either using the wrong
technique, or using it incorrectly.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji>

~~~
brianobush
And it works! I have been using this method since 2009 and am quite
comfortable with Kanji. When I started, I did 20 characters per day and was
done in a little over 3 months. Though the real acquisition was in the years
that follow.

------
charlieflowers
These techniques seem to be getting a lot of attention lately, but they've
been written about extensively for a long time now. You don't hear much of
these older books, but they're well worth looking at if you're interested in
this topic:

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Book-Classic-
Improving/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Book-Classic-
Improving/dp/0345410025/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

[http://www.amazon.com/Use-Your-Perfect-Memory-
Techniques/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Use-Your-Perfect-Memory-
Techniques/dp/0452266068/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Book-Remember-
Anything/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Book-Remember-
Anything/dp/1406644269/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

There are many others as well.

~~~
schackbrian
I like this book: Improve Your Memory Skills
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0746001622>

------
Cieplak
A longer interview with Joshua Foer on the same subject:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=jg3lUpYZ9g8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=jg3lUpYZ9g8)

------
sheldor
A generic speech about how our brains are spectacular in many ways. I honestly
don't see any value in these things and I've really tried to. I guess they're
just another bunch of motivational stuff that plague the world nowadays.

And what's the fuss about these TED meetings? Don't seem to get their value at
all.

