
Method of loci - SworDsy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
======
walterbell
There's an active memory-improvement community at
[http://artofmemory.com](http://artofmemory.com) including forums and a wiki
of techniques.

Why bother? Because these techniques increase the capacity of "cache" that is
closer (low latency) to human "computation". This can lead to faster traversal
of the OODA loop,
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop),
which is relevant to lean startups, business competition, combat and more.

See the HN thread on AI as an enabler of IA,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10373180](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10373180)

In addition, spaced-repetition techniques can be used to increase your
vocabulary, which is like gaining extra pixels for the expression of nuanced
goals, helping any compass which guides execution to a goal. Words are proxies
for dreams and dangers, especially in a software-constructed world. Greater
word capacity becomes greater visibility over a software-based terrain.

~~~
pcote
I can vouch for spaced-repetition being an excellent training tool. It isn't
just for words though. My uses for it range from individual terms to small
training exercises. When I find a new solution to a problem I have, I often
make a spaced-repetition card for it. You can learn a lot by making a daily
habit of it.

~~~
drivers99
(Adding to what you wrote.) Since you mention that it's not just for vocab,
here's an extensive article on how to formulate knowledge in general that goes
into a spaced repetition system. (There is also a summary at the bottom.)
[http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm](http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm)

It's part of a site for a closed-source client, but Anki[1] is a good open-
source one.

[1] [http://ankisrs.net/](http://ankisrs.net/)

------
Rainymood
Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein'

I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people
who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just
read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that
people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49!
That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffled. I still know most of them
...

A JAMAICAN person jumped off a RAMP on the TITANIC and then flew in to SPACE
on the ISS where he saw a DOG which was playing the VIOLIN which then bit
TESLA, GHANDI was playing CHESS and then the iss crashed down into MILAN which
was covered in a huge OMELET, we flew over mount FUJI and ... etc

Bolded words are words that were on the list. It's pretty awesome for hardcore
memorization!

~~~
mdaniel
The one problem I've had with these "construct a story" mechanisms is that I
have just as hard of a time remembering the specifics of the story as I do
some of the things I'm trying _to_ remember.

In your example, "the ISS crashed down into $city" requires remembering the
city name, and that's just a few words in. By the time the novella gets to the
50th word, there are a __ton __of details one must remember, aside from the
story itself that houses them (which in your case seems custom made for those
words; I 'd be surprised if that was your general purpose loci).

This problem is compounded by the system described on ArtOfMemory's wiki
([http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Method_of_Loci](http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Method_of_Loci))
where they use a fixed story but with interchangeable items in the rooms. I'm
sure with enough reciting of that story, I could remember the corn and milk,
but the _second_ time I need that memory palace, only this time with different
items, I'm screwed because the two stories will bleed together.

I recognize this comment might sound like I'm deriding the method, but I
promise that's not the case. I just want to know if someone else has the same
"stories don't work for me" and to know if there is a twist or alternate which
makes them work for the kind of brain which isn't helped by loci.

~~~
JoshMnem
This is Josh from artofmemory.com. If you get ghost images, try waiting longer
between each use. You can have multiple memory palaces and rotate them to give
each palace a rest after use. After some practice, it should come more easily.
I haven't written a shopping list down in years.

There are more tips on the memory palace page
([http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Memory_Palace](http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/Memory_Palace)),
and you can ask more questions in the forum.

------
odabaxok
There is a great TED talk about this:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do)

~~~
dagurp
And a great book called Moonwalking with Einstein

~~~
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](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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia#Cases)

The person you heard about might have been

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Price](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](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).

------
mturmon
This came to my attention while reading the essays collected in Tony Judt's
book _The Memory Chalet_
([http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/10/tony-
ju...](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/10/tony-judt-
distinctions/)). From the review:

"Physically unable to write [because of ALS], but with a mind as sharp and
active as ever, [Judt] plotted the twenty-five short essays that compose this
book in his head, while he was alone at night, using a mnemonic device taken
from accounts of the early modern “memory palace,” whereby elements of a
narrative are associated with points in a visually remembered space; but
instead of a palace, he used a small Swiss chalet that he had once stayed in
on vacation as a boy, and that he could picture vividly and in detail. He was
then able to dictate these feuilletons the next day from the resulting
structure."

------
zupreme
I took the Jonathan Levi Superlearner course on Udemy about a year ago and the
Loci method is a key part of this course.

I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in this topic.

I can say that it's extremely useful for remembering lists of things, but I
haven't had a lot of success in using it to retain or organize abstract
information.

~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
>I can say that it's extremely useful for remembering lists of things, but I
haven't had a lot of success in using it to retain or organize abstract
information.

I think the fact that these techniques have died out is some evidence that
they are not actually very useful.

~~~
edanm
Just as a counterpoint, in the book "Moonwalking with Einstein", the author
talks quite a bit about the fact that many of these methods survived for a
long long time, and people in the past considered memory an incredibly
important proof of someone being educated.

The methods seem to have been "lost" mostly when better options for external
memory (e.g. writing and printing) became more universal. (iirc - i'm probably
messing this up somewhat).

~~~
schoen
Yeah, it might be harder to convince people that classic memory techniques are
important when they carry smartphones. But the classic memory techniques may
still _work_ just as well as they ever did!

------
minimaxir
About halfway during an Introduction to Psychology exam in college (and this
was told to the class ahead of time), the professor told us to close our exam
booklets and listen to a list of 20 things, having the class using the Method
of loci to remember them. Afterwards, students had to write it down the list
_in order_ in their test booklet. The question was worth as many points, with
_any_ out-of-order mistake forfeiting the rest of the points for the list.

Somehow, I managed to get everything correct.

------
fatratchet
I'm really curious about building a virtual memory palace for VR. Seems there
would be many possibilities to make memorizing more effective.

Some common techniques like following a predetermined path through a palace
and imagining diffrent unique objects and scenes at fixed locations along that
path could be really nicely visualized.

I would think you could benefit a lot from actually beeing able to explore and
fully take in a memory palace while feeling like you're actually present with
VR.

~~~
EdwardCoffin
If you are a really visual person, perhaps. I would want all sorts of other
senses in addition though. Being able to lay my hands on the brickwork and
hear how sounds are affected by walls would be important parts for me.

On the other hand, a palace in VR has the benefit of not getting demolished,
and being accessible even if you move to another country.

I understand that fictional locales were used as palaces for this reason. For
instance, Dante's circles of hell.

Edit: corrected an inexplicable typo (had 'and' for 'hands')

------
archagon
Are most people able to just "picture a room" as required by this technique?
I've never been good at that. Whenever I try to picture a location, I just see
objects and landmarks with no real sense of place, kind of just floating in an
impressionistic aether.

~~~
tedmiston
For me it's not really about picturing a room, but coming up with the vivid
transitions between objects.

Ex. For wolf, orange, hail; I might picture: The wolf sitting on top of a
house, and when he opens his mouth it violently rains an infinite stream of
oranges, then when gravity kicks in the oranges start falling from the sky
turning into huge balls of hail.

The imagery like hundreds of oranges pouring out of a wolves' mouth, and
oranges falling from the sky like hail are what do it for me. I've used this
technique for lists of 20-30 somewhat unrelated items effectively.

------
pmtarantino
People who watch BBC Sherlock should be familiarized with it :)

~~~
hacker_9
Not sure why you're getting downvoted, the show led me to looking up memory
palaces too!

------
e19293001
There are a lot of methods that was developed by Harry Lorayne. I recommend to
read some of his books (The Memory Book).

