Friday 22nd of November 2024.
Sunday 3rd of November 2024.
Saturday 2nd of November 2024.
- [1] Read more about the country of Libya, click here.
- [2] Read more about the list of the 200 most important concepts of human civilization, click here.
Friday 1st of Novebember 2024.
- [1] Read more about the country of Oman, click here.
- [2] Read more about using architect blue prints as memory palaces, click here.
Thursday 31st of October 2024.
Wednesday 30th of October 2024.
Tuesday 29th of October 2024.
- [1] Read more about the country of Vietnam, click here.
- [2] Read more about the country of Niue, click here.
Monday 28th of October 2024.
Use countries as rooms of a giant memory palace called "the world":Sunday 27th of October 2024.
Saturday 26th of October 2024.
Friday 25th of October 2024.
- [1] Read more about the country of Bahrain, click here.
- [2] Read more about the country of Dominica, click here.
- [3] Read more about the country of Antigua and Barbuda, click here.
Thursday 24th of October 2024.
Wednesday 23rd of October 2024.
Tuesday 22nd of October 2024.
- [1] Read more about how to make a memory palace, click here. .
- [2] Read more about how to better remember dates and events - click here. .
Friday 18th October 2024
Historical figures challenge. Another 100 famous historical figures (in addition to the 100 examples below) for those interested in expanding on the first 100.
Thursday 17th October 2024
Using a deck of cards as a memory palace is relatively easy, and can be quite rewarding as you learn how to memorize playing cards in the process.
To make playing cards mnemonically memorable you need to turn each card into an easily visualizable image.
There are several ways you can do this. One of the most powerful ones is the PAO-method which assignes a) a person, b) an action, and c) an object to each card, whch means you get three mnemonic images for each of the 50 playing cards.
One way of coming up with 52 people is to make groups of famous people according to categories. It makes it easier to memorize.
Let us say that all aces are sportsmen, 2s are sportswomen, 3s are male movie stars, 4s are female movie stars, 5s are controversial men, 6s are controversial women, 7s are famous male physiques, 8s are famous female physiques, 9s are powerful men, 10s are powerful women and Jacks are all religious figures. Queens and Kings are celebrity couples.
(Kings - Celebrity couple male, queens - Celebrity couple female, Jacks - religious figures.)
Here are my own, personal choices - change the profiles you do not know, or better - look up.
- Ace of Clubs - Mike Tyson
- Two of Clubs - Marta Silva
- Three of Clubs - Sylvester Stallone
- Four of Clubs - Linda Hamilton
- Five of Clubs - Joe Rogan
- Six of Clubs - Martina Navratilova
- Seven of Clubs - Hulk Hogan
- Eight of Clubs - Grete Waitz
- Nine of Clubs - Ronald Reagan
- Ten of Clubs - Margaret Thatcher
- Jack of Clubs - Buddha
- Queen of Clubs - Princess Kate
- King of Club - Prince William
- Ace of Hearts - Usain Bolt
- Two of Hearts - Gabby Douglas
- Three of Hearts - Johnny Depp
- Four of Hearts - Julia Roberts
- Five of Hearts - Graham Hancock
- Six of Hearts - Elizabeth Gilbert
- Seven of Hearts - Michael Matthews
- Eight of Heart - Aline Riscado
- Nine of Hearts - Barack Obama
- Ten of Hearts - Angela Merkel
- Jack of Hearts - Jesus
- Queen of Hearts - Yoko Ono
- King of Hearts - John Lennon
- Ace of Spades - Diego Maradonna
- Two of Spades - FloJo
- Three of Spades - Peter Sellers
- Four of Spades - Carol Burnett
- Five of Spades - Albert Einstein
- Six of Spades - Lady Gaga
- Seven of Spades - John Candy
- Eight of Spades - Rhea Pearlman
- Nine of Spades - Donald Trump
- Ten of Spades - Kamala Harris or Dilma Rousseff
- Jack of Spades - 14th Dalai Lama
- Queen of Spades - Janet Jackson
- King of Spades - Michael Jackson
- Ace of Diamonds - Michael Jordan
- Two of Diamonds - Serena Williams
- Three of Diamonds - Tom Cruise
- Four of Diamonds - Nicole Kidman
- Five of Diamonds - Elon Musk
- Six of Diamonds - Martha Stewart
- Seven of Diamonds - Scrooge
- Eight of Diamonds - The Cat Woman
- Nine of Diamonds - Bill Gates
- Ten of Diamonds - Queen Eliabeth II
- Jack of Diamonds - Edir Macedo/Sadhguru
- Queen of Diamonds - Victoria Beckham
- King of Diamonds - David Beckham
Saturday 5th October 2024
Historical figures challenge. Memorize/familiarize yourself with one historical person per day for 100 days. Learn the five to ten most important keywords for that person and read a little about him or her.
After 100 days, go back to person number one and expand on the keywords you aready have. Add more keywords - more facts about each person.
After another 100 days you will have a very good basis for extended knowledge about important historicial figures that most people do not know. And no excessive repetition is needed to create this mnemonic structure - just steady work 20 to 30 minutes per day or so.
In this manner, school children or other students may easily build a mental structure that contains a canon of 100, 200 people, and expand on this throughout the year.
After a year or two, it is my opinion that a student who kept a daily habit like this will have a much better understandig of, say, history than students who simply learn by assimilation and repetition. Also because in those circes, no emphasis is placed on memorization as such. Some teachers do not even see the need for math knowledge as everybody has a cel phone these days. Memorization is seen as something of little value, as it is not the *true* way of learning things. An outdated thought.
Friday 4th October 2024
The extended Major system is my idea of a) associating loci (mnemonic places) to each number of the Major system and b) using more than one mnemonic word per number. Let us focus on the former, and let us say number one is the object tie. Now, try to come up with a location when thinking about "tie". A location could be your wardrobe, or any specific wardrobe you know in a room somehwere or a tie rack. Or a men's clothing store, or similar. If you go through all numbers from one to 100 ust a few times, try to catch the very first idea that pops into your mind as you consider the number. Like this:
| Major System Words | Loci for the words |
| 1 - Tie | a wardrobe |
| 2 - Noah | old people's home |
| 3 - Ma | Some place you associate with your mother |
| 4 - Rye | a bakery |
| 5 - Law | a police station |
| 6 - Shoe | a shoe store/wardrobe |
| 7 - Cow | a field/dairy arm/dairy section of supermarket |
| 8 - Ivy | building with greenery |
| 9 - Pee | toilet |
| 10 - Toes | nail salon |
Thursday 3rd October 2024
The Dominic System is the name of a mnemonic system that ingeniously uses people as devices for memory. The system was devised by Dominic O'Brien. It uses letters for numbers, just like the Major System. But in a different way. This system uses vowels as well as consonants in this manner:
| A | 1 |
| B | 2 |
| C | 3 |
| D | 4 |
| E | 5 |
| S | 6 |
| G | 7 |
| H | 8 |
| N | 9 |
| O | 0 |
Use the letters, as per the rules to create words out of numbers. The Dominic system is great for memorizing long nummbers. Or use them as initials, to represent people. Here is a tool to find famous people based on initials - https://peoplebyinitials.com/p/dominic-number-memory-system
You can make a nice system by memorizing 10 to 100 people using the Dominic system. There are various ways you can organize these people/initials. You could start with 00, then 01, 02, 03, 04 etc - or in other words: 00 - OO (Ozzy Osbourne) 01 - OA (Orphan Annie), 02 - OB (Orlando Bloom), 03 - OC (Oliver Cromwell), 04 - OD (Olympia Dukasis) etc. A disadvatage to the system is that some of these people may be unknown to you, and it may be challenging to find someone you know for all initials. But use the tool in the above link, and look up photos and bios of people you may not have heard of.
Wednesday 2nd October 2024
The Major System is a mnemonic technique for memorizing numbers, and for placing data in numbered pegs. It was developed by Pierre Herigone, who lived from 1580 to 1643, and further developed by Johan Just Winckelmann. The system is based on phonetics, and assigns a phoneme - a particular consonant - to each number from zero to nine. These letters or phonemes are then ingeniously used to create words out of numbers.
| 0 | s, z |
| 1 | t, d |
| 2 | n |
| 3 | m |
| 4 | r |
| 5 | l |
| 6 | sh,djz |
| 7 | k |
| 8 | f,v |
| 9 | p,b |
Use the specific phonemes from table one to create words, like the ones in table two. Each word is an object and therefore easily visualizable. The nmber one, for example, is TIE. To memorize an object of information that is to be associated with number one, simply link a tie with that object. Say you want to memorize a shopping list, and item number one is ice cream. Link tie and ice cream. Etc.
| 1 | tie |
| 2 | knee |
| 3 | ma |
| 4 | rye |
| 5 | law |
| 6 | shoe |
| 7 | cow |
| 8 | ivy |
| 9 | bee |
| 10 | toes |
Tuesday 1st October 2024
The advantages of using mind maps (memory maps) for memorizing textbooks.
The Englishman Tony Buzan invented the ingenious note-taking method that he called mind maps. This was back in the 1970s and although his methods got much attention in the mid-eighties and eary 2000s, it is still not used to its full advantage as a method for memorization. It is more of a creative tool and a note-taking technique.
In the early 90s I used the technique for quickly memorizing a whole textbook for an oral exam, 19 chapters.
I had just discovered the method through a friend, but a few months too late to do much about my lousy grades. Still, on the oral exams I took, in history, I got top marks. It is simply impossible to forget keywords using this method. Everything sticks to your mind.
And no need for memory palaces, pegs or links. Just a piece of paper, preferably A3 a pen, and a set of colored markers.
I recommend all students try this method.
- Memory maps/mind maps help in memorizing textbooks quicker.
- Very efficient method - saves time.
- Perfect retention of all keywords with just a few run-throughs.
To learn more about mind maps, check out the Mnemo Forum https://mnemo.freeforums.net/!