Remembering items in a list: the first thing that really resonated with me was that it is hard to remember a series of words, and that are not linked together. Foer says that one word is inextricably linked to the next word. So for example he wants to remember:
- bear
- truck
- college
- shoe
- drama
- garbage and
- watermelon.
As I was reading it I thought about a bear that was picked up by a truck on the way to a college where they designed shoes for a drama involving actresses dressed up as garbage selling watermelons
Remembering names: to remember someone’s name the trick is to associate the sign of a person’s name with something you can clearly imagine. For example, Donata would be eating a donut when we first met.
Fun fact: we can only think about 7 things at a time.
Memory palace
A memory Palace does not need to be a building. It can be a route to a town, it can be indoors or outdoors real or imaginary, as long as there is an order that links one thing to the next. Humans are great at remembering spatial information. When picturing an image in your memory palace, try to associate multi-sensory attributes to it eg. Smell taste etc. This way, you’re like it’s attaching hooks to that object to your mind to the memory Palace and it’ll make it way easier to recall. The more creative you can be here the better, because it makes it easier to remember! For more abstract words like professional learning goals try to think of the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of professional learning goals could be a person or a thing or a city whatever it is. Make sure that the memorable thing is linked to the thing you’re trying to remember not the object in the house and your memory Palace.
Collect a list of memorable places for your palaces over time.
Check out the POA system, used for remembering playing cards – https://artofmemory.com/blog/pao-system/
The OK Plateau: you have to consciously practice a skill to continually improve it. Moreover, this practice must include failure. Watch the failure and learn from it. Eg. Try tasks that are too difficult for you, and then you will certainly fail. Or put yourself into the shoes of another person and try to figure out how that person works through problems. To get better at any skill, you need to switch of autopilot E.g. touch typing. Force yourself to type faster than you can, giving yourself permission to make mistakes. Then keep practising until you no longer make mistakes and then decrease the time you have to complete the task