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/lit/ - Literature

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3601579 No.3601579 [Reply] [Original]

Hey, /lit/erati --

I started using the method of loci after reading about it in Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. I'm surprised by how well it works. For example, it's made it much easier to memorize vocabulary.

Not sure if this is the right board to discuss memory and memory techniques, but I'm interested in others' experiences. Do you use Memory Palaces? Any tips or tricks?

>> No.3601582

Describe the method.

>> No.3601588

If you haven't started using memory palaces by the age of 12, you can never fully achieve one. You'll only ever be able to do semi-pointless tricks like memorizing an article or poem based on a mnemonic story.

>> No.3601600

>>3601588
laughingbrainplasticity.jpeg

>> No.3601598

>>3601588

Bullshit. I begun when I was 16 and have created an elaborate maze which consists of my entire university campus, every house I've ever lived in as well as some of my favourite parks.

I first learned about it in a Derren Brown book, he found out about it at university and used it to learn the entirety of the London A-Z.

That said, yes it is good, OP. I used it to pass all my exams at university.

>>3601582

Basically you imagine some location familiar to you and attach things you are supposed to remember to places in it. So you may walk in your living room and see a massive stamp on the TV which reminds you that you have to post a letter. They can become extremely complex. Wikipedia article is a good start.

>> No.3601652

>>3601588

2/10 trolling effort

Still, I wish someone had taught me the technique at 12. Would have made school so much easier.

>> No.3601732

I memorized my reaction tables by accident (and efficiently) by smelling my study partner's perfume. Too bad we couldn't sit beside each other during the exams.

>> No.3602093

yeah, shit works amazingly, really need to get back into memorizing shit

>> No.3602909

>trying to remember
>not trying to forget

Sure is insensitive dumbfags in here.

>> No.3602950

yeah, op, i read the entirety of gordiano bruno's works on memory in latin when i was 4 years old. i use the entirety of paris as a memory palace and i walk through it naked everyday reciting a ten million word poem that i wrote from the place de la revolution to the tomb of napoleon in the invalides.

>> No.3602955

This book didn't really teach you anything but rather sort of kind of described the techniques. If you want to learn the method I would Google "method of loci" or look for the references on Wikipedia for some REAL books on the memory techniques.
Moonwalking with Einstein was a good book for stirring up Drama about that Daniel guy who, the author claims, is a con artist and not a super genius.

>> No.3602962

>>3601732
>tfw

>> No.3604050

>>3602955
>REAL books
>doesn't give good references

Next you're gonna say you don't educate children.

>> No.3604214
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3604214

>mfw when I just found out about this shit

Does it really work that well? I've been reading up on it for a while now, can anyone give me any tips or a really basic walktrough?

>> No.3604217

Name me one good book on this subject and I will read it in one sitting tonight.

>> No.3604227

>>3604214

I... I'm with this guy. Would someone please elaborate more. I've heard of it on some films and animes, but I have no idea if it actually works.

>> No.3604232

I can see it working really well in memorizing lists and figures, but does it work with concepts and paragraphs?

How do you even apply memory palaces to learning more complex information structures?

>> No.3604234

>>3604214

It's kind of astounding how well it works.

I used it to memorize new vocab earlier this week. Walking through my palace, I can recall each one and its definition. Perfidy, vitiate, propitiate, rotund, orotund, remonstrate, ludic, stygian, asperity. It's all there. Amazingly simple.

Really angry that I didn't learn this technique earlier. It should be taught in school.

>> No.3604245

>>3602955

Actually the author only argues that rather than being a "legit" synaesthetic person and a savant, Daniel is "merely" a very intelligent person who applies well known principles to achieve exceptional results.

>> No.3604254

>>3604234
Omg I feel like I'm going to become a super genius badass from now on.

MWAHAHAH FUCK YOU GERMAN IRREGULAR VERBS, I'M GOING TO SO MAKE YOU ALL MY BITCHES

>> No.3604255

>>3604254
>implying you are driven enough

>> No.3604258

>>3604255
Yeah that's true, I probably won't even remember this shit tomorrow morning.

Thanks for having faith in me though, really appreciate it. <3

>> No.3604264

Does it have to be a memory palace? Could it be in principle be any familiar physical structure where you put these things?

It would be much easier if you could use everyday objects like clocks, chess boards, carpets or even piano keyboards. That way you wouldn't have to constantly find and memorize buildings.

>> No.3604265

>>3604254

Great!

The cool thing about the process is that once you've fitted these memories in your palace, they tend to leak into your "working memory."

For example: Calling up a specific word might take a second or two at first -- but over time, the word and its meaning appear spontaneously, without effort.

So yes -- it's great for learning languages.

>> No.3604266

>>3604258
Drive is the most admirable human trait of all. Be driven, because I sure as fuck don't think you are.

>> No.3604280

>>3604264

> Could it be in principle be any familiar physical structure where you put these things?

"Memory palace" is just a term; don't take it literally.

They can be any place you know well. My first palace was the house I grew up in. Now I'm using a few more: my grandmother's house, my uncle's house, and my college library.

>> No.3604287

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

>mfw this explain how ancient orators were able to recite the Odyssey and the Iliad

>> No.3604291

>>3604266
I sure as fuck am not. What's so terrible about that? How the hell is drive the most admirable huan trait? We're getting off topic here but I'm quite curious now.

>> No.3604293

>>3604287
>>mfw this explain how ancient orators were able to recite the Odyssey and the Iliad

Do you think they all did that though? I can't believe it, but it might be right. Fuck this shit's awesome.

>> No.3604295

>>3604291
No one gets anywhere without it. There is nothing more admirable than seeing someone refuse to give up in the face of the most stubborn adversity, then overcoming it. It's the essence of being a man, summoning all of your drive to push yourself beyond your own limits. Every successful person is driven either by love for what they do, or by a refusal to be beaten or fail.

>> No.3604300

>>3604293
>Do you think they all did that though? I can't believe it, but it might be right. Fuck this shit's awesome.

Of course they used other methods as well, such as epithets to fit in the dactylic hexameter, but for sure some working mnemonic device must have been in place?

Could it have been that they actually walked the beaches of illium mentally and saw the battle as it took place? A mental journey through the world... holy fuck this is blowing my mind.

Is that what evoking the muses are?

>> No.3604302

>>3604295
Nah thanks I'll pass, my life isn't that intense.

What if I'm, you know, one of those humab beings with ladybits? What are those called again? Hmm... w-w-women?

>> No.3604303

>>3604295
I love you.

>> No.3604308

>>3604287

The practice of memorizing books wasn't uncommon. Sadly, memory techniques went to shit after Gutenberg flooded Europe with cheap tracts. Never recovered.

>> No.3604310

>>3604300
Fuck I miss my Ancient Greek Literature class. It's just so fucking mind-blowing. I remember when my teacher told me why it's called a dactylic hexameter. Fuck I miss that class.

>> No.3604312

>>3604302
Women are driven too. It's just a rule of being a good human, don't give up. No truism has more truth to it, it's a pity it had to be abused to the point of becoming a tired maxim. People could do with letting drive envelope them.

>> No.3604319

>>3604310
>dactylic hexameter
W-why is it called that?

>> No.3604348
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3604348

>>3604319

OMG IF YOU'RE ANYTHING LIKE ME THIS WILL MAKE YOUR DAY/EXISTENCE

So the word δάκτυλος means finger in Greek right?

Look at your at your index finger on your left hand, pointing it to your right I mean. See how it's divided into 3 sections? A long one and then two shorter ones?

Well in a dactylic hexameter, there are six feet. (DERP) And each foot is a long syllable followed by two short ones.

OMG LIFE IS WONDERFUL

>> No.3604371

>>3604348
Wow, thanks... gotta get into the greeks

>> No.3604381

>>3604348
That actually is cool.

>> No.3604382

>>3604348
You're a total rockstar for figuring this out. Even if it is included in every book on poetry and even on the wikipedia pages, your intellect is truly dazzling.

>> No.3604385

>>3604382
But he didn't figure it out you dolt. He said not three posts above that one that his teacher told him that.

>> No.3604406

>>3604382

Now this, guys, is why we can't have nice things.

I never said I figured that out. I just think it's an incredibly beautiful fact not everyone knows, I was just trying to share it.

And you sir are truly witty and hurtful, using sarcasm to mock me on 4chan's /lit/ board, dayumn. Your parents' must be real proud bud.

Bitch.

>>3604385

Can't argue with the crazies man... just nod when they make eye contact and everything'll be fine.

>> No.3604413

>>3604406
So, you have anything else insightful about the classics?

>> No.3604428
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3604428

Nihilism:
>Nothing Matters

Achilles:
>Everything Is At Stake

It's a choice. How do you want to live? I know what I want.

>> No.3604439

>>3604428
Now THAT'S what I call drive!

>> No.3604443

>>3604439
And he lives forever.

>> No.3604444

>>3604413

Hmmm lemme think here, although I think I set the bar pretty high, the dactyl thing is probably my favourite fun little classic-related fact :3

Shit my teacher used to tell me all kinds of quirky little things, sadly I forgot most of them.

Also, did you want fun literature facts or cool stuff regarding the Latin and Greek language?

Aaaand the brainstorming begins

>> No.3604450
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3604450

>> No.3604452

>>3604444
>wasting quads on such a banal series of sentences

>> No.3604461

>>3604452
>wasting quads on such a banal series of sentences

>Wasting quads complaining about my waisting quads.

You deserve some sort of award. Not sure for what yet though.

>> No.3604465

That resonated profoundly deep within me. Wtf?

>> No.3604468

>>3604465
>>3604428

>> No.3604519

>>3604308

This is /lit/ and you're saying books are shit.

>> No.3604525

>According to an anecdote, Kant's life habits were so regular, that people used to set their clocks by him as the philosopher passed their houses on his daily walk – the only time when the schedule changed was when Kant read Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, and forgot the walk.

Kant had a set route.

I wonder if he used it to memorize stuff, so that everyday, he would be reminded of the knowledge he had learnt.

>> No.3604551

>>3604519

2/10 reading comprehension

>> No.3604593

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_memory

This is a fucking fascinating read.

>> No.3605218
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3605218

"There is one question which we seldom ask each other directly. It is too brutal, and yet it is the only question worth asking our fellow travellers: What makes you go on living? Why don’t you kill yourself? Why is all this bearable? What makes you bear it?

Could I answer that question about myself? No. Yes. Perhaps … I supposed, vaguely, that it was a kind of balance, a complex of tensions. You did whatever was next on the list. A meal to be eaten. Chapter eleven to be written. The telephone rings. You go off somewhere in a taxi. There is one’s job. There are amusements. There are people. There are books. There are things to be bought in shops. There is always something new. There has to be. Otherwise the balance would be upset, the tension would break.
”
— Christopher Isherwood, Prater Violet

>> No.3605375

>>3604348
seriously; what the fuck am i reading?
crappy explanatory skills, dude

>> No.3605399

>>3604348
So a continuation of Method of Loci mnemonic device. The Iliad is 15000 lines of verse, The Odyssey is 12000 lines of verse.

Could the Dactylic hand been a way to symbolize how you "placed" the objects you memorized. By pointing?

We know that reciting the epics were movements, dance, and bodily language?

So if the orators talked about the Zeus, they pointed to the sky. If you wanted to remember something about Poseidon you pointed to the ground?

You'd remember that the dactylic hexameter was a pointing finger and that you placed the words of the verse into physical objects, which you pointed towards when you placed them, but also as remembered them during recital?

>> No.3605462

>>3604302
>implying man isn't our species
>implying women are better than men
fuck off 4th wave

>> No.3605471

>>3604519
>>>/book/

>> No.3605480

>>3601588
19 year old who has never heard of this thing before - fuck you anon, I'm learning it and you can't stop me.

About to read through the rest of the thread - if nobody's posted any resources, could someone point me in the right direction?

>> No.3605488

>>3605480
>About to read through the rest of the thread - if nobody's posted any resources, could someone point me in the right direction?

There are wiki links in here that'll point you in the right direction.

>> No.3605506

Learning to memorise complex data?
Wow, it's almost like we never invented writing.
You're not Hannibal, there is no real life situation where this is more use than any party trick. Don't waste your time.

>> No.3605511

>>3605506
Except when you study and try to learn new things for say an exam, or perhaps when you argument and debate using that tool of yours... what's it called again.. mouth.. that's it.

>> No.3605515

>>3605506
I just really don't think that's true. There are many cases where a person will be doing something in life that requires constantly referencing back and forth between a book and whatever his/her project is.

If you could just memorize the book, the whole experience would be much better and more efficient.

>> No.3605527

So far people that can actually do this, how long did it take you to get good? How much practice does it take?

Also, do you ever reuse locations?

>> No.3605528

>>3605511
I'll believe it when I hear it.

>>3605515
Creating a "memory palace" as I understand it wouldn't just be some RAM to do with as you please, it would be there fore good. You need real signifiers to help you relate. Doing it for every other exam would just result in a clutter.
I'm talking out my arse I have no experience or knowledge of this at all.

>> No.3605550

>>3605515
> >>3605506
There are many cases where a person will be doing something in life that requires constantly referencing back and forth between a book and whatever his/her project is.

Imagine memorising the entire documentation for a programming language...that would be amazing.

>> No.3605552

>>3605506

Good luck installing gentoo without an internet connection.

>> No.3605552,1 [INTERNAL] 

dsdsd