I've always been pretty frustrated with my inability to remember simple things, while having knack for recalling useless information. I rarely can remember birthdays, anniversaries, phone numbers, important dates in my history like when I graduated or the specific date of when my father passed away. I have hardly any memory of grade school, only can recall two of my teacher's names in high school, etc. Granted, some of those are less useful than others but they're things that people tend to remember and I don't. Instead, I memorize odd things like a Windows 98 CD Key, for example. I must've reinstalled it so many times that it just stuck in my head. Completely useless and yet it'll be with me for many more years I'm afraid.
I have found that I tend to remember things more if I put them into a rhythm, as if they were words in a song. I'm not musically inclined so I kind of find that odd, but it works. I used to work in inventory for a Best Buy warehouse and I'd often have to put UPC codes into a terminal for new inventory. I couldn't see the codes from the terminal most times, so I'd quickly memorize the code in my head by putting it into a rhythm. 1...2...3 4 5 6...7...8....9 10 11 12. Would be curious to know if that's common?
Anyway, very interesting article and I'm definitely going to try and put it to use. See if I can create a memory palace for Rubix cube algorithms as I've recently decided I want to be able to master the 3x3 one. Now if I can only force myself to forget that Kermit the lettuce head is going to greet me when I get home by warning me that Kevin Bacon is chasing pigs through my living room, that someone accidentally formatted my SD card bed and that the sun is supposed to be extra Orange and juicy today. I think I'll keep around Scarlett doing her thing with an Onion Ring hula-hoop though. :)
I memorized pi to a hundred digits out of boredom in middle school, and I naturally did the rhythm thing, mostly with triplets of digits, sometimes otherwise.
The interesting thing is that I can't remember any of it without using the rhythm to help me; for example, if you asked me "what comes next after the digits '197'", I have no way to answer that question without going through the digits until I get to the part that goes "..795 0288; 4-1-9-7-1 693 993..." and then going, aha, here it is. If you started ten digits in, grouped the digits differently, and read them off to me in a different cadence, I wouldn't even recognize it was pi!
I liked bursts of 3-digit chunks, combined with 5-digit sets that were important addresses in the C64 memory map. (41971 in BASIC ROM, 50288 within the $C000 hidden RAM area).
Look at how the Aboriginees use songs in their memorization techniques. Tribes or families would have songs about locations of food and water, and when two people from different tribes would marry, they would teach each other their songs. Isn't that the best dowry?
That's not particularly optimized; it's als from 2003, when speedcubing was not as advanced. If you want a fairly good attempt at an understandable minimum method, look at http://www.speedsolving.com/wiki/index.php/8355_Method
(Although memory shouldn't really matter for such few moves. Blindfolded solving is where it gets interesting.)
This technique is not for speedcubing nor did it claim to be optimized. Its goal is to be easy to memorize.
By definition, speedcubing is the opposite of "easy to memorize". The easier it is to memorize, the less formulas there are, therefore the more you need to do.
Speedcubing is about solving a cube in less than 25 seconds, which pretty much only leaves room for 3-4 formulas. That's a lot to memorize.
I have found that I tend to remember things more if I put them into a rhythm, as if they were words in a song. I'm not musically inclined so I kind of find that odd, but it works. I used to work in inventory for a Best Buy warehouse and I'd often have to put UPC codes into a terminal for new inventory. I couldn't see the codes from the terminal most times, so I'd quickly memorize the code in my head by putting it into a rhythm. 1...2...3 4 5 6...7...8....9 10 11 12. Would be curious to know if that's common?
Anyway, very interesting article and I'm definitely going to try and put it to use. See if I can create a memory palace for Rubix cube algorithms as I've recently decided I want to be able to master the 3x3 one. Now if I can only force myself to forget that Kermit the lettuce head is going to greet me when I get home by warning me that Kevin Bacon is chasing pigs through my living room, that someone accidentally formatted my SD card bed and that the sun is supposed to be extra Orange and juicy today. I think I'll keep around Scarlett doing her thing with an Onion Ring hula-hoop though. :)