Just As We Accumulate Memories Of Facts

Many Memory Techniques Involve Creating Unforgettable Imagery, In Your Minds Eye. Thats An Act Of Imagination. Creating Really Weird Imagery Really Quickly Was The Most Fun Part Of My Training To Compete In The U.s. Memory Competition.

As Bad As We Are At Remembering Names And Phone Numbers And Word-for-word Instructions From Our Colleagues, We Have Really Exceptional Visual And Spatial Memories.

If You Want To Live A Memorable Life, You Have To Be The Kind Of Person Who Remembers To Remember.

To Attain The Rank Of Grand Master Of Memory, You Must Be Able To Perform Three Seemingly Superhuman Feats. You Have To Memorize 1,000 Digits In Under An Hour, The Precise Order Of 10 Shuffled Decks Of Playing Cards In The Same Amount Of Time, And One Shuffled Deck In Less Than Two Minutes. There Are 36 Grand Masters Of Memory In The World.

If You Were A Medieval Scholar Reading A Book, You Knew That There Was A Reasonable Likelihood You'd Never See That Particular Text Again, And So A High Premium Was Placed On Remembering What You Read. You Couldn't Just Pull A Book Off The Shelf To Consult It For A Quote Or An Idea.