Mind The Memory Palace: Learn To Memorize Anything by Scott Hughey

Author:Scott Hughey [Hughey, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Scott Hughey
Published: 2016-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

7. Numbers. Now This Is Major

Remember the scene in Star Wars: Episode I, where Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Jar-Jar Binks are attacked by a gooberfish?

I'm kidding. Of course you don't. The beloved J.J. Abrahms banished all Jar-Jar scenes from the collective memory with Episode VII. Curse this newfound memory. After I finish this book, I think I'm going to write something about how to forget things.

Here's what happens in the scene. Make sure not to put these details in a Memory Palace, or you'll never be able to get them out of your head again.

As the trio left the Gungan city in a submersible vehicle, the giant fish stuck out its frog-like tongue, nabbing the underwater car. All, it seemed, was lost. But then, in a mighty display of CGI, another sea creature known as an opee sea killer came out of nowhere, crunched the gooberfish in its own mighty jaws, and promptly disappeared into the green screen from whence it came.

Our heroes were saved. There was not great rejoicing, because so was Jar-Jar.

The best part of the scene? Qui-Gon remarking that, "There's always a bigger fish."

There's also always a better memory system.

Let's start with one I've already partially introduced, the Major Memory system.

It's not called Major because it's the best, or because it requires a college degree to implement. Why then does it possess such a lofty name?

Here's the part where I wanted to explain it got its name from the creator, some guy called Major. I hadn't written the chapter on remembering names yet, so it seemed justifiable to fact check this.

Turns out Pierre Hérigone came up with it. It says so on Wikipedia. Why isn't it named after him? Simple. That's self-explanatory. Can you imagine trying to learn something called the Hérigone system? We'd need a system just to remember how to pronounce this one.

Then Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein worked on it some, and that would have been even worse. Let's fast forward a bit. At least six other people with unsatisfactory names got their hands on the system before finally, Major Beniowski wrote a book that included the information on the system.

Memory scholars around the world rejoiced. Finally, they had a name worth remembering, all thanks to Major's book.

I haven't read this book, but I think I almost have to. Wikipedia says it's called The Anti-Absurd or Phrenotypic English Pronouncing and Orthographical Dictionary. I can't tell if that's a book, or the first draft of a Steven Moffat script.

Oh, and I have to share this before we get into the major stuff. That book that Wikipedia references? The footnote references a blog post found at blog.artofmemory.com. The blog post references the same Wikipedia article.

Or, as C3P0 said in Episode 2, "How perverse."

*Sigh* Is there an art of forgetting blog?

Here's a reminder of how the major system works. You assign a letter sound to each number you come across:

0 = Z, or S.

1 = T, or D.

2 = N.

3 = M.

4 = R.

5 = L.

6 = CH, J.

7 = K, or Hard G.

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