I have always appreciated a good list. I think the (now passed?) listicle trend was a travesty because it cheapened a beautiful thing. There is just something intellectually satisfying about enumerating a taxon.
I’m studying architecture for a class I’m taking and wow do academic architects LOVE lists. And I also study Buddhism and the sheer number of lists is staggering. A recent dive into both of these topics and I’ve finally hit a tipping point.
I have started collecting especially juicy lists I’m finding. Both official named lists and one-offs introduced in essays I’m reading.
Here’s one about the list of modern demands of architecture:
And today the wants of program, structure, mechanical equipment, and expression, even in single buildings in simple contexts, are diverse and conflicting in ways previously unimaginable.
From "Non-straightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto," Robert Venturi
I have this pet theory that memorizing lists like the above helps transform the mind. It installs anchors that other information and experiences can be attached to.
What are people’s experiences with lists? What are your favorites?
Weirdly, I’ve never had a problem with ghosting. But thank you for the warning! I’ll make sure to do distinct peg lists and palaces. It’s very tempting for me to reuse palaces because I’m laaazy.
I’m thinking of having all my lists and creating a mnemonic encyclopedia of them. I am betting you can then ask yourself “what other lists contain this item” and jump around.
Alright, I have begun prep mode for my list memorization project. Here’s in a alphabetical peg list of birds. I filled in the gaps for the hard letters like U, X, Y, and Z with roommates and Wikipedia. Thank you to my partner for “Yellow belly sapsucker.”
For those unfamiliar, a peg list is a preset list of items that you attach the target information to. You have the target information interact with the peg and then recall it by walking through the list.
Well arrays to be more specific. It’s the same stuff. They are so simple , beautiful, and efficient.
And method of loci is a procedure to generate lists. The memory palace is a list, a product of the procedure. Very nice.
Memorising listed item sometimes helps me in categorising new experiences. Say, you could have a list of subtle categories of emotions, and then you could readily pin down and describe the exact emotion a person is feeling.
In my recent practise, I have found that I should ALWAYS link the Information to LOCI OBJECT instead of the general location. The retention goes through the roof! And it’s great for encoding at speed when I need to memorise stuff after lectures.
Something I do is, go through a chapter, note all headings/subheadings, and create an index(which is a List!) for a quick active recall session. Works great when paired with spaced repetition
and just used my already built out 00-99 as pegs.