First post here, happy to join the forum. Having recently completed my basic systems for numbers I’m now in the process of practicing them. A question I’ve been trying to answer is when to use what system essentially.
I have the following systems created:
Phonetic number system (modified Major system)
Number shape system for 0-9 (objects only)
PAO system for 00-99
When I encounter numbers “in the wild” they are seldom perfectly divisable to allow a straight up use of the PAO system. Thus arises the question of what rules to establish for chunking digits of different length numbers.
I thought about doing something along these lines:
Number length
Chunking (“/” separates loci)
System used
1
·
shape
2
··
person
3
·· ·
person + shape
4
·· ··
person + action
5
·· ·· ·
person + action + shape
6
·· ·· ··
person + action + object
7
·· ·· ·· / ·
person + action + object / shape
8
·· ·· ·· / ··
person + action + object / person
9
·· ·· ·· / ·· ·
person + action + object / person-shape
(and so forth)
I don’t know if this would be a good way to go about this or not. So, my question is this: when having a two digit PAO as the base, how does one best go about chunking different length numbers?
I first thought about just accepting pre-chunked numbers as they were presented to me. I mainly had phone numbers spoken aloud in mind then. People choose to group these differently: 0123456789 might be uttered as 012-345-67-89 or 01-23-456-789 etcetera. As a beginner it’s challenging to even convert this to two digit chunks (01-23-45-67-89) without getting lost on the way. But in a long term sense it seems more logical to use standardized general rules for chunking digits (and just practice proficiency in “re-chunking” spoken “pre-chunked” numbers on the fly as a special skill).
I use like this. Just personal preference.
0 - 123 - 456 - 789
• First digit represents a memory palace.
I created a memory palace with total of 10 rooms in it.
For numbers 9, 8, 7, and 6 the rooms are larger. Because in india generally all numbers starts with these numbers.
• After that whenever need to memorize someone’s phone number, just need to imagine that person in a loci. And need to give him a 9 digits combined 1 image.
In above example
• 0 represents a memory palace room
• and next 9 digits are three 3 digit system images.
And for personal friends, close relatives I don’t need it. I just able to recall their numbers without any methods.
Thank you both for your replies @gyanamathsir and @Rajadodve786. It makes sense to set up a system for phone number specifically. I’m curious @Rajadodve786, do you have any problem encoding phone numbers if they are only spoken to you (not written) and uttered in a different grouping than you expect/prefer?
Moving past phone numbers specifically, what I’m struggling with is how I would encode different length numbers that do not fit into the PAO scheme perfectly. I’ll try to illustrate this better with an example:
If I encounter a 2 digit number, then a 12 digit number, then a 8 digit number, then a 5 digit number throughout my day that I wish to to remember using a memory palace, what rules should I follow to encode this?
Would this be a good choice, or what’s the best approach?
First number:
1 loci
P
Second number:
2 loci
PAO
PAO
Third number:
2 loci
PAO
P
Fourth number:
1 loci
PA+S
(Since I use a two digit PAO system the numbers above would be the same if 6 multiplied by any number was added to them).
I hope that illustrates what I’m struggling with. I’m having a bit of a hard time to articulate the precise issue. Can a person be alone in a loci without an action and object, or is it better to use the number shape system only in those cases, or perhaps improvise with the phonetic system?
well, chunking never been a problem to me. Since I don’t use pao. I have not to worry about action either.
I use phonetic based system. So whatever the group is , all is fine.
If there is only 1, 2 phone numbers spoken to me. Then I have no need to use any methods either. I just group them randomly in my mind or sometimes not even need to group them.
For spoken numbers event I prefer 3 digit system and I put 9 digits on each loci.
Ok, perhaps the spoken grouping is not such a big of an issue that I imagined then (I’ll see for myself soon enough!). Hopefully someone who uses a PAO system can chime in regarding the other questions.
Have you found this a useful use case or is this just for novelty?
I don’t even know my girlfriend’s phone number much less the rest of my contacts but they are all perfectly indexed in my cell phone.
I do have my brother’s phone number on a slip of paper in my wallet for emergencies with no access to my phone so I should probably remember a couple emergency contacts but I can’t really imagine the utility of memorizing phone numbers if you have a cell phone full of contacts.
Cool regardless and I may be missing some of the utility.
yes, I found it useful. (1 secret I never tried it actually)
Why ? Because I never need to memorize numbers, except some relatives.
and the people I need to call. I mostly prefer meeting personally.
well, I have not a single phone number in my cell phone.
because I never gave someone my phone number. And except my mommy no one call me either. (well I have list of contacts in our phone number register)
For emergency like I said, I know some friends numbers.
Last thing gonna say, Even I didn’t tried it but I am sure it will work very well.
You still didn’t get it, do you ?
you are saying why we need to memorize phone numbers, I guess by this way we don’t need to depend on cell phone too much. And it’s feels little numbers training.
If we start thinking like this, we will not learn anything. Because we already have google & YouTube.
we will never do mental calculation because we already have a calculator.
we will never memorize cards, to me it’s the most useless thing.
The one difference I see from this perspective is if you want to keep the phone numbers then you need to do several reviews and also that palace is potentially taken up if you ever have issues with ghosting.
More training is always nice and making a new palace is no huge burden but I mostly want to intentionally forget the numbers I train with as to preserve those palaces.
I wasn’t saying its a bad activity just wondering if you ever actually used a memorized phone number.
The cards and mental calculation samples the clear utility is mnemonics basic skills training even though the data is pointless.
I just memorized my girlfriend and brother’s numbers using PAO-PA.
My brother: Wolverine from X-men inhales Negative Nancy like kirby then Tom Cruise gets struck by lightning.
My GF: Wolverine from X-men lunges at Mr Potato Head but Mr Potato Head freezes wolverine in gold stasis like Midas touch. Then Rory from Gilmore Girls says Mr Potato Head is her baby daddy and Maury says “The lie detector says… that is a lie”. Mr. Potato Head rejoices.
a P and A and an O for “the end” in case I need it
another single P,A,O for “nothing” in case I really need a space
I don’t have a fixed way of using these together but this lets me handle whatever number of digits I need, always with a single PAO in each location.
I still didn’t decide on a final way of handling mixed digits and letters, because I only have P for letters, but I can use them as objects, and also I have thought of an action associated to each person letter so I can deal with it on occasion
Whenever I have to write them on a form (you, spouse, another contact, both cellphone and home number) it’s a lot easier to write from memory (and maybe double check on the phone).
If you ever run out of battery or your phone is unavailable, you can ask to use someone else’s phone
I try to make a special palace for these kinds of things: passports are on an airplane, drivers’ licenses on a car etc. Cellphone numbers only need one or two locations so they are on that person’s phone and I don’t “waste” any palace that way (and, I know where to look when I need them).
There’s no way around having to review them though
I’m still figuring out chunking myself.
Phone numbers I use PA-PAO (and have only got my closest family, pretty much for an emergency situation).
But then there are so many numbers of varying lengths: drivers licence, passport, ABN, tax file number, medicare number, student number(s), bank accounts - all numbers it would be good to have handy, a lot of them used infrequently. Before I set up a PAO, I used a single digit system (shape and rhyme) for some of them, but now I’m converting them to PAO as it’s much quicker and easier - and coming up with odd chunks, sometimes a single number at the end.
why , I need to memorize other people aadhar card number ?
(I guess memorizing your own aadhar card number is sufficient and that can be done by simple logics)
Thank you for your answers! It seems that using a blank to fill out the O or the AO if the number ends with a P/PA is a good solution in most cases. It’s been mentioned on the forums a few times, like here and here (my bad for not finding them before posting). So if the number ends short it can be encoded normally using the action and object for the “no number” entry. I’ll be giving it a try!
To me it (now) seems easiest to begin chunking every number as a PAO and fill out the end, if necessary, with either the blank O/AO or the 0-9 system.
I haven’t considered expanding the 0-9 system from objects to a full PAO before, I’ll consider implementing it. Does it lead to confusion ever?
In memorization, unless you have a predefined way to do it, you have to decide every time how you want to group them (for an example with just five digits: 2P+2A+1O, or 2P+1A+2O, or 1P+2A+2O?).
For me it never leads to confusion in recall.
In fact I recently started building a list of three-digit O (sloooowly. just when i want one i fill the hole), which I personify and use as P too.
And I cheerfully mix them all up, three digits, two digits, one digit. Based on how I like them to be grouped (which is usually trying to mimic as much as possible the way it’s written on the document)
That’s true, although you are trading the fixed cost of building and maintaining a system for the variable cost of having to use more locations and get more repeated scenes, which could lead to confusion. I guess one can start with this first and then if they find they don’t like it they can build more
I’ll give it a try then (it’s a minimal time investment after all). Expanding towards a three digit system is interesting, it seems to be a few different ways of doing that (it’s not something for me yet though). Good luck with yours
