What course have you taken that has helped you with your learning and memory projects?
I’m currently going through this “course” which offers, in my opinion, interesting and useful views on reading comprehension, which is a very important part of my memory techniques exploration and Adventures. and it’s free (for now)!
I’ve heard good things about this free course.
This course is based on Barbara Oakley book “A mind for numbers” its really good.
Written by Barbara Oakley? Thanks for that. I’m going to get it. She is an interesting character, I’ve read a few of her other books including one about how you have to be very very wary and sceptical about people who “think” they are motivated to tell you what they tell you because they"want"to help you. That one could have been written about replies on a forum. This reply included.
I would be wary and skeptical about people that can assume such things about people they don’t even know
I am not sure what you believe as I don’t get your reply (my fault I don’t understand your language) I wondered, was curious really to know what motivated Barbera Oakley to be the editor of that book : “Pathological Altruism”. And here’s the answer: I don’t know.
Are you mocking my English ? Please help me understand why you said such a thing.
Anybody have experience with any of these memory techniques courses ?
I can vouch for this Coursera course Learning How to Learn. This is a nice compilation of scientific facts and information for your study tools toolkit.
No I am not mocking your English. I said I do not understand your English. No mocking intended.
Here’s an answer to your question: It is my opinion.
There are in my experience VERY FEW GREAT memory courses available. But I have worked through a few and I can tell you that the following three are GOOD MEMORY COURSES I bought and used:
Dominic O’Brian’s Quantum Memory which I got from Audible,
Ron White’s Memory in a Month,
Course In Memory And Concentration - Dr Bruno Furst which I picked up at a local Charity Book Shop)
all of these had the same general problem… but the pros outweigh the cons if you are keen.
Before I tell you what in my opinion the problem is, let me say: ALL OF THEM HELPED ME. ALL OF THEM.
I really rate Ron White’s course (and Ron White as a person and memory man) although this early course by him suffers from being a bit too parochial (lots of references to baseball for example "Just imagine you are standing at home plate and some guy runs into deep left outfield" - that sort of stuff that was a bit troublesome to understand if you don’t know what baseball is … seemingly it’s some sort of what looks like the child’s game “rounders” played by grown men in peaked caps).
But it is a GREAT COURSE and if I were to recommend one to you that would be it…
Dominic O’Brian’s is another one I could recommend as it really does give a lot of detail but it took me months and months to go though. At that stage of my own journey I was interested in everything about memory techniques and this is a comprehensive course. The reason I got this course is that I thought O’Brian’s book “How to Develop a Perfect Memory” was the best book I had ever read on our subject. You might find it difficult to pick up a copy of that book but if you can get it and you are interested in Memory Systems in general - get it. As for the audio course: After a while I got a bit irked by his manner not his content. It suffers from constant unrelenting self-aggrandisement which day after day annoys … (don’t get me wrong he is good - at memorising and developing systems - but not at writing the script for a narrated audio course). Unfortunately, worse than that is that Quantum Memory is FULL of careless mistakes that should have been edited out after recording - for example he gives a mnemonic of the colours of the rainbow which is just PLAIN wrong… it should be ROYGBIV he ended up giving it as ROYBGIV (spot the difference!). There are also some rather ‘bawdy’ moments that well just make him sound like an old perv.
Bruno Furst’s course is interesting but I could only recommend it if you were only interested in how to develop your own system. It’s like a 1950’s mail order course.
Three courses three approaches no standard definitions or solutions.
And that’s the problem… there is no general standard nomenclature, taxonomy, notation or recognised authority for this subject of ours.
While Memory systems are veyr much like music or mathematics or language grammars - we have not yet been able to agree on standard terms or approaches or even definitions:
Fact: we do not have a standard notation, measurement criteria or difficulty ratings or - even one standard model for approach.
I think that we are at present about five hundred years behind music, three hundred years behind mathematics and several hundred years behind languages. I mean by that if I open any piano music book it is written in standard musical notation, key signatures, grand staff, standard clefs, time signatures and a standard pitch - you can write anything down using these standard terms and notations – Same with any maths book it uses the conventions of number and then arithmetic then algebra, geometry, trig, single variable calculus, multi variable calculus, statistics, probability logarithms… all built on each other - it is now a big collection of standardised terms which anyone who knows the language of maths can follow.
We do not have that in memory.
Why?
Because we have can’t agree. And most people writing generally about memory are amateurs (myself included and yes Francis Yates too and Dominic O’Brian and Ron White - we are all amateurs when it comes to laying out a standard step by step vision of how to communicate with each other about ideas… )
There is no standard notation for ENCODING (Systems), STORING Systems) , RETRIEVAL )Systems) … so each course is different as each author advocates different takes like the Dominic System version of a PAO, the Ron White version - in fact most of the real serious work on memeory is the development of competitive systems - not one universal ‘method’. At present - that’s STILL up to you.
Hope that helps!
K
I feel I should mention Dr.Anthony Metivier’s free “Magnetic Memory” Course. Yes I dislike hyperbole as much as you do but along with his copious videos it has helped me a lot. For anyone interested in memory techniques it seems as good a place to start as any and better than some. He ‘scores’ well I think because he isn’t a Memory Champion but rather credits the Memory Palace technique with saving not only his academic ‘life’ but- at least I get the impression- also his actual physical life.
I thank you for that. I have found his '…“in just 30 days” book. I’ve read so much on the subject but I never get tired of it. It keeps on giving me new ideas and inspiration and motivation😀
P.s sorry for my English, sincerely. But I don’t see why you needed to add " I don’t understand your language" . Comprehension is quite a personal matter so I am surprised you have made such a remark in a friendly forum.
I’m only here to share and get inspired and I always have a smile when I’m here and I am hoping the same for you 
I have to admit i was surprised by that too…on a forum where my own appalling English; with its dire lack of grammar, its ‘as i speak’ punctuation, its Germanised syntax (In my defense i compose most of my posts mentally in German already) and ‘too old to be down with you crazy kids’ references to long dead Pop songs , is some of the better English here !
Cameri I have never had to read a post of yours twice - unlike many other posts here by non-native English speakers. There are some posters here whom I wish would post in their own language and then we could let Google take the strain!
I do apologise if you took any offence. What I wrote was in no way WHATSOEVER meant to reflect anything about your language only my understanding. I am a native English speaker and to me ‘I don’t understand’ in English means I don’t comprehend. It does not mean I do not understand because you have done something annoying or wrong. I added it because it seemed like the right thing to do in that situation - we were talking about Barbara Oakley editing a book about (well you know)…
Sorry again
K
Oh one I totally forgot about - Peter Vishton Scientific Secrets of a Powerful Memory
I’d say it was one of the most valuable resources I ever used when I was getting serious about memory techniques.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/scientific-secrets-for-a-powerful-memory.html
I really rate Peter Vishton, but here is is essentially outlining the concepts and the evidence (such as it is) of why they think certain techniques are good… Bit confusing for me I remember at first as it is in American English - I still don;t know what a “tator tot” is… and that looms large in one of his scenes.
K
Aerodynamics and Flight Dynamics helped me a lot pushing me to find a way to understand first and memorize then having few hours per day to study them…in some parts of my mental homes there are hypotheses everywhere…
I haven’t watched that one, but I like The Great Courses in general. (The audio lectures are less than USD $10 each on Audible.)
They are a kind of fried potato dish.
Ah! I do think I looked that up when I watched the original Peter Vishton video but… Had forgotten. Looks like what we call a potato croquette…
But.
Tatter Tot sounds to me as if of should mean what we call a “dummy tit”, and I believe US English calls a pacifier (little plastic whatsnane that you stuff into a toddler’s “gub” to stop it crying. Gub being a somewhat frowned upon alternative to mouth… )
oh. thank you. it’s ok for beginers
I did buy the book and I’ve just finished first read, there are some very instructive mental algorithms in here, I agree the book is “really good”. No complaints. Worth the price. And it is not just about numbers…
K
one of the great joys i get in life is going out of my way to help random people and (this is an exception) never mentioning it to anyone. The more you do it the more you realize the Buddhist concept of happiness as a candle that can lit others without extinguishing itself is correct.
I cant judge you on your skepticism as it is a part of social evolution, but i would suggest you try the opposite and see how that makes you feel. This way you can maintain your skepticism towards others, but be a positive force yourself.