I am trying to set up my PAO system. I already have Action and Object (at least first version) using the major system
For the Person, I was thinking about using Dominic. When I was doing this I realized that maybe it would be easier if using other letters instead of the original system. I used perplexity to get the list of top ten letter in name initials and obtained A, B, C, E, H, J, L, M, R, S
Before I plow through this and try to set my system like that. Is there any reason why doing this be problematic?
My first reaction is to wonder why you would like to have two different word-number conversion systems (major and Dominic) inside one system (PAO). It just seems to complicate things
Is there a reason you don’t want to use major for the people too?
I’m just saying it’s bad, not obligatorily, I just wonder…
The problem is that for names many people share same first name. For example: Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Connely would be the same: 6 2
You can modify that and use the first sound of first and last name but you end up on something that is not major anyway
Why use Jennifer at all? Just Connelly is already three digits, isn’t it?
(And you don’t have to limit yourself to celebrities with repeating names.)
Ahem … should have thought about that …
I would absolutely NOT recommend mixing these systems. You will have to actively be switching between translation mechanisms depending on the element type and your numbers will have different associations depending on positional context. This is the setup for a nightmare of hesitation and focus loss during encoding. Also, Major is sound-based, while Dominic is spelling/letter-based, so it is two very different thought processes to work with. The mental workload of actively having to consider and toggle between systems and number mappings will be significant. If you use one system for all element types, there is almost zero cognitive load for translation.
I would stay with Major and construct your people based on simple names. 00 suzy, 54 laura, etc. (You are using a 2-digit system, right?) Find your most familiar and unique person for each simple name fit and drill them so that you know that they are specifically that person. With a bare minimum of training, you will know that your number represents a specific JeN or MiKe or BoB. The idea that because there are many people with same first name it would cause confusion about which one your number represents is not a realistic concern.
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I use a dominic modified PAO system. If im understanding correctly I cant see the point in changing the association between letters and numbers. The point is the link between numbers and letters is intuitive. The typical dominic system is extremely intuitive:
0 - O
1 - A
2 - B
3 - C
4 - D
5 - E
6 - S
7 - G
8 - H
9 - N
00 - Ozzy Osbourne
18 - Adolf Hitler
94 - Nelson Dellis
And so on.
I wouldn’t recommend mixing the approaches for the same reason @TheHumanTim explained above, but in my case I unfortunately had to mix systems for my PAO.
When I first started with mnemonics I intended to use PAO only for memorizing cards as a hobby, but later on as I wanted to attempt my abilities in the other disciplines I had to expand it to 00-99.
My coach Nelson Dellis, at that time, advised me to reuse my playing card images into my number PAO.
Here’s where the mixture of systems kicks in:
My playing card PAO was loosely Major-based but primarily Category-based.
Clubs - Sports people
Hearts - Romantic/ Love characters/ Family members
Spades - Movie characters/ superheroes
Diamonds - Rich people
So the Ace of Clubs for me is Tiger Woods —> Ace = 1 = t/d sound in Major system), clubs is the sports category so Tiger Woods fits there well.
another example:
5 of Hearts is Lady Diana —> 5 = L-sound in major system, hearts is the romance/love category, therefore Lady Diana fits there… etc.
///
When I was expanding my PAO to cover the numbers 53-99, I used entirely Dominic-Based approach as this system led me to think of much more memorable people than the Major System:
56 (E.S.) - Edward Scissorhands
97 (N.G.) - Nana Gladwish (Bulgarian TV-host)
63 (S.C.) - Simon Cowell
etc…
The mixture of systems caused interference at the beginning but everything started to click after 5000-7000 Anki flashcard attempts and now my subvocalization is minimized, of course there’s always margin for improvement and I’m continuing to work on that.
All I want to say is that if you mix systems, it will be hard from the beginning as your brain will be encoding in two different systems but with time, and with enough consistency, this struggle will eventually dissapear.
Currently I’m in a process of expanding my PAO to 3-digits and a mixture of systems will happen again! —> I will be using my 2-digit Person / doing a 2-digit Action / with a 3-digit TIM System (Major-based) object (7 digits per locus, instead of 6 with normal PAO). Many people will argue that this approach is sub-optimal, but it’s the exact method other established athletes expanded their PAOs to a Millenium PAO.
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