Having a good memory in Professional Life / Work Environment

General Memory Chat
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Hello Everybody,

I have a general question for people regarding using memory techniques in professional life.

My ex-boss had an amazing memory. He could remember even the minute details in every report that he read, even he could remember the complex mathematical formulas he learned in university back in 15 years ago.

He had a very interesting general knowledge almost about any topic, he could quote from major writers perfectly, he could remember techtonic plates, he could remember wars (with excellent details, years, weapons used, war tactics etc.) I couldn’t understand how he could do that but it seems he is unable to forget once he sees, reads, hears something.

Once I asked him how on earth he can remember the ingredients of a particular food in Brazil (and he never travelled to Brazil in his life) and he said “I had a Brazilian friend, once he told me how to cook it”. That’s it, he recorded it into his long-term memory.

Later I’ve learned that he was a country champion in one of the knowledge contest and several others.

With this ability he was effortless in his career. I have never seen him taking any notes (but later he can remember every point discussed in the meeting) he never forgets a name, he can recall statistics about industries, financial statements of the companies, growth figures of the countries etc.

I asked him how he could do this and he said “I have been like this since my childhood, when I learn something it immediately creates a shape in my mind and that shape is linked to something I already know. It is like a spider web constantly growing” (I don’t know if there is a mnemonics technique similar to this)

I admired his ability and tried to understand how he can do all of these amazing stuff. I can see that a lot of memory experts can memorize vast amount of data, but there are specific techniques for each activity (card reading, memorising lists, name-face memorization etc.) would it be possible to have a skill like my ex-boss using these skills?

How can you “naturally” grasp vast amount of data seeming effortlessly? This is something that would skyrocket ones career I guess.

Perfect job for memorisation?
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Either he has extraordinary memory or he’s using mnemonics. The latter is much more probable.
If it’s the former, merely paying attention does a lot of work, he must be great at focusing.

Also it’s probable that he would often make up things or tell things even if he’s not sure he recalls them correctly to look good.

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Well at first I also thought he is making these things up, but after he started explaning the train routes within poland (he never visited poland, and I have no idea why he read that kind of info either) I googled it and he was 100% correct.

the amazing part is, he can recall this kind of information on the fly during business discussions, which gives the impression that this guy must have been the google itself.

I would really like to have this kind of powerful memory. I don’t think he is an autistic savant or sth like that, he was a normal functioning person, he was smart but I can’t say that he was smarter than anyone in the department.

What made him special is to recall what would normally considered as garbage info in special occasions where it becomes extremely important (for example he used poland train routes to explain what would be the optimal way to ship cement to western europe etc)

I believe only an antisocial person with no life (friends, family, girl friend etc.) would spend his time to memorise this kind of garbage info or he found out a method to capture vast amount of information on the fly to long term memory effortlessly.

Do you have any idea whether a normal person can use mnemonics in the daily life as a habit/routine to capture all kinds of trivial info effortlessly? I even doubt the memory champions memorise this kind of random info during the day

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You say in your profile that your memory is terrible.
This means that it is highly probably that you need the techniques we talk about on this site and forum.
Some people have an innate extremely good memory.
If you don’t, then it is best not to compare yourself too much with the exceptionally great.
It is better, imo, to compare yourself with what you were before.
See it a s a match with yourself.

The answer to this question is ‘yes’, but not with the techniques you read about for card deck and name-face memorizing. You see, these techniques are catered for the World Cup matches. The amount of time a person needs to remember the cards is a couple of minutes to maybe over an hour.
In other words, this has nothing to do with long term memory.

My advice. Focus on techniques for long term memory.
These include the memory palace or journey. The link system. The major system or other system for memorizing numbers.
Also; be prepared for a lot of repetition. Repetition is what moves the data from short term memory to long term memory.

Yes, this is possible. Forget about ‘effortlessly’ though. Especially in the beginning it might take some effort.

Start by learning the stuff from the getting started guide.
Then try to apply this in every day life.

Where would you like to start? What data, if memorized properly, would give you the mental boost and pleasure to continue on this path?

Also; do a search on this site. There is a lot of info about memorizing medical data, economic data, mathematical data, etc.

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Thanks Kinma,

A personal question to you: do you work in a corporate environment where you need factual info on various topics (geography, politics, history, economics, finance, engineering etc.) and to recall random facts whenever needed.

Especially if you do management consulting this type of long-term memory is I think one of the most important personal skills.

If you can recall a sectoral report you’ve read 3 years ago, you can impress your customers with the deep information you have on the topic (and in which my ex-boss was a wizard, reading reports and storing the facts was his hobby)

Maybe you’re right he is using the techniques that you’ve described (either he is aware of it or not)

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You can use specific techniques for each of these memorization areas, but you might want to try and develop a comprehensive technique that is less like a Swiss Army Knife and more like a switchblade.

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I do. I work at an investment bank. Having a great memory works wonders.
Also; being able to calculate difficult things in your mind - or just coming up with an accurate estimate - works well.

I do not use any of the more specialized techniques. For example; I do not use the Ben system, nor the Dominic system, nor do I have a PAO-system in place. I do think they are great though. I just do not need such an advanced system.

I use Major System for numbers. I have 00-09 and 1-100 prememorized. In other words, a 3 digit number I memorize on the fly. This is not the most efficient, but works great for me.

I sometimes read on this forum that people want to start with a 1000 or even a 2700 image system. This is great for world record card memorization. However, the amount of time needed to get this firmly working is staggering.

Start by associating things to one another. What line of work do you do and what kinds of things do you want to memorize?

I agree. It is better to have a couple of general techniques that always work.

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Great, I work in strategy and business development, I make research on markets, competitors, I use financial statements, macroeconomic data, research reports, analyst reports, demographic info etc. a lot.

Especially remembering sectoral data, business models, statistics, management theory type info is really what makes a person in my profession an outlier.

How do you memorize a 300 page M&A report? (I assume this is one of the things you do) Are you using loci?

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This stuff is easier to remember than you might think. See the rest of this post.

For that I don’t use loci. If I read a report I try to actively read it.
I try to link every bit of knowledge in a report to my own knowledge.
Everything that I find unexpected stands out (by virtue of the way I read) and everything that stands out I try to

remember.
Usually, because it stands out and because I have already tried to link it to my knowledge, I remember it for a

short time. If I then later think of all the things that stood out in a report, then they all come back.
I can then assess if I need to store the information long term.

Here are some examples of the way I memorize economic data:

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Ok it seems that you’re basically doing what my ex-boss described as “linking the images like a spider web” it doesn’t necessarily a specific tecnique but a way of conceptualize the topic with previously understood ones.