I’m moving to Sao Paulo later this year. Its a massive city that i still dont know very well. I think it would be very useful to memorize (before moving) the subway map and the challenge for me is to figure out how to best structure the info into a palace or other method.
Its not just list of stations in a line, its interconected and colored…
Anyone already tackled this problem maybe for another city? How did you acomplished it?
i would do each line as its own memory palace, and have transfer stations designated as some sort of a “portal”, almost? Figure out how the lines are organized and numbered (north to south, east to west, inbound to outbound?) and standardize that. Like, that orange eleven line. if i wanted to remember the stops east to west, using my own home as a memory palace:
stop 1: my front door, Estudantes. I don’t speak portuguese but i do speak spanish and this reminds me of “students”. So maybe there’s a small (or large) high school class happening as i open the front door.
I walk by to my coat rack, locus #2. Mogi das Cruzes. No idea what this means (i mean, i kind of do, but for these purposes…) doesn’t matter. At the coat rack, Natsuki Mogi from initial D is riding a big cruise boat in circles. Never gonna forget that.
Locus #3, my mail table: Braz Cubas. for me, the image of a bra sitting on the table with a rubik’s cube on top of it immediately springs to mind. for folks who like their images a little more lizard-brain, maybe a victoria’s secret angel is doing a rubik’s cube. whatever.
locus #4: my recliner, Jundiapeba. There’s a calendar there, turned to the “June days”. Would probably have to figure out how to make this a little stickier, but you get the idea.
Locus #5: the coffee table. Suzano is a name i know, that’s a company that makes paper. so my friend susan is sitting on the coffee table, going through a huge stack of papers.
Locus #6: the television. I’d want to do something to indicate that this one (Calmon Viana) is a transfer, and the start of the blue line 12. I imagine John McEnroe on the television, losing a tennis match. He shouts “COME ON!” (Calmon) and trudges off court with his bag. Let’s say he’s walking to a mcdonalds. So then, my next locus in my house’s memory palace will be Poa. However, when i want to do the blue line, i’m going to use my local mcdonalds as the palace. And the first stop (Calmon Viana) will also be John McEnroe walking from a tennis court to the front door, and then stop 2 (Aracare) will be in the mcdonalds, and i’ll build it out from there.
