For this update I extracted some statistics of anki and my excel inventory of memory palaces.
Themes
History/Georgraphy: 3 memory palaces, with 1125 loci in total, + 20 anki cards with maps (not in memory palaces, like placing Carthage on a map, tracing the limits of the Roman empire at its peak, etc.)
This History Memory Palace project is (relatively) new. My memory palace for dates is still growing (I’ve finished the memory palace for all BC dates but I’m missing loci for the period between 1952 and 1 AD).
I really like how it’s turning out. Having a framework with dates gives me a lot of “hooks”, not only for studying history, but also useful for general knowledge – isolated facts/trivia I come across but aren’t a part of a subject I’m systematically studying.
For example, I read an article about how “fatbergs” block sewers and can cause floodings, so I added “2015: The term “fatberg” is added to the Oxford English Dictionary”. The exact date isn’t important in itself, but it gives a hook so that the idea isn’t just floating aimlessly in my mind (and gets forgotten quickly). It means that every time I review “2015” I’ll remember what fatbergs are and at which point they became a problem common enough to get into the dictionary.
Bible/Ancient literature/Poetry: 17 memory palaces, with 695 loci in total. 155 loci for verbatim, the rest are chapter/paragraph summaries + 20 anki cards (not in memory palace) with cultural notes or illustrations (like teraphim – what are they, what did they look like, which religions used them)
Science: 2 memory palaces, with 156 loci, + 192 anki cards (not in memory palaces)
I’m deliberately limiting the number of palaces and anki cards I create because I don’t want to drown in reviews. Memory palaces are useful for the basics that you need to know and review (like the periodic table), but otherwise I prefer anki cards (SRS) with “why/how-questions” that test not only facts, but why these facts are important to know and how they influence each other.
I also began a Human Body project, inspired by the anime Cells at Work and this thread:A truly epic mnemonic system build for human proteins - General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum. I’ve just started and I’m not quite sure what “the final product” is going to be. I’m reading the MSD Manual (consumer version) and Wikipedia on a theme, then I chat with Gemini (which I suppose is like the Feynman technique) to perfect my stories/metaphors/mnemonics, and finally I redact a “zettel” (note) for each cell/organ/hormone/”question” (like what happens when the body doesn’t have enough water, what can go wrong during a blood transfusion, what makes you feel hungry…).
These zettel/notes are all in Obsidian - I like the graph view showing how all the notes are connected, but I’m not sure if it’s useful or a nice distraction. For now, I don’t bother to formally review anything, because I feel that after having built the stories and characters (and drawn some illustrations) I pretty much already know them without formal memorization, and since everything is interconnected “reviews” happen naturally.
Languages: not much to say, I have my systems and routines and I stick to them.
Stats: I have 4 memory palaces, with 316 loci in total. But I’m not really using them (anymore): alphabet memory palaces are very useful, but short-lived (you don’t really need them anymore as soon as you’re reading fluently). For vocabulary, I did some memory palaces (both dispersed and linear), but they are all abandoned now. Soundalike mnemonics with SRS (anki) are more efficient.
And in any case, the aim is always to get to the level where I can just use the language in daily life (read, listen, watch, talk) instead of learning it. Meaning that ideally there wouldn’t be any memory palaces / cards to review at all.
Other statistics - types of memory palaces:
House memory palaces (indoors): 7 memory palaces, with 175 loci in total. Range: up to 50 loci.
I tend to use indoor locations for small to mid-size memory palaces (the biggest has 52 loci).
Street memory palaces (outside): 6 memory palaces, 1492 loci in total. Range: up to 1000 loci (or more).
Going out and walking around in a city is ideal if you need a big memory palace: you can potentially walk around forever and there are a huge diversity of things that can be used as loci.
Park memory palaces (outdoor, more natural spaces, a park, a short hiking trail, etc.). 8 memory palaces, with 621 in total. Range: up to 150 loci.
I like to be in nature, but I find it harder to place a lot of loci there (unlike in a more constructed environment), because loci are less distinct. You would think that a forest gives you lots of loci, because each tree can be one, but I don’t know trees well enough and after a while they’re all the same to me. Also things in nature change more quickly (flowers grow and wilt, streams and brooks change course, ponds dry, paths/trails get blocked and go different ways, etc.).
Artwork memory palaces (drawing, photographs, any object to manipulate): 18 memory palaces, with 165 loci in total. Range: up to 15-20 loci.
I love using artwork for memory palaces, but it’s only for small memory palaces (15-20 loci is the most I’m comfortable with). Should experiment more with lukasa-like memory palaces, I like the kinesthetic aspect of it.