Ouch, preorder on Amazon in my country is for 2020
Her first book is interesting, thanks for sharing with this one.
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Here in the US too. But it’s available now from a company called Book Depository in Australia, which ships internationally. My copy arrived within about three weeks.
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So glad I came across this thread. I will be picking up a copy too.
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yup I’ve seen, thanks! Importations is a pain I’ll see if I can buy it.
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Is it going to be made available on Kindle, or some other electronic format?
It seems previous editions were not.
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Thank you everyone. This is fascinating.
Memory Craft is on Kindle for Australia and New Zealand, but it won’t be elsewhere until the US edition comes out in Kindle. I know some people have been getting the Australian version using a VPN. I know no more about that other than it hides your location.
I’m not sure what you mean by previous editions, Kiluanji. This is the first edition and it is coming out on kindle. All editions of The Memory Code also came out on Kindle.
The audio edition is being recorded as I type. It should be out in a month or so.
I confess to not fully understanding how the publishing indicatory works. I find it very frustrating that the whole world can’t have it at once. I am sorry!
But I HUGELY appreciate the support from Josh and this forum.
Lynne
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I was confused. I thought the paperback I saw on Amazon was of a previous edition. Thanks for the clarifications.
Well, this thread convinced me to order “The Memory Code”, and how good that book was convinced me to order “Memory Craft”. The latter has not arrived yet, but I’m loving the prior so far.
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I just received my copy of Memory Craft here in Southern CA. It took a little over 2 weeks. I’ve done a quick read one and now going back to do a deep dive. I’m amazed at how much work Lynne has done. This is a an incredible book on the topic of memory.
I do have one question. When you are creating a journey like you did for your “history journey”, how do you remember all the locations? I could create a walk around my immediate neighborhood and would have no problem creating 100’s of locations. But how can I make sure that tomorrow I am using the same locations and not adding an additional one or forgetting one?
I have a 30 step journey for the downstairs of my home. It’s not exhaustive but it works for me. When I have to remember items in sequence I just mentally go through that list. If I had 100, 200 or more locations, how do I make sure that I’m not forgetting any of the locations?
Thanks
Randy
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I’m not trying to answer for Lynne, but I just finished memorizing the 233 U.N.-recognized countries/members. I used two techniques that might be helpful for you.
First, every fifth country includes a general population figure as part of the image. That way I’m able to say, roughly, where a country falls in terms of its population without having to recall a number for every single one. But that also means I have little packets of five countries each that I can review. If I encounter the next population image just four countries past the last “marker” (instead of five), then I know I skipped something in that last batch. So: Give every fifth/tenth/whatever image some kind of distinct marker, so you can keep track. If you find you’re regularly jumping over a location, either consider tweaking that location or adjusting the image to make it more memorable.
Second, it helps me to work in certain patterns. If my locations are in an office building, I will have three offices in a hallway or three on each side of that hallway, regardless of how many might be there in real life. Sometimes I’ll give different bedrooms the same furniture and make sure that, say, each dresser has three things on top of it and one thing on the floor underneath; that helps me keep track of whether or not I’ve remembered each item.
Finally, this may or may not help, but I tend to incorporate a story at different points in my memory palace. Most times, there’s no interaction between locations. But sometimes it’s just easier to create a story that ties information together logically within a single location. If all of your information has a logical flow from one thing to the next, it’s almost impossible to skip or overlook something. For example, in my “countries” list, set at the college I attended, there is a scene in the old campus hang-out/snack shop. It starts with someone brewing coffee (“Is the brew nigh?” Brunei). Smelling the fresh coffee, a woman wearing a “Bahama Mama” t-shirt (Bahamas) comes up to the counter and introduces herself: “My name’s Martinique. Like Martin. But unique.” (Martinique) Suddenly, Cher’s song “Believe” comes on the sound system, only this time it’s “Belize.” So Martinique starts dancing. She dances so energetically that a giant bucket of ice pours down on her from the ceiling to cool her off. (Iceland)
Bob
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Thanks Bob those are helpful tips i will be sure to include. I travel to Washington DC alot and work as a tour consultant when I’m there.
Should i map out a journey on paper and then attach the data Im learning or is it best to do that while actually walking around?
If i created a long story i could do it from home but im afraid i wouldn’t be accurate if i did it all from memory and the images wouldn’t be as powerful if that makes sense.
After reading all the messages I decided to order the book. Currently I’m reading Remember It! by Nelson Dellis. @RMBittner Thanks for sharing the techniques.
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For me, 100% accuracy in how my memory place reflects reality is not that important. It’s almost more about my emotional response. But I’m using places that made their strongest impressions on me 20-40+ years ago, and most are places I’ve never returned to (or don’t even exist any more). The problem with my approach is that I don’t really want to go back to explore these places in real life; I’m afraid the reality would conflict with the memories upon which I’ve based my memorizing.
If you’re visiting a location regularly that serves as a memory palace/journey for you, consider yourself blessed. I think that level of familiarity and frequency will allow you to have a more “living” experience of the information you store there (if that makes sense). My personal preference would be to create my journey while walking around. You’ll notice details in the world around you that would never occur to you if you were trying to create a journey from memory of a location alone. And you may see surprising connections you’d never see otherwise: Maybe you’re trying to learn all of the Greek and Roman gods when you suddenly have to step over a crack in the sidewalk. Maybe that crack resembles a lightning bolt thrown down by Zeus. Or maybe it was created by a lightning bolt when he was lashing out at one of his children. That kind of detail can bring action to your journey, which will only make it more memorable. Developing a memory palace at home, you’d likely never even register that there had been a crack in the sidewalk there.
To me, the only drawback to basing your journey on a location you visit regularly is that things will change over time. That white house will get painted blue. Someone will decide to tear down a whole block of buildings that were critical to your memorized information. And so on. Do you revise/update your journey to keep up with those changes? Or do you try to mentally “lock off” the version you originally memorized and stick with it as it once existed…which may be a challenge when what you’re imagining doesn’t match what your eyes are seeing?
I don’t know at this point if those questions will be addressed in Memory Craft or not (to bring this back to the thread subject!). But I’m guessing Lynne herself has a lot of experience with managing changes in her journeys, since she has been using memory journeys based on real-world walks for quite some time—and she’s storing a ton of information there (so I’d assume that even small changes in the real world could have big impacts).
Bob
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Hi Randy,
Thank you for such lovely comments. And welcome to this wonderful forum.
I approach different journeys in different ways. It depends if it is a continuous journey and I can add locations anywhere and whenever I want along the route. History works that way. If it is something discrete, like the Countries journey, then I do it differently.
For history, I first define the dates for the corners of the blocks and then divide that up. I remember the dates first. There are technically an infinite number of locations, so I need to attach fairly to something in the right place. For example, Mount Vesuvius erupts in 79 AD. I find that location and something there (within a metre or so of the location by time) and attach. Given I am using a real landscape of houses and fences and shops and streets … there is always something. In the case of Mount Vesuvius it is a tree. There are other trees, but I imagine that tree as the shape of a mountain and it is there. I do have a spreadsheet to note things down, but mostly I only add a few things at a time and ponder them.
If it is countries, I memorise them in population order. I have the list form Wikipedia and number the houses and shops, making each fifth location something other than a house or shop, to ensure I don’t lose any. Kuwait is a bush, Central African Republic is a driveway. There are four countries between each special location.
Plus I suspect that I do forget things!
Does that make sense?
Lynne
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I hadn’t read Bob’s answer before I replied to Randy. Bob’s answer is great! Every fifth being special really works. I also do the populations every fifth and not every country. Plus they change, so I round them off. I have a good idea of the population rather than the absolute number.
I also use stories, but not as much for countries as Bob does. Sometimes sorties suggest themselves to me for a few countries in a row and that will stick. I must admit that I mix up methods depending on what jumps timing or my mood or other random events. I also adjust to make the pattern of the journey fit. Some blocks have too many houses, some too few to be neat, so I ignore one or split one in two to make it all fit.
I might try your story idea more, Bob. I think that it would work really well.
I love the idea that countries come in batches!
I do plan things in advance and have a map or list with me. It is amazing what you notice when you are physically present that you will not know about from memory when you haven’t been taking a lot of notice.
I’d love to hear how it goes!
Bob: Yes, I have changes happening in memory palaces all the time. I don’t seem to have a problem. Sometimes I remember the original - especially palaces I have well memorised and don’t tend to visit. Otherwise, the change seems to add to the story. For example, one house which is in my 1000 digits of Pi journey was knocked down and a new one built. The 6 digits there translate to a drug addict with a treasure chest of cigarettes. So I just incorporated him into the saga of the demolition and new house. He caused the demolition. He hung around in the empty shell being built. And he is still smoking (he does have an entire chest of cigarettes) as he haunts the new owners. It all still worked.
Lynne
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Those are pretty similar to my feelings about books. But they are worse than cats. I have walls of them.
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I am happy! Today the book was in my mailbox!
This is perfect for the next days I am on vacation so I can read it…
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Lynne, I’m pretty sure I did it that way because I had read somewhere that you did it that way! 
Bob
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