When I began working on my memory techniques I read up on the Major System ---- I liked some things about it, but was overly concerned by some things I perceived as inconsistencies due to it being phonetic rather than orthographic — and for that reason I concluded it was incompatible with me.
I realize I can be stubborn at times and that (for that reason) I may have not given the Major System enough of a chance. Now, I am not now saying that I was wrong and that it is compatible with me — just that I may have been premature in coming to a conclusion otherwise.
Yes — I’m beginning this post with an apology (apologizing for being so stubborn) but trust me, if you read in, there’s an important question I’m getting to in this post as well.
So — what I did at the time is come up with an alternative – an alternative which is in many ways a variant of the Major System, only designed to be orthographic rather than phonetic (and in which the specifics of what consonant goes with what number is different).
Well ---- now that I realize I may have been hasty in dismissing the Major System, by most accounts, the logical thing would be to go back and give it a bit more of a chance ---- except for one little concern: What about all the numbers I’ve already memorized through the alternative I’ve been using?
Seriously — I could start from scratch with the digits of Pi — but I have phone numbers and other important numbers stored in my head encoded by my alternative to the Major System ---- and even some information on what wrenches I need to do repair work on a certain bicycle I’m working on repairing! Do I need to be concerned about my previously-memorized data getting corrupted should I try (and possibly switch to) the Major System? And if there is such a danger — is there anything I can do to protect myself from this?
You’ll likely remember that you used the different system on those things. If you really want to, you could replace those images with some major system images.
The major system just makes it very easy to create words. After a while, you don’t decode the numbers into consonants, you just go to the words automatically, it helped you originally create that list though.
Yes – been reading up on it — I create the list based on the consonants and – and then use either the linking method or the method of loci (for personal reasons I’m using the linking method) to aid in the process of it sinking in.
So ultimately, it’s not about the consonants but of the images themselves – so I wonder if that can help me over a certain hurdle I’m encountering. You see, there are a few two-digit combinations for which no word that I can think of is easy for me to come up with a way to visualize. Doesn’t matter whether I am using the traditional (phonetic) form of the Major System or an orthographic variant – no matter what, I find a few two-digit combinations for which no word that I can think of is visualizable for me.
So - if it’s ultimately about the images and not the consonants - and if I’m anyway going to use linking to aid in the memorization of the list — would it be okay if I fill those unresolvable spaces with aberrational words? I will know the numeric value of these aberrational words due to their relation on the list to other words that are not aberrational. (And it may be the only way I can get out of this quandry.) So I wonder – are there any traps if I apply this solution to the problem that I find myself unable to solve any other way?
Images don’t have to fit the key exactly, as long as you can remember the image for that number
Also, you can post the letters or consonants here and we could help you brainstorm ideas. Many people here have images based on similar letters and sounds, even if they are in different combinations.