During my vacation I created a system that I imagined would allow me to translate numbers really fast using simple rules of pronounciation: New memory system for fast translation of numbers. I have been back at work for 2 days and since i am dealing with (item)numbers the entire day at my job, I imagined it would be a good idea to try to read all the (item) numbers the way my system prescribes. So when Iḿ unloading pallets with a forklift I read every 8 digit item number (more than 90 % are 8-digit numbers) that’s on every pallet and try to imagine all the objects that I have associated with the 2 digit sounds (4 objects per item number).
paradox
To make a long story short: I can’t do it. I can give all sorts of reasons like: not enough light, to small print, bumpy containers. It truly feels as though I just can’t see fhe numbers properly. But here’s the paradox: I can read the numbers in the traditional way in less than a second. For example:
item number 45393601
traditional way (in dutch): vijfenveertignegenendertigzesendertignuleen; (=43 caracters)
system: kas mag mab oi (=11 caracters).
When I have stepped of the forklift and take a (closer) look I can read it without any problem the system-way.
Does have anyone have an explanation for this paradox?
That’s referring to the loci in their memory palaces though (Virtual World)… not whether they could read what they were trying to memorize (Real World).
Are you trying to read the numbers as letters? I assume you are not that familiar with your new system yet then… how long would it take you to translate the actual number that you can read afterwards (as an alternative approach)?
If you read the digits as letters you’ll need much more practice than what you’ve had. Think back to first grade and sounding out consonants and vowels to form words. Then compare that to how many actual letters you’ve read in the last sentence… none, you’ve read the words whole.
when I get a good look translating the 8 digit number with my new system takes 1 second. To be completely honest it stil takes even less int he traditional way (i have mastered the internal mumbling of numbers because of years of practise in my job) despite it being 4 times longer in caracters.
The environment, the view angles, the movements, the people, the efforts at work, etc. + system: too much perhaps to start off. Like Bjoern says, I believe the same thing. I think back at when this happens to me. I am particularly sensitive with my techniques in different environment s at first.
I would start one letter at a time at work, even if you’re very advanced in other environments.
That’s another Great thing about this, it also teaches us about ourselves and often times it’s to surpass and even become our new selves
You make good points and still it feels lake a case of “imagined blindness” whereby sufferers are conviced they are blind, yet it can be proven that they can actually see.
I think there is , as far as our brains are concerned, little perceptual difference (the old conundrum about the man blind since birth being given the power of sight suddenly- would he be able to see?).
Any reason that you use number of characters as a KPI? Syllables maybe, but even those get slurred together… don’t forget that the 11 characters with your new system includes three pauses between words as well.
Out of curiosity, do you think you can read those numbers faster in English where it’s forty-five rather than five-and-forty in Dutch? It’s basically: two steps and one step back every time you need to say the unit digit before the tenth digit… theoretically, English should be faster because there is no backtracking.
It’s quite understandable. You have a highly trained, efficient reading process set up in your brain which works mostly on autopilot. When you try to read the numbers as letters you interrupt this with a deliberate process which requires thinking. Thinking is always slower than knowing.
I had the same problem when I first started learning the major system. I would encode any license plate I saw. At first I didn’t have enough time before the vehicle would drive away yet I noticed, like you, I could scoop up the numbers verbally in flash. It’s like learning a foreign language where you find yourself translating every word. Simply, it improves with practice and eventually the numbers seem to form a direct connection to the mnemonics just as happens when learning foreign vocab - after a while words no longer need translation, their meaning is immediate.
No, not all speaking numbers in English fast (even in my imagination) feels much more like a tongtwister than in Dutch despite the backwords Dutch method.
It does feel like a disadvantage with mental calculation. Luckily I 'm so bad at this, that the fact I’m not a world champion is not the result of being dutch
I don’t think it amounts to much if one is really familiar with the system. In the Mental Calculation section we have Dutch people and some are truly exceptional.
