Hi, I am new to this forum but have been quite curious about mnemonics for a while.
I would like to make a PAO and have attempted many times, but I always struggle with finding enough people for it. I guess I just don’t know of enough people to include! I have filled out the obvious numbers, but these are so few and then I get a bit lost with the rest. I am aware of and have used some lists of well-known people, which has been useful, but I need to actually picture these people in my mind, so just having their names is not enough. Any advice on what I could do?
As a second (related) question, I already have my major system. Would it be best to use those for the objects in the PAO or should I be using the objects related to the people? E.g. with Simon Cowell for the number 07, should I use a buzzer (related to the person) or a SoCK (that I already have from the major)? If I use something related to the person, then I think I will run into some conflicts where the image is a major system one, like “money” (32), but for a person of a very different number (e.g. HueLL (55) from breaking bad). What is recommended?
I brainstormed in categories in Excel when I made mine.
The categories I brainstormed in were.
Chess players
Twitch streamers / YouTubers
Hollywood Celebrities
Friends / Family in sub-categories (brothers friends, parents friends, sisters friends, girlfriends friends, college friends, comedy club friends, high school friends etc.)
TV show characters in sub-categories (first brainstormed TV shows I watched then selected characters)
I need a lot more than 100 over time as my chess system uses a different person for each chess variation and I eventually intend over 1000.
Another strategy is just change around the vocalizations for the same people brainstorming several potential outlets. Ideally I would have put my brother as “BRother” or “SCott” but I needed to fill a different slot so in my system he is his college nickname “CoaCH”.
James Bonds is “SPy”. Stephen King is “MaiNe”. Captain Crunch is “SHiP”. If you stretch your access vocalization words you can use the people you choose.
I’m predominately a Dominic System user, although I do have both an unencoded and a Major System cast of 100 Characters too. I would personally not map my Persons objects themselves with the Major system’s code as I think it is rather unnecessary. The Buzzer or better still (Golden Buzzer) is a perfect image for Simon Cowell. His action connected to his Object the “Golden Buzzer” is pressing it. What numbers in the Major System are you battling with. If you name some I’m sure people on this forum will offer you some assistance in fleshing it out. I mention too that there is a link on google famous people initials which would make your exercise a lot easier for you. Please see below:
Note: There is more than one method to use using the Major System. The one I’ve chosen is first name only. The People initials sorter above works on first name and surname so if you put SC in the search function, Simon Cowell is bound to be on the list generated.
I posted some thoughts about the second part of your question a short while back.
To get the most out of a PAO, you shouldn’t be picturing all of the elements in a single image when learning it. You should isolate each element and work on mentally linking it to its number on its own. Because of this, you don’t have to have an action or object that directly ties to the person, since you shouldnt be picturing it like that anyway.
I’ve found a lot of success basing all of the elements of the PAO on a single system (major for me, but you can use anything)
Example:
11 person TeD
11 object ToaD
11 action TooT
11 adjective DeaD
11 location TaTToo parlor
None of these things relate naturally to “Ted” (Father Ted for me), but they all relate to “11” via major sounds. This link is much more important, because you’ll need to quickly picture 11 as all of these different elements at different times depending on where 11 appears in a sequence. If your recall depends on linking back to the person first for everything and THEN figuring out the other element, it will slow you down and create unneccessary confusion.
The people element to the PAO is definitely tricky. Its the one that I spent the most time in creation and revising too. Used a mix of celebs, fictional characters, and personal aquaintences. I went with Major, and was able to find matches for all the elements of each number that didnt use any extraneous consonant sounds and were’t too similar to each other. Took quite a while, but I’m really happy with the clarity of the images it generates.
Great answer! I personally don’t use the Major System as much as I do the Dominic System and I prefer having a Major System encoding as both a first name and a surname so Tina Turner for 11 for me and not Ted. That said, the point you make about speed would undoubtedly be true because you list of people would contain far less syllables than a first name/surname list would. Still, I prefer my image of: ‘Tina Turner - Tattooing - Tit’ (PAO) as opposed to ‘Ted - Tooting - Toad’. That being said, your system has the advantage of putting in far more numbers at each loci as you have expanded your PAO to also include both ‘adjectives’ and ‘locations’ to, making it possible to store 10 numbers at each loci as opposed to the standard 6 numbers. But like anything its all a question of choice and its nice to be presented with additional options such as you’ve presented with your system. Thank you for sharing.
Always love seeing what other people come up with for words. Its like a glimpse into what influences stuck with them, their sense of humor, etc…
Adjectives has worked really well to add an extra piece of data compression.
The “location” aspect was one I added specifically for memorizing the red-black binary order of a deck of cards. By placing it first in the sequence, it sets the scenery, atmosphere, sometimes even the clothing or situation that the “people” are in for the image.
In my binary sequence (card colors) approach, I encode two sets of three cards per element, so the first 6 cards give the location, next 6 give a person, next 6 an action, next 12 give an “adjective/object” (like a DeaD DiNo, or a SaSSy MooN), then the last 18 give a traditional PAO.
So, with a structure of “at [location], [person1] does [action1] to/with [person2]'s [adjective][object1] while [person3] does [action2] to/with [object2]” I can memorize a 54 card color sequence (full deck, plus jokers) in a single mental scene. I can consistently hit just under 30 seconds for memorization time doing it this way, which I NEVER thought possible before I started learning Major/PAO stuff.
I solve the problem of sequencing a deck of cards in its red/black sequence the same way I do my binary numbers sequences. Using a Dominic PAO and three binary numbers representing a single letter, I can correctly recall 18 cards per Loci. As an example: 6D, 10S, KC, 3H, 4H, AC, JH, QS, 2D, 8D, 9C, 10H, 2S, 5S, 7C, 6C, AH, KS translates into: (Red-Black-Black)-(Red-Red-Black)-(Red-Black-Red)-(Red-Black-Red)-(Black-Black-Black)-(Black-Red-Black). I always picture Red cards as “Zeros” and Black cards “Ones”. Therefore my card sequence in binary translates to: (011)-(001)-(010)-(010)-(111)-(101). In Dominic number code: 31-22-75. So the image I place at my first loci is: CA-BB-GE or Captain America (Person) - Chomping (Action of Bugs Bunny) - a Rugby Ball (Object of Gareth Edwards).
The picture below provides a further example for a sequence of 108 playing cards:
I also had trouble envisioning people whose names I know but without a lot of visuals. I also have trouble with seeing faces in my mind, so if I used something like presidents, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, etc.
So my system doesn’t use initials or anything, it’s just purely a list of 110 people. And there has to be something distinct about their body. So I used sports figures where their uniform is distinctive. Musicians that wore something unique. Things like that. I made groups of 10. Maybe this would help.
0-9: Superheroes. Captain America, Iron Man
10-19: Sports. Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali
11-19: Musicians. Slash, Weird Al
20-29: Disney Characters. Captain Hook, Elsa
30-39: Pixar. Sully, WALL-E
40-49: Movie. Indiana Jones, Obi-Wan
50-59: Cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Perry the Platypus
60-69: Jobs. Policeman, Farmer
70-79: Political. Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill
80-89: Historical. Cleopatra, Vincent Van Gogh
90-99: Fantasy. Santa Claus, Vampire
They all have distinctive enough bodies or uniforms that I can tell who they are in my images right away.
