There’s so many sources, but I don’t know what to start with. I want a course or comprehensive system to teach me so I can go from A-Z, “zero to hero” with memory.
My goal is to develop a steel-trap memory so I can focus less time on retaining/committing to memory and more on using my knowledge and furthering my education and career.
Thank you!
Have you seen the how to learn memory techniques page yet? Check out the free ebook there along with the list of FAQs.
See also this page: What Are Some Good Memory Books to Read?
In my opinion there are many excellent memory books out there. Most of them cover the basic techniques like the method of loci and the major system. Add a card system and loooots of training and you have all you need to become world memory champion. I started with ‘Use your Memory’ by Tony Buzan. The book also provides additional information like when to take a break and how to use spaced repetition. I would still recommend it both for education/career and memory sports.
After you have mastered the basic techniques, you will probably go on to find your own systems. Every mind is unique. What works for you could be bad for another person and vice versa. Some people for example like to use landscapes from computer games as memory palaces. Others use anime as memory hooks, and so on. It also depends on what you are going to memorize. Mathematical terms probably need a slightly different approach than historical dates. You will have to try many things in order to find out what works best for you. I think this is something very individual that no single book or course can teach you. However, you can read more books and search this forum to find new ideas and techniques to test.
Please also keep in mind that a good memory can be quite specific. Once you have learned a thousand molecular formulas from organic chemistry, you will most likely have developed a steel-trap memory for organic molecular formulas. But you will still have to work on laws. And when you have memorized lots of molecular formulas and laws, you will have to start over again with chess positions.
Everybody is different, all these memory techniques are very tricky from the point of you, you have to figure out what works for you. It took me over 5 years of reading and not even using trying to figure out if those people who write those books are not joking… Josh’s book is the one that actually made me test the systems out to believe they were not jokes. But it still takes me time to warm up to them and find unique ways to adopt techniques to myself. Just pick any book or any recommendation and start using all recommendations at once as you read (small exercises) - see what your brain likes the best. Stick with this system temporarily and try to do a lot of research to see how people make this or that system more efficient. When you get tired of the one that you picked, chose the next one. I only use memory techniques for life and work - currently studying US tax code by heart for work. So it means, I skip anything relating to memorizing cards. So far I found nothing that works for me to memories faces and names. For example, most people remember faces so they need to figure out how to attach the names. I don’t remember either face or name… so no techniques helped me yet. Anyway - just start using whatever book/pdf you pick and stop looking for comprehensive course.
I would recommend Dominic O’Brien’s audio series, Quantum Memory Power. It’s available for purchase as an audiobook from Audible in the US and may be available elsewhere as well. (I don’t know where you’re based.) I’ve listened to this several times now and always pick up something new. To me, it comes very close to what you’re looking for.
In my experience, though, very very few books wholeheartedly embrace the “beginner to master” approach you’re looking for—which is odd, given how many dozens of memory books there are on the market. Most start with the basics, then spend the rest of the book showing how to apply those basics to a wide range of subjects/needs. (And thanks to smartphones and other technological advances introduced since many of these books were written, much of the content in that regard is irrelevant for modern life.)
For a comprehensive grounding in some of the basic memory techniques, I’d recommend Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas’s classic, The Memory Book. I would then go on to O’Brien’s How to Develop a Perfect Memory—although there are many great alternatives—and then Lynne Kelly’s Memory Craft. If you’re willing to use the audiobook and these three titles, you’ll have a very solid grounding in a wide range of memory techniques.
I’ll mention that Kelly’s book is one of the rare titles that starts at 0 and goes all the way to 11. To me, getting to “hero” means embracing memory palaces and their variations. Most memory books either ignore memory palaces completely (“The Memory Book”) or focus on them exclusively (a raft of poorly written, self-published memory books on Amazon). Kelly presents them in the way that makes the most sense to me: the logical approach for the long-term storage of information.
Bob