What’s the most useful thing you’ve memorized using memory techniques and now make use of regularly? Has it had a positive impact on your life in some way? What motivated you to memorize it to begin with?
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memory snapshots for differential diagnosis. otherwise some of the less common things tend to slip through the cracks as its hard to think of everything for each symptom
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What is a memory snapshot?
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Instead of a palace I just use like a mental picture of one location I can visualize all at once. Like a bathroom or corner of a room. But instead of a palace I can view all of the place from mentally standing in one place
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Interesting. I use the same method but for drugs ( posology , indication, admnistration ) . Could you detail it a little more ?
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1.Take a place like your desk
2. conjure up a central image that reminds you of the drug name
3. place its MOA in a creative image in front of or in the middle of the drug name image
4. then I come up with images or actions being performed on or by the drug around it (side effects, usage, etc)
thats the most basic for a drug snapshot, I do not place everything just the most important usages and side effects to know
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Account numbers. I’ve saved hours of time by not looking these up.
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I haven’t memorized too much yet so I will likely have a different answer when I have. But so far memorizing the US amendments (Not done yet though). Is the most useful thing. Have them creep into my head during any related moment, and such has come in handy on occasion.
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I started to use memory techniques just in time before an important exam for work (law-related). When I passed the exam, it was proof to me that the memory techniques work and I started to train on a regular basis. I’ve memorized a few laws and the Swiss Constitution, this helps me a lot for work.
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same thing it helps greatly its easy to doubt things with so much BAD information and FALSE self help books out there but the memory techniques are tried and true. Otherwise why would we be out here advertising them on a forum. We dont get paid to do it, its just for the betterment of society since people general are BAD at memorizing
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The most useful thing I’ve memorized is vocabulary for foreign languages. It’s definitely had a positive impact on my life because it’s allowed me to get further with less time, so I can allocate time toward other things. As for the motivation, learning languages has always been an interest of mine.
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Probably Harry Lorayne’s phonetic alphabet (1 =T/D, 2 = 2, 3 = M. etc), although I’m not sure how much he actually invented it or just started marketing it as his. I think I read somewhere that some psychiatrist (or doctor or professor or whatever) had a similar system first. In any case I’ve used that as a basis for a ton of mental hooks for things, most notably suits and numbers for playing cards (52, standard deck) and also a 0099 system, but neither system is fully complete yet. Regardless, practicing what I’ve created so far has been insanely good for strengthening my memory.
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Newbie here. Dumb question but what does MOA stand for?
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Might mean Mechanism of Action with regards to pharmaceuticals.
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Isn’t that the Major system? It looks identical from what you wrote.
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The most useful thing for me is a system of To Do lists. I use them all the time.
In the past I was glued to a To Do app on my phone but it wasn’t much use when I had ideas in the shower.
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To be clear, I don’t believe Lorayne ever claimed to have created this system—which is, indeed, the Major system. But, at least as far as The Memory Book is concerned, he also never identified it as the Major system or clarified its origins (such as they can be clarified, since there seems to be significant confusion about the who/when/why of how Major developed). It’s understandable that someone might assume it was Lorayne’s own creation.
In The Memory Book, Lorayne explained the rationale for the consonant/number associations by drawing connections between the shapes of the numbers and the shapes of the consonant sounds associated with them. (He may be entirely correct about that. I don’t know.) As a result, one research study I read incorrectly referred to Major as “Lorayne’s ‘Figure’ system.”
Bob
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I believe the Major System has been around since the Middle Ages
edit:
" Pierre Hérigone (1580–1643) was a French mathematician and astronomer and devised the earliest version of the major system. The major system was further developed by Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein 300 years ago. It was later elaborated upon by other users. In 1730, Richard Grey set forth a complicated system that used both consonants and vowels to represent the digits. In 1808 Gregor von Feinaigle introduced the improvement of representing the digits by consonant sounds (but reversed the values of 8 and 9 compared to those listed above)."
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There is more history over here:
I wouldn’t be surprised if number-image mnemonics have been used since the invention of number systems. There was no paper, writing systems were originally based on pictures, and humans are resourceful. 
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I do want to point out that this Wikipedia entry provides no footnotes or resource attribution whatsoever for this specific information. For something about which so little seems to be definitely known, I would take this information with a grain of salt until there are solid sources that can verify it. I think it’s notable that it entirely skirts the question of why it’s even called the Major system; some memory authors have devoted paragraphs to explaining who the “Major” was who played a role in the system’s development.
Bizarrely, some of this Wikipedia’s entry uses as a source the blog portion of this Web site concerning certain aspects of Major…and yet that Art of Memory blog post is itself linking to that Wikipedia page as a source!
I’m not one of those people who dismisses Wikipedia as a solid resource. I believe in it and support it financially. But as a crowd-sourced compendium, it’s especially important that what are presented as facts truly are facts, supported by as many resource citations as possible.
All that to say: It may be right in this case. Or it may be wrong.
Bob
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