Hello, I’ve been using memory techniques, learning about them, and experimenting for nearly four months now. Now, I want to ask what might seem like a funny and simple question, but because I’m not entirely sure of the answer myself, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
In what situations is the memory palace technique truly beneficial for us? What is this technique at its core, and what should one’s expectations realistically be? I know that after four months of researching and learning about this topic, I probably ought to already know the answer, but please bear with me—I’m wondering if there is something fundamental I’m missing or misunderstanding. Thank you
In what ever way you want it to be. No one is telling you to use it, but if you like it and it’s fun to you then you should use it on everything. It’s just a way of thinking using locations. I’m using it now to try to learn the names of one of my favourite sports Teams. And also talking to you. 
But the underlying question you raise is extremely broad and I don’t want to try to discourage discussion by my slightly simplistic answer. At its core it’s a way of using spatial memory as a means to more easily think.
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Memory techniques are good for making information easy to retrieve mentally.
Anytime you need to “think” of an answer, a memory technique might be of value. My thoughts.
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I think it’s when …
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The information is frighteningly abstract with few existing connections to other things. Perhaps like strange new characters in a new language to you, or similar places where it feels hard to even get started.
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The information is very valuable to know in itself and sets the foundation for a lot of other things. (Like numbers of the elements in the periodic table: they mean something later on.)
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The information is part of a pool large enough to not be likely to be learned “organically” without these methods. Such as all the countries + capitals in the world, in alphabetical order.
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Great list!
I’ll add: any information which has to be recall in order (most often verbatim text).
Like if you learn a poem, a talk you’ll give, or lines for a play. You probably don’t want to be switching lines/paragraphs.
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