If there is already a topic on this feel free to point me towards it, but I couldn’t find one with a cursory use of the search menu…
Why do you want to improve your memory? Are you looking for an edge in school, to compete, have some neat tricks at parties? I’ve been noticing a lot of different reasons as I surf through this site and I’m realizing that a lot of people in here are using memory enhancement in a way that suggests that their motivation is more than just for fun.
I’ll go first: I’m memorizing to get an edge in at school. I’ve always been smart enough to get by on raw talent but now that I’m being challenged for the first time in my life it has been really hard. Mnemonic techniques helps in two ways: I can remember material better and I feel more confident. Tying my physiology notes to the method of loci really felt good and getting my exam scores back afterwards felt great.
I read into improving memory because my poor memory frustrated me in my daily life. I’d forget birthdays, lose track of appointments and forget things I had learned.
Having read around the subject a lot, I really do feel I have gone ‘down the rabbit hole’ - what can be achieved has far surpassed my wildest dreams.
I’m now looking for ways to use memory to make me employable, to bring new life to otherwise tame subjects and, I have to be honest, to impress people.
Because I want to feed my personal ego that I can do that, and I feel really anxiously when I lose something, and I feel more secure when I have “something in my head, always with me”. So, theoretically, I’m addicted, introverted and self-oriented asshole…
And mental health, school, those are another reasons why I like this memory stuff. It changed my life, and I look at studying in a different way. Not “I have to”, but “I want to”. Also few people around me told me that, so it’s probably true.
I’m really looking forward for another answers. This topic is interesting.
I’m studying a course that’s primarily about memorisation, so studying the art of memory makes that easier and gives me the ability to excel. I don’t want to be content with getting by and doing averagely, I want to aim for the top, and by using mnemotechnics I feel like it gives me that edge.
I don’t want to just excel in academia, though, I want to push my memory to its limits. I genuinely want to see how far I can take this and how my ability to memorise and remember changes.
It’s fun, too. It makes boring stuff more interesting. Learning metabolic pathways isn’t a laborious chore of rote rote rote any more, it’s a fun challenge that stretches my creative muscles. Numbers aren’t just dimensionless and meaningless any more; they’re funny, bizarre, sexy, poignant, insert more adjectives here…
The topic is indeed interesting.
Personally, perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I do it is for the memory organ, the brain. I now see a brain as I would an animal. When I got into memorization, in 2006, I thought a brain was like a computer. I’m pretty sure now that I was wrong. Now that I think it’s like an animal, I know that I have to be its friend or at least try to. That means spending time with it and caring enough about it to try to understand it. Obviously, there are dividends for me personally in return. A few days ago, I was attending at a bird rescue volunteer appreciation day. There was a trivia question, “Which bird has now just been added to the list of species collected by flap?” Now the room was packed with 15-20 people all very knowledgeable about birds who had to know the answer but my memory prompted the correct answer out of my mouth spontaneously almost before the question ended, “Shrike!” and I won the prize. I can make my memory feel good by giving it attention and as you can see, my memory will be there for me as well to make me feel good sometimes. By the way, a SHRiKe victim is number 4 647 in my pegs. (Shrikes are predatory birds)
There are other reasons why I’m into this but I’ll leave it at that for now.
“what makes you wise its not what you learn ,but what you remember” ,memory its one of the best tools that we have in life ,remembering or not remembering can be crucial sometimes, and not remembering can destroy us psychologically or even physically ^^, (sometimes ) . and if i had the choice between good memory and 5000 $ ,i would choose memory ^^
To do someting else and thats good for me, than using drugs and doing nothing the whole day. And i want to memorize books, learn languages, math, geology, philosophy, etc. And it helps me to do it better on school. Learning now is fun and i have more trust i myself if i must learn someting. It is no problem no more…My brain health is to sometine important for me. I train my capibility to visualize, memorize, concentrate longer than a few minutes. Its make me very happy when im memorize books and medical terms. Its a hobby:)
