Building a Memory Palace - ProductivityCast

Building a Memory Palace

In this week’s episode, Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art explain the concept of building a memory palace (a/k/a Method of Loci, or Journey Method) and then discuss its veracity in work and personal life, and some productive uses of the memory palace for someone starting out.

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In this Cast | Building a Memory Palace

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Art Gelwicks

Francis Wade

Show Notes | Building a Memory Palace

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

Method of loci

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).

Download a PDF of raw, text transcript of the interview here.

  1. Art used the example of memorizing the Gettysburg Address. Here is where the “Memory Palace” or “places” or “loci” helps over trying to memorize word-by-word.

    What happens when you have a memory lapse and forget the next word? When one word is the trigger for the next, when you forget a word, you’re sunk. With this memory technique, you just continue with the story in your mind. You make one mistake but you receiver and continue.

  2. Arts comment about being able to pull a piece of information out of the middle instead of information in sequence is right on. That’s what attracted me to this memory technique.

    Francis brought up setting words to music to help remember the words. Here is a prime example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDrGnjacvA Start listed at O:45.
    True story…in 11th grade American History, we had a test where we had to list the 50 United States. Well, the choir was learning “Fifty Nifty United States.” Some people felt the choir kids were “cheating” since they could just sing the song in their heads and easily list the states!

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