The Art of Manliness - #546： How to Get a Memory Like a Steel Trap

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast have you ever

00:00:11.700 walked into a room to get something only to forget why you walked into that room in the first place

00:00:15.720 do you constantly forget where you parked your car in a parking garage or do you have trouble

00:00:19.740 remembering people's names well after today's episode you'll be well on your way to never

00:00:23.740 forgetting these things again because my guest today is champion memory athlete nelson dellis

00:00:28.420 he's got plenty of advice on how to improve your own memory even if you think yours stinks nelson is

00:00:33.000 the author of the book remember it and we begin our show discussing the world of memory competitions

00:00:37.240 how nelson got involved with them and what records he's notched so far nelson then corrects a couple

00:00:42.340 common myths people have about memory and makes the case for why you ought to care about improving

00:00:46.580 your own he shares the overarching system he recommends to improve your ability to retain

00:00:50.720 information and how to use it to remember where you parked your car people's names and the items

00:00:54.800 on your to-do list nelson also explains the reason we forget what we walked into a certain room to

00:00:59.260 get and what to do if that happens to you he then walks us through how walking through a memory palace

00:01:03.720 can help you remember lists speeches and more plenty of action ready easy to remember tips in the show

00:01:09.100 after it's over check out our show notes at aom.is remember it nelson joins me now via clearcast.io

00:01:15.460 nelson delis welcome to the show hey thanks for having me so you are a memory athlete you're a

00:01:35.440 grandmaster of memory and you've won several usa memory championships all right so for those who

00:01:41.880 aren't familiar with what a memory athlete is what is a memory athlete a memory athlete is someone who

00:01:49.860 memorizes competitively and then the next question is what are these competitions like is it the game

00:01:56.600 of memory you know where you're flipping over cards that's what most people think it is and trying to

00:02:00.460 match them but no it's it's a bunch of different memory tests across a day or a number of days depending

00:02:07.400 on the format and it tests numbers cards names lists of words whatever you can think of we probably

00:02:14.460 have a an event based around that and how did you get involved in this was this something like when

00:02:19.380 you were a kid you were like i love memorizing or you sort of fell into it by accident no not at all

00:02:25.500 you know people ask me this about my past like first when did you discover that you had this gift and

00:02:30.860 i'm the first to correct them that you know this is something i learned about 10 years ago and then

00:02:36.400 the next question is well you must have had some you know inkling that you were good at memory when

00:02:41.580 you were younger and the short of it the true answer is not really i had an affinity for certain

00:02:46.140 things like any kid might do and i probably could memorize something that i really cared about back

00:02:51.900 then but in general i'd say my memory was pretty subpar or average and then yeah over the years once i

00:02:59.500 discovered this stuff um it just lit like kerosene and and took over my life well in in the book you

00:03:06.960 wrote remember it where you talk about you know memory techniques talk about how your grandma getting

00:03:10.640 alzheimer's also played somewhat of a little bit of a role in you getting into this stuff totally yeah i

00:03:14.980 mean that's that's what kind of put memory on my my map at the time just because she was struggling

00:03:21.320 with alzheimer's and eventually it took her life and you know i was sitting there i'd never lost

00:03:26.800 anybody close to me in my family or in my life really yet and so that really hit me and it made

00:03:33.280 me question myself and and what being having a healthy memory or a good memory was and if there

00:03:39.060 was anything i could do now to change that and that kind of led me down the rabbit hole of these

00:03:44.420 championships and the techniques behind the the championship winners and so what are some of the

00:03:50.260 you hold several records world records for memory what are some of those feats that you've done

00:03:54.960 yeah i mean listen the sport's always changing like any other sport so i've had records and then

00:04:00.880 lost them and earned them back and then lost them again and so i i currently have two u.s records i

00:04:07.900 believe one of them's a world national record but the the one i'm super proud of is memorizing the most

00:04:15.000 names in 15 minutes which is 235 names and then i believe the other one is also names uh i think it's

00:04:23.300 like 125 international names which is a big difference than the 235 but you got to see

00:04:30.120 these names that show up in international competitions it's like combining chinese first

00:04:35.420 names with really long indian last names it's it's from all over the world so they're really difficult

00:04:40.940 so let's talk about memory i mean why should regular folks you know who don't plan on memorizing you

00:04:47.620 know thousands of digits of pi why should they you know work on their memory what do they stand

00:04:52.560 to benefit to doing that yeah it's a great question and i had a an event last night where somebody asked

00:04:57.700 me like why even why do we need it at all if we have instant access to all the information we need

00:05:03.740 right that's a fair question but you know what kind of gets it for me is that i'm using my brain

00:05:10.900 daily and because of that i'm able to make it stronger sharper you know so if if i am in a

00:05:17.440 situation where i need to use my brain which is all day long i can be very confident in its performance

00:05:24.260 and i know how to use it i'm very i'm able to control what's staying in my mind what's coming

00:05:30.820 in and out of it how i use it how i access it and that's a really empowering feeling and i don't know

00:05:35.980 if people these days have that feeling anymore it's kind of like a fake sense of of control

00:05:42.500 because you think that because you have information at your fingertips that you have a master of

00:05:46.960 anything you want and i guess there is a bit of truth to that but deep down it's it's you have zero

00:05:53.820 control or less and less control the more you rely on these devices and wikipedia and google and stuff so

00:06:00.340 there's that argument and then there's also the the health side of things you know if you're not

00:06:05.540 using your brain it's becoming you know it's it's wasting away right if if you're injured you break

00:06:12.600 your leg and you're in a in a chair for a long time because you can't uh you gotta rest it you

00:06:17.860 see that leg atrophies right it loses all its muscle it looks really thin and weird and you know

00:06:23.560 if you don't use your brain it's the same kind of thing you forget how to memorize well so no i like

00:06:30.620 that so we maybe this will probably come up later uh but we a few weeks ago we had a a guest on the

00:06:35.820 show she wrote a book about navigation okay and like relying on gps is sort of atrophying our brain

00:06:41.660 yeah and i think we'll talk about this because uh navigation and memory are innately connected in

00:06:46.940 fact some of the memory techniques rely on us sort of going on a journey in our brain yeah yeah i told

00:06:54.360 this story a few times uh this year because it it really stuck with me is my wife lives in upstate

00:07:00.040 new york and i'm from miami so i know miami very well in terms of directions and where everything is

00:07:05.580 laid out but upstate new york i've had to learn over the years as we visited you know her parents

00:07:10.160 and family and it one of the most recent times we visited you know i was like listen i still don't

00:07:15.840 know how to get from point a to point b these very common routes we take to go to the gym or to the

00:07:21.120 town and i always just put in my phone you know and follow it but that doesn't help me because i

00:07:25.780 don't know anything about where i am where things are related to each other so that one time i was

00:07:30.960 like you know i'm just gonna wing it i'm gonna figure it out if i get lost i get lost but you know

00:07:35.480 what the struggle is gonna help me remember you know those mistakes will help me remember if i make

00:07:40.940 any and sure enough i found my way home it wasn't easy but my brain figured it out and because of

00:07:48.100 that i remember now how to get from point a to point b you know and just that act of struggling

00:07:53.440 through it and really trying to situate myself you know and try to understand the layout in my mind

00:07:58.460 did wonders for my brain it was incredible let's talk about some of the myths people have about

00:08:03.040 memory and i think you mentioned one in the introduction where people assume the reason

00:08:07.620 you're good at this stuff is because you have some sort of innate gift like you're born with a good

00:08:11.160 memory yeah and that sounds like it's not true yeah and i think that's in general over

00:08:15.840 all of humans i don't think having an incredible memory is is something that really exists like you

00:08:22.160 hear people talk about photographic memories people are just born with it i've never met anybody like

00:08:27.080 that sure there are some cases you know autistic people at or people with aspergers who have you

00:08:33.360 know who are capable of solely one task and they're extraordinarily well at that task and it has to do

00:08:38.360 with memory that's a special case but the majority of people you know we all have the same memory

00:08:43.900 we're all given the same tools and it's how you work on those skills you know that sets you apart

00:08:49.960 in terms of your memory skills it's not innate are there any other myths about memory that people

00:08:54.600 have yeah yeah i mean another one and this is kind of related but people think that if they have a bad

00:09:01.520 memory that's just what they're stuck with right that their memory can't change and that's totally false

00:09:07.020 it's something you can work on no matter how bad any of your listeners think that your their memory is

00:09:13.300 you can use these techniques and become a champion even if you if you really wanted to all right let's

00:09:19.180 talk about some tips on how to improve our memory and some some of the broad general tips you give in

00:09:24.400 your book remember it is first thing you gotta do is like you gotta trust your memory yeah why why is

00:09:29.420 that important to trust your memory how does that help yeah because i think one of the the biggest

00:09:33.460 killers of uh being able to have a good memory is when you doubt yourself um or if you believe that you

00:09:40.460 have this bad memory and most people do unfortunately so often when i go in to give a speech or some

00:09:45.800 seminar i try to really show people that first of all they can do this and secondly that their memory

00:09:52.140 is just as good as anybody else's that it's not bad people get stuck in this you know acceptance of

00:09:58.740 yeah i have a bad memory that's just me you know bad memory mcgee whatever but that's that's not the

00:10:04.840 case and you know people have to get out of that and just go for it give it give your memory a shot

00:10:10.780 and just trust in it and i found that the best kind of performances in my memory and competitions that

00:10:16.440 have happened were when i totally believed and trusted in my memory and kind of went for it and

00:10:22.220 it's the craziest thing because you almost feel like you're not memorizing you're just kind of going

00:10:26.840 and you're in that flow zone in a way and and i was able to memorize you know one of my fastest times

00:10:32.780 or the most of digits or names that i've memorized because of that trust so there's different techniques

00:10:38.260 you talk about in the book but all of them have this overarching system involved and it's c link go

00:10:44.180 so let's talk about the c part of this what are you talking about when you say c yeah so c means

00:10:50.680 basically see the thing that you're trying to memorize in your mind's eye basically turn it into

00:10:56.040 a picture because our brains remember pictures better and often the things that we're trying to

00:11:02.280 memorize are difficult to see if you if you look at them just for what they are right like a number

00:11:09.100 or a name right often they look very complicated or foreign or don't really have any meaning so

00:11:16.100 if you can see it and by seeing i really mean visualize it using all of your senses right try to

00:11:23.000 think of something that conjures up an image whether it's you know associative or you know it actually

00:11:30.260 conjures up an image try to picture an image for the thing rather than seeing the number or seeing

00:11:35.860 the actual letters of the word you know gotcha and so uh this is an important step because you can do

00:11:41.960 this with abstract ideas too are you talking about you know how can you see liberty or you can think of

00:11:47.340 the statue of liberty yeah so simple nouns right that you know and know what they look like that's easy

00:11:54.200 to visualize right but then there are different types of information that get harder so abstract

00:11:59.300 terms like liberty what would you picture well i can't really picture a liberty but i could maybe

00:12:05.240 picture the statue of liberty right so that's a natural association i might make and it's a very

00:12:11.100 tangible image i can create in my mind you know and i visited it when i was young so i can maybe tap

00:12:16.800 into that feeling i had being there with my dad and getting to the island and stuff like that and the

00:12:22.200 color right of the that that green right and then just maybe even feeling of new york right all these

00:12:30.140 kind of senses tap together with emotion that is the true essence of seeing and your brain loves that

00:12:36.660 it just gobbles that stuff up versus stuff that's very dry and hard to picture you know and what memory

00:12:44.220 becomes eventually is how do i encode that thing into a picture i can see and there are different

00:12:51.820 strategies for more complicated things like numbers and binary digits or cards yeah we can talk about

00:12:58.300 some of those things here in a bit but let's talk about that linking phase yeah and there's several

00:13:01.900 ways to link but like what does linking look like in its you know simplest form yeah so linking

00:13:07.020 uh in essence so i mean the idea of having a single picture right that you see is good but it's not

00:13:13.540 very good unless you kind of anchor it or link it to something that you already know and that's what

00:13:20.000 learning is that's how we learn you know if you've ever really thought about how you learn something

00:13:24.540 it's by association and by connecting it to something in your mind and and think about it i mean if our

00:13:31.740 brain is made up of all these connecting neurons right and somewhere deep down the most fundamental

00:13:37.280 neurons the the basic ones the the home-based ones that are responsible for the most simplest

00:13:43.640 pieces of knowledge that we know everything is built off of that right and and so something new that

00:13:49.320 you learn you're going to try to relate it to these well-established networks that you have and

00:13:54.940 and make it kind of a shortcut along these paths so that it's easier to access later because it's

00:14:01.220 all related and intertwined you know so in short the the quick and easy way is just there are different

00:14:08.080 strategies to to relate that new thing to some things that you already know and that all these steps

00:14:13.500 are kind of they're meshed together because kind of if you're associating it to something you already

00:14:18.340 know you're almost kind of already seeing it in a way too because you know if you hear the word

00:14:23.500 liberty right and i start seeing it i'm also kind of linking it in a way too gotcha and so that could

00:14:30.400 be like well you know when you learn someone's name you're trying to remember someone's name

00:14:34.320 you might link it to a a celebrity that like you're you know in your brain already so you picture the

00:14:40.680 celebrity and link that with the the person's name you just learned yeah exactly and and yeah and

00:14:48.080 the linking part also is responsible for how you access the information later so it's it's almost

00:14:53.440 equivalent to saying how am i going to store this information and there are different strategies to

00:14:58.140 go about that if you meet someone for example you might want to link the picture for their name

00:15:04.200 the thing that you're trying to memorize to something about them right and that's the thing that you

00:15:09.200 would notice every time you saw them right and that's the thing you know because you see that your brain

00:15:14.920 just tends to see that thing and notice it every time so attach that image or or locate it onto

00:15:22.900 this uh it would be located on that thing of that person's face okay we'll talk about some more

00:15:28.640 complex linking techniques here in a bit but let's talk about the go what does go mean yeah so go is

00:15:34.940 like the the final glue the the special sauce that kind of brings it all together you know if you come

00:15:40.740 up with a picture and you store it or you link it you're good to go for the most part but you really

00:15:45.980 want to go with it meaning really take it to the next level in terms of how you visualize all that

00:15:52.800 happening together that means make it weird make it bizarre make it go way over the top tap into those

00:15:59.920 emotions put some movement and action into that image and all that together should make that image

00:16:06.320 as sticky as hell in your mind so it's like if you're thinking if you're trying to link something

00:16:10.900 to pizza you know like don't just think of like a pizza emoji like you want to think of like an

00:16:15.240 actual pizza like heat waves coming off of it you can smell it or there might even be like a dead rat on

00:16:22.100 it right yeah yeah exactly the more you know think of all your senses think of all your emotions

00:16:27.280 and try to really hone in on on a few of those for that image right so the less static this picture is

00:16:35.340 the better and the more uncomfortable or disturbing hilarious that it is the more it's going to stick

00:16:43.180 well that's just you're taking advantage of how memory works like we remember stuff that stands out

00:16:48.260 like if you think back your childhood memories like the things you remember the most are the things that

00:16:52.980 were really bizarre and happened maybe once and like that that's how your memory works it remembers

00:16:58.160 things that are not that are different from everything else exactly yeah so this is essentially what

00:17:03.780 we're doing is we're trying to make everything that we memorize different and unique which is a

00:17:09.200 challenge sometime but we know that it works so we can try to emulate that every time we're given

00:17:15.080 some data that is crucial to remember we're gonna take a quick break for a word from our sponsors

00:17:19.940 and now back to the show so let's walk through some of the how the ceiling go works and some very

00:17:26.820 like you know remembering everyday things so like one thing you talk about in the book is

00:17:31.040 someone asks you to go do something maybe it's your boss says hey do this task for me i need a

00:17:36.560 hundred copies of this thing and then you're like okay and then like 10 minutes later you're like oh

00:17:41.900 man what are the what did he ask me to do so how can you use ceiling go to remember that sort of stuff

00:17:47.500 yeah so the first thing would be to okay how am i going to encode this how am i going to see this

00:17:51.740 right so and there's there could be a hundred ways to do this but i'll just kind of go through what i

00:17:56.780 would do it i mean there's a bit of improvisation you know involved here and it depends on what you

00:18:02.320 gravitate towards what you think of first people might think differently but i would say okay well

00:18:06.960 the important part here is i gotta remember 100 copies and you know it's for my boss or whatever

00:18:12.420 right and i gotta do it today so i'm gonna memorize it you know it depends how you store it if it's for

00:18:18.920 later on it might be stored differently in case you have some kind of ongoing to-do list for the week

00:18:25.440 in some kind of mental calendar but if it's for today you know maybe just keeping it in your mind

00:18:31.500 until you get it done and then getting rid of it is good enough so 100 i might think of a way to

00:18:37.280 visualize 100 if if i have a number system so i i would picture him frankenstein for that number

00:18:44.200 that's who 100 is in my system but if somebody didn't have that right so i might put my boss's head

00:18:51.240 inside of the photocopier in my mind and imagine just slamming the the door of it uh on it on his

00:18:57.820 head 100 times right until 100 copies come out and i would picture that what it would sound like

00:19:02.900 how absurdly over the top violent that is but you know what i use it in that sense so that it sticks

00:19:09.880 uh it's just a really memorable picture but you would want to tell your boss that that's what you did

00:19:15.100 no no yeah definitely keep that to yourself keep it to yourself so the c part you know it's

00:19:19.240 there's an image there the link part is okay so how am i storing this well i i have to link it to

00:19:25.900 the fact that my boss needs this done right that's the important part of this thing and so i don't

00:19:31.900 want to forget that so i'm inevitably in my job gonna think about my boss or see my boss so every time

00:19:38.040 that happens that's going to ensure that this bizarre image comes up right this is in the case that i

00:19:44.600 don't take care of it immediately right so maybe later on the day i'm like oh that you know you

00:19:49.620 gotta remember it before the end of the day so i'm attaching it to my boss so that i don't forget

00:19:55.060 it that day and then go it's just like that extra detail thought detail that makes it kind of over the

00:20:02.120 top uncomfortable or weird um so another thing that people often lose or try to remember is like

00:20:07.720 where they left their keys or wallet and in the book you talk about well the easiest thing to do is

00:20:11.340 get yourself a tray where you put everything do that but let's say there's times when you can't

00:20:16.220 do that and you just have to toss your how do you remember like where you left your keys so you're

00:20:20.760 not scrambling for them when you're trying to get to kids practice so yeah so a lot of what i

00:20:26.020 describe in the book is also like kind of managing your life right that's kind of the first thing you

00:20:31.920 can do and i say that simple hack of just putting trying to put your keys in the same spot every day

00:20:37.120 you know have a little bowl for it that seems like a cop-out but it's it's useful i mean a lot

00:20:42.540 of the reasons we forget stuff is because we're all over the place right if you're a little more

00:20:46.340 mindful about what you do and if you're very predictable in what you do then you're kind of

00:20:51.060 preparing yourself for future forgetfulness you know and so it but if you want to go beyond that then

00:20:58.340 one kind of technique that i like to do when i'm either let's say taking medicine or you know i put

00:21:05.880 something down and i i'm kind of certain i might forget it later what i do is when i put it down

00:21:11.120 or right before i put it down i do some really weird action to myself right so i'll either i don't

00:21:17.020 know i'll pinch my nose or yeah i sometimes i say something out loud in a really strange voice

00:21:22.840 it depends where i am right if i'm in public or private which sounds totally bizarre but it works

00:21:28.480 because every time afterwards if i'm trying to remember where was i when i put down my backpack i don't

00:21:33.500 know where my backpack is i'm gonna think of me doing that weird sound and where i was when i

00:21:39.260 stood that uh stood there doing it and uh that'll help me remember where the thing was that i put

00:21:45.000 there whether it's my keys wallet backpack whatever that yeah it's a great example of seeing the ceiling

00:21:49.840 go all happen at once because like you're creating the image but doing the weird thing and you're

00:21:53.920 linking that weird thing to where your keys are and then you go it's like it's weird you're like

00:21:58.700 talking to yourself yeah so you're gonna remember it more exactly yeah and and so you know the next

00:22:04.520 kind of concern is well what if i forget to do that right and and this is where memory becomes more

00:22:10.940 like a lifestyle right a different kind of frame of mind you have to start remembering to remember

00:22:16.300 and you know people like how am i going to do that well the more you're aware of your memory

00:22:21.500 and understanding how it works which is what you learn when you get into this world of mnemonics

00:22:27.400 you start looking at everything that happens to you through this lens of how can i make this a

00:22:32.600 little more a little bit more memorable how am i going to make this stick how should i think about

00:22:37.380 it so that it's um a lot stickier and that i think in itself uh helps you remember things just

00:22:44.840 way more even without using some of these weird tactics you know right uh this can be done with

00:22:51.420 parking like where you parked so if you like parked on level b like i think you talked about

00:22:55.340 imagine your car full of bread yeah yeah think of a word that starts with a d or if you're on in the

00:23:01.840 red zone of the garage think of you know your car is just like filled to the brim with gallons of

00:23:07.860 blood right um and when you open the door just like like out of the shining when the elevator doors

00:23:13.940 open it's just like all this blood kind of careening out of the the the car yeah you just try to

00:23:20.300 incorporate some kind of image and link it to your car right that's where you parked it and then just

00:23:25.320 make sure to go so here's a memory thing that happens to people all the time and when it happens

00:23:30.140 they're like oh man i'm getting old am i getting they start worrying am i getting alzheimer's yeah

00:23:34.000 it's like they go into a room because they had to go get something there and they're like i don't know

00:23:37.720 why i came in here yeah but you actually highlight research that it possibly offers a suggestion on why

00:23:42.720 that happens what what why does our brain tend to forget what we went into a room for

00:23:47.580 uh when we get there yeah there's this kind of strange phenomenon that when you kind of pass

00:23:53.240 through kind of an entryway your brain reshifts and and or resets in a way and so it's very common

00:24:00.860 that when you walk through that doorway of a room you may blank out what you were going in there to do

00:24:07.080 and it's funny i had a conversation with key from key and peel um you know from the from comedy central

00:24:13.860 and he was the host of the show and we were talking about that very thing and he said that

00:24:18.440 it's a similar thing when you're memorizing lines for script he said when he memorized one page and

00:24:24.620 then he turned the page to the other that changing of the page like he could remember that whole page

00:24:30.060 but then the next page would kind of be separated suddenly because of that disjointness as changing

00:24:35.900 the page and so we were talking about how yeah that it's kind of there's studies that show that just

00:24:41.300 like that separation is your brain kind of resets so a tip that i give people is to kind of walk back

00:24:47.760 into the room you were before which will usually not always but uh sometimes it helps to kind of

00:24:53.400 remember what you were doing when you're in that previous mindset in the other room right i think

00:24:58.820 that's that that's that what your brain's doing is it linked the thing right and where you got the

00:25:04.260 idea so if you're like in your kitchen you're like i need to go to the dining room to get

00:25:07.480 uh my wallet well your brain probably associated wallet with kitchen because you're already in the

00:25:12.800 kitchen exactly as soon as you go to the dining room it's like well yeah why are you here so i think

00:25:18.320 that's related that idea that you know geography and memory are like navigation and memory are connected

00:25:23.140 right like we we connect ideas with our geographic landscape and once we move context like our memory

00:25:32.000 can get messed up right yeah yeah and and that's that's really where the strong parts of the link

00:25:38.160 method come some of the strategies that we use in these memory championships are based off of using

00:25:44.420 actual spatial information to link information to so we use this idea of a memory palace which is

00:25:51.600 basically taking a mental blueprint of a place that you know and using that to attach your images to

00:25:58.360 and it's super effective another everyday memory task that we do is remembering names we talked

00:26:03.720 about that just now a while back ago but it's just linking the person's name with something you're

00:26:08.840 very familiar with but i think the the secret is doing that go step and making it really bizarre

00:26:14.340 and absurd so that you remember even more so maybe find a feature on the person and then just amplify it

00:26:21.260 make it a caricature yep and then that you'll that's the go part and you'll probably you'll make

00:26:26.440 cement in like what their name is yeah and also the linking part not a lot of people do this with

00:26:31.500 names but i try to attach it to something about the person and i tend to use their face just because

00:26:36.920 that's what i'm looking at and or what i notice when i'm meeting someone for the first time so you

00:26:42.300 know if nelson over there has a big nose i'd come up with a picture i'd see his name as an image so maybe

00:26:49.020 i'd picture nelson from the simpsons right the character and then i i want to link it to his nose so

00:26:56.000 every time i see him i'm going to notice his nose and there will be the picture that i placed there

00:27:00.360 so i imagine a bully nelson from the simpsons just beating up on his big old nose and that's why it's

00:27:06.520 big you know and i can add as much secret sauce to that to make it pop even further but um you get

00:27:13.060 the idea you know and again like like you're thinking of your boss slamming your boss's head

00:27:18.040 in the cop machine like you wouldn't want to tell people like the thing you know yeah yeah i'm sorry that

00:27:24.500 my images always come back to being a little violent but um they're not always that way but

00:27:29.500 and every person's different um you know maybe you want to just go with something that's maybe a

00:27:35.520 little more somber or pleasant i don't know uh it all depends you have to find out what works

00:27:40.300 for you and i'm just trying to find the things that i know my brain will never forget no violence is

00:27:46.140 memorable like i mean i remember like fights i was in a kid or like watching a fight like when i like i

00:27:51.320 still remember that you know 25 years later yeah me too i'm thinking of like i wasn't a very

00:27:57.160 confrontational guy but you know i had some run-ins with some guys who picked on me in middle school

00:28:02.420 or whatever and i remember one day this guy just pushed me up against the wall and i it was like

00:28:09.660 the last straw kind of thing and i remember doing this move on him where i tripped him and pinned him

00:28:15.020 on the floor and it was just like this thing where i can picture it like daylight in my in my mind you

00:28:20.520 know and that's what 15 20 years ago yeah remember it all right um and so you can use that probably

00:28:26.260 for your like you know to peg something some memory thing you're trying to remember yeah exactly yeah

00:28:31.400 so let's talk about uh let's get a little more advanced here this is kind of getting to your

00:28:36.120 realm a little bit of uh memorizing list of things so how do you remember a list of things you have to

00:28:42.620 do that have a particular order so for example one thing you do is or people doing these memory games

00:28:48.000 remember presidents of the united states sure yeah i mean so now when you get into lists of things

00:28:53.880 where order matters you can you have you you're required or you need now better organization for

00:29:00.820 those pictures because there's a lot of them and they have to be in a certain sequence so the linking

00:29:05.220 step needs a bit more care and so the strategies that we use there's a few out there but the kind of go-to

00:29:11.580 one i had just mentioned was the memory palace and so when you use memory palace you basically have

00:29:18.680 this blueprint of a of a place and you've decided on a route through it something that makes sense

00:29:24.820 right you know this place like your house let's say you know how to walk through your house if you

00:29:28.460 close your eyes and start at the front door you could easily navigate around in your mind you know

00:29:33.180 that well so if you do that while imagining let's say the presidents all the names pictures for the

00:29:39.980 names along a path from your front door all the way up to your bedroom you're going to remember that

00:29:45.140 very easily because all you have to do to recall it is walk back through your house and pick up the

00:29:50.580 crazy images that you left there along the way and so when and also when you're thinking of the

00:29:54.940 presidents like you want to find something about them and make it memorable so like you know for

00:29:59.700 george washington you might make imagine him as a washing machine right yeah yeah washing a washing

00:30:05.940 machine washing a ton of something right right so you have washing ton right and that could be

00:30:13.100 you know your doorway right so in your doorway instead of a door there's a big washing machine

00:30:17.940 with a ton of and if you want to take this even further you can combine you know maybe do two

00:30:24.520 presidents at a time so maybe second president is adams i think of an adams apple so i have apples

00:30:30.200 that's my picture so now washing machine is washing a ton of apples right so that image in itself is

00:30:36.660 totally insane and imagine walking up to my house and there they are there is that image as the front

00:30:42.300 door never for gonna forget that i've already encoded the first two presidents right there and this this

00:30:48.280 memory palace this has been around for thousands of years yeah i mean the origins story says that it

00:30:54.520 comes from the early greeks but you know there's lots of civilizations that use some form of this i

00:31:00.480 mean i believe there were some even some south american cultures using or even african cultures that

00:31:06.240 use kind of these boards that had knots on them or little pieces of just things that they'd attach to

00:31:15.080 this board and the pathway through the board was basically their memory palace their portable memory palace

00:31:21.100 and besides doing a memory palace another linking tool you can do if you want to remember things

00:31:25.860 in particular order is like think of a story in your head that connects all these things so you could

00:31:31.700 sort of you know instead of pegging these things to a room in your house you could just imagine a scene

00:31:36.600 where you see like george washington as a washing machine doing something with john adams

00:31:42.040 who you come with some weird picture and then that's the link so you just like all you have to do is

00:31:46.420 remember like the last thing and once you get to the next thing you have that connection so

00:31:51.040 you're able to keep going yeah so one connects to the next like a link a connection of linking

00:31:56.520 chains right and that that technique is very effective as well it's very quick because you

00:32:00.840 don't need to set up a memory palace the downside to it though is that if you miss one if you forget

00:32:07.060 one then you're gonna have a hard time you've lost the connection to the next one right whereas

00:32:12.280 with a memory palace if you skip one or you forget one you can still keep walking through your house

00:32:17.720 right so that's kind of this world is there's there's some different strategies for different

00:32:23.320 scenarios depends you know if you have to get something in your head quick maybe the story

00:32:28.240 method is is kind of the the way to go or if you have a memory palace ready to go and you want to

00:32:34.080 the information to stick there longer then go with the memory palace and with the memory palace

00:32:38.820 like you can have like memory palaces inside memory palaces so like maybe have your whole house

00:32:44.400 but then you can like use like a single room and have a memory palace in that room

00:32:48.500 yeah yeah the the it's limitless to what what you can imagine as a memory palace you know some people

00:32:57.040 say oh i live in a tiny apartment i'm limited but you know i tell them shrink yourself right imagine

00:33:02.840 you're the size of an ant right and now suddenly you have this giant structure to explore right

00:33:08.560 you could memorize you know 100 things on just your front door if you wanted to you know just

00:33:14.480 because if you look closely enough at your door you can make a little pathway through it that you

00:33:19.520 know goes from the bottom corner to this little splinter that you noticed the handle to you know every

00:33:26.340 little nook and cranny of that door could potentially be a location where you're storing a piece of

00:33:31.300 information and i know the ancient greeks used the memory palace as a way to remember speeches

00:33:36.480 memorize speeches like how does how does that look how do you how can you apply these the c-link

00:33:41.180 go with the memory palace remember a speech you have to give yeah um and then back in the day that's

00:33:48.400 what they would use the memory palaces for is that they would store their speeches and they would put

00:33:52.920 the topics of their what they wanted to say in each location along this path and so text is hard

00:34:00.760 right so speech is essentially just text that you want to memorize and you can go about it a few ways if you

00:34:06.240 want to memorize just the general ideas that's one way or if you're memorizing a speech verbatim word

00:34:11.380 for word that's a little harder but you got to memorize every single word but essentially the

00:34:15.760 process is the same just kind of turn the word or turn the idea into an image and then place it along

00:34:22.800 a path or link it in this case i would suggest a memory palace and then when you're giving your speech

00:34:28.740 all you got to do is think of that place and mentally walk through it as you're reciting your speech

00:34:33.860 how does this look this memory palace look for numbers because and so i guess the trick there is

00:34:41.120 how do you turn a number into which is very abstract into a visual thing yeah so the tricky thing with

00:34:48.540 numbers becomes the c part how do i encode it and there's a few methods to do that as well but it

00:34:54.600 essentially hinges around making these numbers into words and then those words suddenly just becomes like

00:35:02.740 memorizing words which is easier gotcha and you talked about earlier you mentioned like frankenstein's

00:35:08.780 100 yeah yeah so yeah so my system it's a bit complicated but every three-digit number i have a

00:35:15.660 preset person for it and 100 happens to be frankenstein so so you could there's something

00:35:21.740 this is as a memory athlete what you've done is you've gone sort of done some work ahead of time

00:35:26.680 where you've made you've assigned certain things so three-digit numbers assigned a person

00:35:30.480 like do you have like two-digit numbers or assigned a specific type of thing yep so well when i started

00:35:35.680 i actually started with just a two-digit system so every number from zero zero to 99 was something

00:35:41.300 and i actually use a method called person action object so every two-digit number had a person but

00:35:48.600 also an action and an object associated with it and that way if i ever saw a group of six digits i would

00:35:55.740 split it up in two two and two the first two being a person the next two being an action and then the

00:36:01.500 last two being an object and what that allows for is for me to come up with a very creative

00:36:06.700 scene you know a person doing something with a something and uh i would place that in a memory

00:36:12.840 palace as i go and each little image is now taking up six digits which is a really nice way to kind of

00:36:19.920 compress data and then yeah from then on i tried to expand well if i can memorize six who's to say i

00:36:26.980 can't put seven or eight right in one location i just gotta come up with a more images to represent

00:36:33.220 larger numbers well there's another trick you did there when you're memorizing numbers like i'd say

00:36:38.440 a long number uh is you're chunking numbers and so instead of like trying to remember single numbers

00:36:43.720 by themselves you're looking okay what is i can look remember three numbers a lot easier than just

00:36:49.500 three individual numbers yeah yeah and this is often a strategy too when i'm trying to memorize

00:36:55.060 is is like what's the most efficient way to smush this data down right and that's called chunking

00:37:01.680 right so sometimes like if you look at a number and it's just meaningless it's just a big chunk of

00:37:07.840 numbers but if you maybe separate it out into something that looks like a phone number right like a

00:37:13.000 three-digit area code three-digit first part of the number and then the four digits at the end

00:37:17.760 maybe suddenly now it's a little easier to read and absorb because you chunk it now as a phone number

00:37:24.980 right three three and four rather than 10 all at once you know yeah one thing that i do i don't do

00:37:32.080 the link thing but just i do a lot of chunking when i have to remember like a 10-digit number i'll just

00:37:36.680 try to remember in groups of three right so it's like it's necessarily 520 it's 520 yeah yeah

00:37:42.660 yeah 520 as one thing is a lot easier than thinking 520 exactly but if i want to take this

00:37:48.800 up a notch i could assign 520 like a frankenstein doing the moonwalk or something yeah so yeah for

00:37:55.100 me 520 is the character from the show flight of the concords i don't know if you ever watched that

00:38:00.000 one brit which one it wasn't brit it was a mel you know the weird yeah chick right so that number 1.00

00:38:06.420 those three digits suddenly is this really colorful funny comedian that's whatever i think about it i

00:38:13.140 laugh and can picture her in all the episodes you know it's suddenly got this ton a ton of imagery to

00:38:19.240 work with right rather than this dry set of three digits wasn't mel also isn't she mabel in gravity 1.00

00:38:25.300 falls the cartoon i don't know i didn't i never saw that i know she was in the last man on earth show

00:38:31.620 as well well now i'm going to associate 520 with mabel from gravity falls from here on out

00:38:37.820 so you're doing all these things but is there a place for review like do you constantly have to

00:38:43.260 review this stuff in order for you to remember it like do you have to review your your things you've

00:38:48.700 linked like do you have to review that you've assigned 100 to frankenstein yeah this is something

00:38:52.580 that i had to practice and review a lot at first it's a thousand different things right

00:38:57.700 but uh after a while you know by using it a lot in practice uh it's almost become a language that

00:39:05.600 i'm fluent in you know i look at 520 and i don't have to say like well okay that was this and this

00:39:12.180 oh no okay no not anymore it's it's 520 is mel you know i look at that number and it's like i'm looking

00:39:19.600 at an episode of flight of the concords right i don't even have to think about it and that's that's

00:39:24.640 that's what you want out of these systems so that you can spend the least amount of time trying to

00:39:30.060 remember what everything represents and actually focus on the pictures and remembering the pictures

00:39:35.400 here's another question about the memory palace do you use certain places for certain types of

00:39:40.260 memory tasks like and like do you only use them once just for that memory task i can i imagine there

00:39:44.540 could be an issue if you try to use your house for memorizing multiple like things like there could be

00:39:49.560 some bleed over going on yeah so part of this lifestyle of memorizing things you want to have

00:39:55.480 a number of memory palaces and you want to manage them correctly so you know you're gonna have some

00:40:00.660 memory palaces that hold information that you'd like to keep forever that's not going to change you

00:40:06.500 know think of stuff like the presidents or the periodic table right or world capitals that kind of stuff

00:40:12.880 like stuff you just want to know or stuff you're studying for your job or for school whatever you would

00:40:18.740 choose a memory palace or create a memory palace and dedicate it to that alone just so that you

00:40:24.740 don't mess with the contents you know and confuse it with anything else but then i also have a ton of

00:40:30.380 memory palaces that i use for stuff that is you know for one day i need it to remember my to-do list and

00:40:36.660 then by tomorrow i hope to forget it and what i do is i'll have say a cycle of memory palaces that

00:40:44.500 are on rotation and day one today i'll use this one right and then tomorrow i'll use the next one

00:40:51.180 and so on and then by the time i've used them all i start back over and hopefully by then i've forgotten

00:40:56.460 what was in it the first time you know so so basically what i'm saying is some of these memory

00:41:01.700 palaces i i practice forgetting the contents right i have to get good at forgetting some of the stuff

00:41:07.040 because i need to tape over it when you uh do your memory palace like when you're visualizing it are

00:41:12.360 you like do you imagine yourself doing like first person like doom style right where you're going

00:41:16.540 through the room like that or do like do you imagine because when i think of memory palace i'm

00:41:20.320 always imagining you guys remember family circus yeah where billy like goes through the house you

00:41:25.420 know shows like him going through like the the backyard these weird trails to do things yeah oh yeah

00:41:30.480 yeah um how do you how do you visualize that when you're going through your memory it's a good

00:41:35.300 question i think people do it differently but i'm more first person and so like everything's kind of

00:41:40.840 like i'm looking at it you know sometimes you have i float around sometimes i feel like i'm a part

00:41:46.840 of it it really varies but i think more than not it's kind of like this first person shooter

00:41:51.580 view uh that you mentioned gotcha so it's gonna all these things are going to be different for

00:41:56.560 different people you got to use what works for you exactly yeah i mean it's it's your mind right

00:42:01.520 and we all think differently so yeah i'm kind of giving people through my book and what i'm saying

00:42:07.040 now a general idea but ultimately you have to figure out by trying it what your brain gravitates

00:42:13.500 to but the basics of it all is is stuff that we all can do namely that we can see pictures in our

00:42:21.000 mind and we can use spatial information to really store it well so nelson let's say there's someone

00:42:28.860 to try to start putting this stuff into action like radically listen to show like what's like an

00:42:32.900 easy memorizing task that can really help them start greasing the wheels for this stuff yeah i

00:42:37.900 think a great place to start is to try to remember names you meet people all all day long all week

00:42:43.980 long and it doesn't hurt if i mean it sometimes hurts if you forget someone's name but how is it any

00:42:49.600 different than what you're currently doing you know you lose nothing by trying this now and it's it's a

00:42:55.340 free kind of game app that's available all around you so i really suggest people try with that

00:43:01.860 make the effort and try to see link go with remembering names and once you have that you

00:43:07.420 know you feel a little more confident then you know try and maybe memorize something that you're

00:43:12.000 interested in right something that you've always wanted to learn or whether that's a poem or periodic

00:43:17.440 table whatever you know i hate for people to try to memorize or use these techniques to memorize

00:43:23.600 something that they find completely boring you know for me i like to memorize by practicing the

00:43:29.660 events that these competitions which is cards numbers names all that stuff but for the everyday

00:43:34.900 person maybe all they want to do is just memorize their to-do list so do it that's that's what you're

00:43:40.920 going to practice with every day well nelson where can people go to learn more about the book and your

00:43:45.020 work yep my book is called remember it it's available pretty much anywhere online amazon books and

00:43:51.620 books whatever so if you just look for it you'll find it you can also find a lot of information

00:43:56.180 on these techniques on my youtube page you just search for my name nelson dellis you'll find my

00:44:01.340 page there's a bunch of free tips and fun little videos and then my website nelson dellis.com you can

00:44:08.040 learn more about me and get in touch with me if you have any questions fantastic well nelson dellis

00:44:12.900 thanks for your time it's been a pleasure thank you yeah thanks for having me my guest today was

00:44:16.760 nelson dellis he's a memory athlete and the author of the book remember it it's available on amazon.com

00:44:21.700 bookstores everywhere you find out more information about his work at his website nelson dellis.com also

00:44:26.820 check out our show notes at aom.is remember it you can find links to resources ring delve deeper into

00:44:31.940 this topic well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast check out our website at

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00:45:25.480 you

The Art of Manliness - September 25, 2019

#546： How to Get a Memory Like a Steel Trap

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