Memory is important. It is a non-negligible part of learning, and it is a tool that is constantly required. We use memory a lot more than we realize, because when it works it’s often invisible. You’ll reach for a cup without looking at it, relying on your spatial memory for your hand to find it without ever making any effort to remember.
With how often memory is overlooked when working, and how much modern common educational systems push memorizing above understanding, memory has a misguided negative reputation. While it’s not the point of learning, it’s a primary tool. Whereas it sounds smart work on patterning your thought so as to improve your deductive logic, another primary tool of thought, it’s rare to see people who understand it’s worth your time to do so with memory.
Memory is underrated. That hasn’t always been the case, however. In ancient greek, it’s known that orators would use a system devised to improve memory, widely taught at the time called the ”Method of Loci”. It involves memorizing by rote a pre-arranged route, and imagining on a per-speech basis the placement of objects along the route with the purpose of reminding you of whatever you wish to remember, as you walk the route during the speech.
The method of loci, however is not the only system for memorization. The quickest to learn I’ve found that can easily be proven to be more effective than rote memorization is the ”Linking Method”, wherein every time you introduce a new item from the sequence, you tie it to the last thing. If the first two items were “Car” and “Coconut”, you might imagine the car running over the coconut, or the coconut breaking through the car window, or a car whose body is one giant coconut. Then, if the next item were something else, you’d similarly tie it to “Coconut”.
A small problem you might notice right away, is that these are good for objects and people, but not so great for symbols. The mind is better at these things, they’re expressive and unique and concrete. A system for memorization is most useful if it can do a good job dealing with things we’re not already good at.
To that end, ”The PAO system” was devised. It is the hardest of the three I’ve mentioned to ‘get going’, whereas the method of loci has the ‘startup cost’ of memorizing a route in advance, PAO asks you memorize 100 “scenes”. You could do with just 10, but it’s hardly worth it. Some have used 1000.
The trick of the pao system is to convert numbers into the easier-to-remember objects. It stands for “Person - Action - Object”. You’d make a list of 100 “Person, Action, Object” triplets, and match them up to represent any number. The best way to show this is by example.
Say my 30th PAO triplet is the following: 30. Micheal Jackson, Moonwalking (on), The red carpet
My 31st, may be, say: 31. Einstein, Drawing (on), A chalk board
and my 7th could be: 07. Abe Lincoln, Chopping down, A tree
If I wanted to encode a six digit number, I’d split it into three parts. If the number were 303030, that’d be the Person from 30(The first two digits), the Action from 30(The second two digits), and the Object from 30(The third two), so it’d just be Micheal Jackson moonwalking on the red carpet. If the number were 303107, It’d be the person from 30(Micheal Jackson), the action from 31(Drawing on), and the object from 07(A tree). Micheal Jackson drawing on a tree.
This system makes unique images out of any 6-digit number, and to memorize those objects all you need to do is use any other of these systems.