Slides for the session Hacking Your Memory presented as SoCal Code Camp.

1. HACKING
YOUR MEMORY
Learn faster. Be smarter.

2. ABOUT ME
 Microsoft Developer – C#, F#
 Former Development Manager, US Airways, DaVita
Healthcare
 Former Enterprise Architect, US Airways
 Consultant on SOA, EA practices, process
engineering, team development
 Related blog: http://TheSkillfulBrain.com

3. AGENDA
 Story telling: The Experiment
 The Case for Memorization
 Four Key Concepts
 Foundational Memory Hack: Engaging Your Memory
 Foundational Memory Hack: Subverting Location
 Foundational Memory Hack: Beating the Numbers
 Wrap-up and Review
 Resources

4. DISCLAIMERS AND APOLOGIES

5. THE EXPERIMENT
 Initial result: Seven plus or minus two

6. THE EXPERIMENT REVISED
 5 minutes.
 43 presidents.
 100% retention at two weeks.
 80% retention at four weeks.
1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
5. James Monroe
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison
10. John Tyler
11. James K. Polk
12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore
14. Franklin Pierce
15. James Buchanan
16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson
18. Ulysses S. Grant
19. Rutherford B. Hayes
20. James A. Garfield
21. Chester A. Arthur
22. Grover Cleveland
23. Benjamin Harrison
24. Grover Cleveland (again)
25. William McKinley
26. Theodore Roosevelt
27. William Howard Taft
28. Woodrow Wilson
29. Warren G. Harding
30. Calvin Coolidge
31. Herbert Hoover
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
33. Harry S. Truman
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower
35. John F. Kennedy
36. Lyndon B. Johnson
37. Richard Nixon
38. Gerald Ford
39. Jimmy Carter
40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush
42. Bill Clinton
43. George W Bush
44. Barack Obama

7. THE EXPERIMENT REVISED
1. African Lion
2. African Wild Dog
(cape hunting dog)
3. Aldabra Tortoise
4. Andean Bear
5. Arabian Oryx
6. Asian Elephant
7. Bald Eagle
8. Bornean Orangutan
9. Capybara
10. Cheetah
11. Chilean Flamingo
12. Coyote
13. Crowned Pigeon
14. Desert Tortoise
15. Fennec Fox
16. Galapagos Tortoise
17. Golden Conure
18. Golden Lion
Tamarin
19. Grevy Zebra
20. Hamadryas Baboon
21. Mandrill
22. Meerkat or Suricate
23. Mexican Gray Wolf
24. Mhorr Gazelle
25. Mountain Lion
26. Ocelot
27. Palawan Peacock
Pheasant
28. Prairie Dog
29. Radiated Tortoise
30. Reticulated Giraffe
31. Rhinoceros Hornbill
32. Ring-tailed Lemur
33. Rothschild's Mynah
34. Spotted Necked
Otter
35. Squirrel Monkey
36. Sumatran Tiger
37. Thick-billed Parrot
38. Warthog
39. White Faced Saki
40. White Rhinoceros

8. THE EXPERIMENT
 Initial result: Seven plus or minus two
 Final result: 100+

9. THE ECONOMICS OF MEMORY
 Premise: Memorization is very expensive.
 Premise: We are very busy.
 Premise: We have Google and Bing.
 Conclusion: Memorization isn’t cost effective.

12. Store information
here
Do thinking here

13. THE LIMITED ACCESS PROBLEM
See Pragmatic Thinking And
Learning, Andy Hunt

14. THE MENTAL TOOLBOX
Thinking Tools Memory Tools Imagination Tools Emotional Tools
Logic Repetition Brainstorming Cognitive Therapy
Arithmetic Mind Maps Talk Therapy
Algebra Meditation Meditation
Calculus Collaborative Writing Stress Management
Statistics Stream of
Consciousness
Family Counseling
Critical Thinking Free Association Self-Help Books
Etc… Etc… Etc…

15. WHAT IS “EASY”?
 Imagine you have ten dollars in cash. You wish to
buy as many cookies as possible. Cookies sell for
$3.14 per box. How many boxes can you buy?
 A passenger train is 20 miles per hour faster than a
freight train. It takes the passenger train half as
much time to travel 160 miles as the freight train.
How fast are the trains?

16. A PARTIAL LIST OF AUTHORS WHO WROTE
ABOUT MEMORY TECHNIQUES
 Simonides (556 – 468 BC)
 Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)
 Cicero (106 – 43 BC)
 Quintillian (35 – 100)
 Hugh of St. Victor (1096 – 1141)
 Alan of Lille (1120 – 1202?)
 Boncompagno da Signa (1170 – 1240?)
 Albertus Magnus (1193? – 1280)
 Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
 Thomas Bradwardine (1290 – 1349)
 Francesc Eiximenis (1330? – 1409?)
 John of Metz (13th Century)
 Peter of Ravenna (1448 – 1508)

17. THOMAS AQUINAS – 1225-1274

18. A HISTORY OF ACCESSING INFORMATION

19. A HISTORY OF ACCESSING INFORMATION

21. EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES
 Trivium
 Grammar – the mechanics of language
 Logic – analysis and thinking
 Rhetoric – communication
 Invention
 Arrangement
 Style
 Memory
 Delivery
 Quadrivium
 Geometry
 Arithmetic
 Astronomy
 Music

22. THE CASE FOR MEMORY: SUMMARY
 There is evidence that having more facts in your brain
leads to better thinking. There is evidence that Google is
not a substitute for knowing stuff.
 Training in how to use memory was a foundational part
of a classical education for hundreds of years.
 The techniques work, but require considerable effort.
 Imagine doing math without any kind of training. That’s
what you’re currently doing with your memory.
 Specific memory techniques exist to help you remember
faces, numbers, conversations, large sections of text
(word for word), large sections of text (Cliff Notes
version), lists, sequences, and relations.

23. KEY CONCEPT: MEMORY RULES
How the brain decides if something is worth
remembering:
1. Will it keep you from getting eaten by a tiger?
2. Is it new? Is it novel?
3. Is it relevant for understanding social norms?
a) Is it gossip?
b) Does it illustrate where social boundaries are?
4. Is it emotionally charged?
5. Will it get you food, safety, or prestige?
6. ….
7. Lots and lots of repetition

24. KEY CONCEPT: THE NETWORK
The problem is not storing the memory; the problem
is accessing the memory.

25. KEY CONCEPT: THE NETWORK

26. KEY CONCEPT: THE NETWORK
How do I make a memory
durable?
How do I make a memory
accessible?

27. KEY CONCEPT: MEMORY TYPES
 We suck at remembering
 Anything abstract
 Numbers
 Anything we aren’t emotionally engaged with
 Anything we perceive as routine
 We excel at remembering
 Location
 Emotions
 Sights
 Smells

28. KEY CONCEPT: MAKING IMAGES
“These ought to be full of ridiculous movement,
remarkable gesture, savage and cruel expression,
bewilderment, sadness, and severity. The reason for
this is that things which are great, unbelievable,
previously unseen, new, rare, unheard of, deplorable,
exceptional, indecent, unique, or very beautiful
convey a great amount to our mind, memory, and
recollection. For extreme things excite the human
senses and the human mind with greater force than
do average things.”
-The Second and Last Book of Images of Jacobus Publicus (1485 or 1490)

29. MEMORY TECHNIQUES
Memory
Natural
Memory
Artificial
Memory
Ad Verbum
(word for
word)
Ad Res
(concept or
summary)

30. USING ARTIFICIAL MEMORY
 Build your mental toolbox with memory techniques
for specific situations. Do the necessary preparation
work.
 When you find something worth remembering:
 Select the appropriate technique for the thing to be
remembered
 Follow the rules of the technique
 Profit!!!

31. FOUNDATIONAL MEMORY HACK
ENGAGING YOUR MEMORY
1. Care.
2. Get emotional.
3. Make memory explicitly.

32. FOUNDATIONAL MEMORY HACK
SUBVERT LOCATION
 Many names for (basically) the same thing
 Method of Loci
 Memory Palace
 Memory Journey
 Memory Theatre
 Demo

34. MEMORIZATION DEFINED
The explicit, emotional, creative act of storing
information in your brain using a
disciplined, structured approach.
Memory does NOT “just happen”.
Repetition, while often necessary, should be
minimized.

35. HOW TO REMEMBER
1. Develop a Memory Toolbox
2. Explicitly decide to remember
3. Use the right memory technique for the data to be
memorized

36. THE MENTAL TOOLBOX
Thinking Tools Memory Tools Imagination Tools Emotional Tools
Logic Method of Loci Brainstorming Cognitive Therapy
Algebra Peg System Mind Maps Talk Therapy
Calculus Major System Meditation Meditation
Statistics Link System Collaborative Writing Stress Management
Critical Thinking PAO System Stream of
Consciousness
Family Counseling
Critical Analysis Dominic System Etc… Self-Help Books
Etc… Chunking Etc…
Memory Theatre
Etc…

37. WHAT IF?
 What if you memorized a list of design patterns, their
uses, strengths, and weaknesses?
 What if you could easily recall all the WCF hosting
options, including their tradeoffs and which
environments support which options?
 What if you could quote the agile manifesto word for
word? Or the 12 core principles of agile development?
 Learning another language? What if the time to learn
new vocabulary words was cut by a factor of 5? Or 10?
 Learning another computer language? What if
memorizing a list of ALL of the keywords took only an
hour?
 What if you could actually learn and visualize most of
the .NET (or WinRT) namespaces?

38. ANYTHING?
Data Technique
All my credit card numbers, and
the 1-800 numbers to call if they
are stolen
Memory Coin
Work to-do lists
Honey-do lists
Shopping lists
Memory Journey
Any large framework, such as the
.Net framework
Memory Palace. Use floors, colors,
or similar to represent hierarchy.
Where I left my car keys Explicit Memory; Care
Hamlet – all of it
The Bible – all of it
Harry Potter – all of it
Memory Palace or Memory
Theatre
A new language; new vocabulary
words
Memory Journey + Letter Wheel
Large blocks of numbers PAO System or Major System

39. SUGGESTED READING
 Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
 Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt
 Mindhacker by Ron and Mary Hale-Evans
 The Book of Memory by Mary Carruthers
 Max Your Memory by Pascale Michelon
 Any book by Mary Carruthers. In fact, just send her
money for being cool.
 Blog: http://theskillfulbrain.com
 Rate: http://speakerrate.com/talks/23961-hacking-
your-memory

40. UNUSED SLIDES

41. PRO TIPS
 Live longer by defeating the “days speeding past”
problem.
 Meditation – twice a day, every day.
 Eastern meditation for mood and focus.
 Western meditation for memory.

42. DEEP READING
 Survey – looking at chapters, headings, and
pictures
 Skim – Identify structure and important topics
 Read
 Write in the margins. Mark it up. Doodle.
 Flag phrases, sections, or information to memorize
 Memorize what you think is worth it
 Meditate
 Review major points without referencing the source
 Imagine teaching the material to someone else

43. THE MENTAL TOOLBOX
Thinking Tools Memory Tools Imagination Tools
Logic Brainstorming
Arithmetic Mind Maps
Algebra Meditation
Calculus Collaborative Writing
Statistics Stream of
Consciousness
Critical Thinking Free Association
Etc… Etc…

44. THE MENTAL TOOLBOX
Thinking Tools Memory Tools Imagination Tools
Logic Method of Loci Brainstorming
Algebra Peg System Mind Maps
Calculus Major System Meditation
Statistics Link System Collaborative Writing
Critical Thinking PAO System Stream of
Consciousness
Critical Analysis Dominic System Etc…
Etc… Chunking
Memory Theatre
Etc…

45. FOUNDATIONAL MEMORY HACK
BEATING THE NUMBERS
 01: Captain America
 02: Captain Marvel
 03: Deadpool
 04: Hawkeye
 05: Hulk
 06: Iron Man
 07: Spider-Man
 08: Spider-Woman
 09: Thor
 10: Wasp
 11: Wolverine
 12: Doctor Doom
 13: Green Goblin
 14: Red Skull
 15: Batman
 16: Superman
 17: Wonder Woman
 18: Walt Disney
 19: Natalie Portman
 20: Billy Crystal
 21: Christopher Hitchens
 22: Ellen Degeneris
 23: Regina Spektor
 24: Hugh Laurie
 25: Omar Epps
 26: Scott Guthrie
 27: Lucille Ball
 28: Pink
 29: Mark Twain
 30: Stephen Hawking
 31: Albert Einstein
 32: Carl Sagan
 33: Darren Brown
 34: Jennifer Anniston
 35: Bill Gates
 36: Natalie Imbruglia
 37: Sam Harris
 38: Ricky Gervais
 39: Sandra Bullock
 40: Adolf Hitler
 41: Lenin
 42: Stalin
 43: George Washington
 44: John Adams
 45: Thomas Jefferson
 46: Abraham Lincoln
 47: Teddy Roosevelt
 48: FDR
 49: Harry Truman
 50: Hymen Rickover
 Etc…