Feats of memory anyone can do | Joshua Foer

www.ted.com There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique -- called the memory palace -- and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate
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[@dianacorreia8706]

Who’s here for the Introduction to Psychology online course?? I love it!

[@juandiegosanchez2232]

Yale!

[@yuvalschechter2809]

meeee, the course is amassing

[@jamesw5520]

Me!

[@dianacorreia8706]

Yuval Schechter i loved it. i need paul bloom as my psychology professor

[@shivangisharma1]

Meeee

[@xzen667]

This is something they need to train us to do as children. Imagine how much you'd remember if they taught you this while placing all this information in places in classrooms that you become familiar with so you can access it again for the rest of your life?

[@ParaditeRs]

Memorizing and understanding a topic are two different things. Teaching a student how to memorize everything would rob them of truly learning the finer details of content.

[@xzen667]

No reason they can't do both.

[@bighands69]

ParaditeRs That is a completely flawed view point. Education in the modern world is based around memory and children from a young age are being brought up to remember things because this is the basis of educational testing. If children are developed with memory techniques and problem solving then they will develop at much better levels.

[@ParaditeRs]

Testing is centered around memory, that is true, however the testing system is flawed as well. I read a quote that encompasses the american education system quite well, "Memorize the information for a test 10 minutes beforehand, forget that same information 10 minutes afterwards". Memory is important obviously, but only memorizing as much as is necessary to get a good grade on a test defeats the purpose of learning and can barely be defined as such. Memorizing has its place in education, certainly, but understanding what you're memorizing is the most important priority. You need to memorize a formula to come up with the correct answer for a particular math problem and at the same time you should also understand why that formula is correct and how co-related to the correct answer. If you only memorize that formula you will be able to answer questions that you're familiar with, but what happens when a math problem deviates from what you expect even though that same formula is required? If you don't understand the formula and why it works, that math problem that deviated slightly may look like a foreign language and you become confused.

[@maharafaibrahimacoulibaly298]

Unfortunately there is a big gap between scientific discoveries and their application in education.

[@Stucrompton1]

Paul Bloom is the dude!

[@shubhampaul7938]

Professor Bloom OP

[@nativewombat]

Wow, I got assigned this video as a part of an introductory course in psychology. Feeling pretty inspired right now, great points made. And honestly, to all of you complaining that he was vague or didn't talk enough about memory, he got his point across in like 20 minutes. Give him a break.

[@helltaker2146]

me too, the one from yale psychologist dr bloom

[@shanzaykhan8465]

Yeah Dr Bloom's courseeee

[@akashchakraborty2189]

Me too from Yale University

[@simranlyngdoh7599]

me tooo!

[@Sleepy2000]

same

[@aleynaylmaz7724]

Me: Oh great there are subtitles in my mother tongue, it will be easier to understand. Him: I like to invite you to close your eyes. Me: Nani...

[@minonadam1077]

are you from japon? i am learning japanese at the moment hajimemashite

[@MnLiz]

Literal XD

[@minonadam1077]

@Slavic Soldier i thought it was Japanese because in Japanese Nani means What

[@sarthaknagar6349]

@@minonadam1077 You stared learning Japanese at what age? I mean from the point where you knew nothing about it no words except sayonara and words like that. And how's it going, the progress?

[@minonadam1077]

@@sarthaknagar6349 i've been learning Japanese for almost a year now

[@oreo2123]

"If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember."

[@sharong3061]

the last message that he gave to us was so powerful. it reminds us of how we live in a crazy world that doesn't care about anything in front of us because of technology. that was an incredible message that warns everyone

[@loricrockett-owens5117]

I'm in my third week of professor blooms class. I have to admit i haven't ever been to college. But i also lost my mom going on five months ago. Rocked me to my core to the point i have focus problems. So I'm taking professor blooms course get myself back in gear again. And it is working, i still have difficulty but it is working. Thank you so much to Yale university and to Coursera, and to professor bloom. I'm so thankful i have found this course. And thank you Joshua, great video.

[@FuzzyImagesLive]

I came for a class project and walked away with some really deep insight on what I'm doing wrong on a daily basis.

[@smpalaniappan8955]

Four Side Gaming Mee tooo

[@westifer8838]

5 years later, are you doing more right then wrong now?

[@nosirpp]

yes need update

[@Growingwithhayley]

Same

[@saurabh5148]

Can you edit the comment and tell us about your status now? Does any of these methods help?

[@Jdstreetyo1]

Damn I loved his book, now if i can only remember the damn name of it..

[@ahmed2k100]

Moonwalking with Einstein

[@fartinspartan2249]

Dabook-Memorystorm

[@pravinda333]

Imagine yourself walking with Einstein having a chat on the craters of the moon.

[@fartinspartan2249]

***** no h8 m8 just leav a gr8 r8 like 9/8

[@3randomtrippycolors215]

+Dirk Diggler I believe the title was "Irony at its Finest"?

[@NintendoCapriSun]

I used to do something similar to this in high school; once when we had to memorize Georgia counties and their capitals; one of them for example was Walker and Lafayette. How I remembered it was, Lafayette sounds like Raphael, and Raphael is always walking (Walker) out on the team in TMNT. I certainly wouldn't be able to memorize a deck of cards, though.

[@Kiwinnit]

nice! I naturally did it for some things too. Definitely helped, but now it is shown to be so useful you can do it in all things now :D Especially maths!

[@blackopsguy1023]

NintendoCapriSun Every time I hear "Frankfurt, KY," I think "Frank built a fort in Kentucky."

[@sineadduddy438]

NintendoCapriSun was

[@Sivart842847]

Wouldn't be able to?? Hows that going? 😉

[@shikamarunara8920]

Wonderful, so i wasn't the only one... i tried to tell some one explained the thing... i discovered recently its call mnemonics... or donkey bridges ...a way to remember something by abbreviations or similar pronunciations that have a connection like a cartoon , movie or song that we are familiar with that makes it easier to remember. ... mnemonics, apparently the m at the beginning is silent. That should make it easier to pronounce

[@hypnochic76]

Thank you for this! I teach psychology 101 (among other things) and the book talks about the Greek "loci" for memory and I never had a good understanding of it in order to teach it, but now I absolutely do and will be showing your talk during that part of class next time I teach it. Thank you! Well said.

[@claudiayd]

Five minutes in and I realize I've read his book before. It's nice to watch him do this Ted talk

[@ObserveYouTube]

This was really helpful :) I am creating a series on my own channel about memory palaces, so I've been brushing back up on the processes of creating one. I have a few "new" ideas involved in mine, but I loved this. Good video!

[@QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world, we must filter it. "To think," Borges writes, "is to forget.” ― Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein

[@shubhamkhandelwal4735]

This talk reminded me of 14 years ago when I was able to remember all the dialogues of Finding Nemo movie. Now I realise how I was able to do so.

[@aidatanatarova7861]

This was so helpful.I had no idea about everything he just talked about.I’ve always thought having good memory was a feat only a genius can master.This makes me feel better about myself.And I think Joshua sums it up very well at the end:A good memory enriches our lives and our experiences.

[@gojohngo106]

Thanks so much for this. I just did a ten minute presentation at work based on the memory palace principles. Aced the speech with near-total accuracy...and didn't refer to my notes one bit.

[@Merrida100]

This is an exceptional TEDtalk. Great speaker, great topic, great delivery. Best of all, after watching, and paying attention, to the whole thing, he made it easy to remember,.....remember the talk, and remember how to encorporate these measures now into my own interactions. Very nice. This is going to go a long way.

[@psyberpunk777]

The best presentation on TED ever. Awesome.

[@commenter7893]

hardly

[@roberte.6892]

And it's based on a 2500 year old forgotten technique.

[@Wtahc]

@@commenter7893 aha ye wtf

[@clarizzecaracuel8704]

This was so helpful. I had no idea about everything he just talked about. I've always thought having good memory was a feat only a genius can master. This makes me feel better about myself. I have my goal now.

[@kartikmessner2868]

How did it go brother ? It has been 6 years.did you master the technique

[@tgr5312]

cringe

[@umarsaghir3630]

@@tgr5312 maybe have some positive attitude in life :)

[@tgr5312]

@@umarsaghir3630 It's cringe, and that's a fact. My positivity has nothing to do with that

[@triple127]

@@tgr5312 how is this even cringe though? By definition of the way cringe is used now, it means awkward or embarassing. Do you find it embarassing that somebody has been enlightened to information which is used to give them hope to make themselves better?

[@dr.bangura4722]

Thank you, Mr Foer. In a Psychology class, the professor asked us to search for this brilliant talk.

[@ivoryas1696]

Just finished the book after almost _five _*_years_* of reading it on and off, and I _loved_ it. I wish more people read it.

[@cinsego6841]

This helped me thru four certifications! I wish they would teach it as a standard/required course.

[@ShubhamSharma-me8ff]

This really helps...i was here a 3 years back. Loci method helped me alot in my studies. Now here to thanks jousha and TED.

[@sandeepr5007]

16:35 - it's not about training your memory, but it's you are trying to get better and better at creating bizzare images in your minds eye. A VERY GOOD INSIGHT INTO CREATING MEMORY SYSTEMS. Awesome video.

[@wankell]

The opening of this talk, almost word for word, is from a book written in 1974 by Jerry Lucas et al, "The Memory Book". I read this book as a university undergraduate and applied it throughout my education as well as my long history of practicing medicine. An excerpt starting on Chapter 1, page 1 reads, "The opening thought of a speech would, perhaps, be associated to the front door, the second thought to the foyer, and so on. When the orator wanted to remember his speech, thought for thought, he actually took a mental tour through his own home. Thinking of the front door reminded him of the first thought of his speech. The second "place", the foyer, reminded him of the next thought: and so on to the end of his speech. It is from this "place" or "loci" memory technique that we get the time-worn phrase "in the first place." Sound familiar? Please do not misunderstand me, Foer's TED Talk is a wonderful contemporary explanation of this ancient technique. It appeals to the digital age masses. In fact, I showed this KZbin video to my grandchildren today and pray they apply it as I did. Thank you Joshua Foer for this talk.

[@codesymphony]

awesome talk. love the way he ties it all together

[@DaggsTheCurious]

I began building my own mind palace after this, and have had it for nearly a year now. I fill it with facts i dont want to forget, phrases i want to remember, and even song titles I want to look up later. I started with an empty house that i must approach to enter, and it grows more vivid every time. Sidenote: i found this can also work in controlling memories that cause anxiety. In the backyard of my palace, I created a black hole in the ground, that i cover with one of those twist-top man-hole-like cover things. Every time i come across something i cant handle dwelling on, i unscrew the top and drop it inside, and reseal it. This works more and more every time i do it.

[@kirnamodi1099]

Jacci Wolff hi Wolff would you please tell me how you started

[@Gumikrukon]

Best ted talk on this subject. Im currently working over Dominic O'brien's book and i love every second of it!

[@Amykhany]

Thank you Joshua for introducing me to this, used in my public law exams, memorised Lord Bingham 8 sub rules on rule of law and then the chapters that followed, not saying that it can work for everything but it may

[@hammockmonk]

Great talk. I'm brushing up on memory techniques and found your talk both entertaining and illuminating. Thanks.

[@guillemiami]

Awesome lecture. Very inspiring. It's all about practice.

[@3dRoma3d]

Absolutely love all of these videos, except the loud crashes at the end of each one. It nearly blows my speakers every time!

[@4747da]

i cannot recommend his book enough. "Moonwalking with Einstein". a fantastic read. a mixture of non-fiction, adventure, and so much talent in tying everything together!

[@TheReck12]

At one point my childhood house was filled with memories and I had to add a connection between that house and my aunts house whos house I remember just as clearly

[@jamaica0535]

This is a lot more fun and a lot less difficult than than I expected. Brilliant stuff.

[@ryancastro2891]

'Moonwalking with Einstein' Get it. Read it. Personally glad I read it before finding this video for a friend who's got her midterms coming up. When you figure out how Joshua named his book, I promise you, you will never forget it! Thank you Joshua!! I can't even come close to expressing how much your research, dedication, and true journalism has deeply and positively affected my life. Thank you again!!!

[@ser5ver]

I think this is the most memorable TED-talk i've ever heard. and i've heard like ...3. including this one

[@iiAngelic]

To add, we have inclination to remember only what is useful and/or serves a purpose for our life. That is why we don't remember random details about our day, unless there is a stimulus behind this action.

[@clearcontentment3695]

yes but can you remember to not be complacent, the dangers of complacency are unmatched

[@trangtruong3338]

wow he made an incredibe ending of the talk!!

[@OfCourseICan]

What a Powerful, humorous, inciteful and informative speech. Thank You so much Joshua.

[@visesioulberg133]

Great video, the mind is a powerful thing, using your imagination when someone tells you about something good or bad, but your imagination will picture what it is. Also training your memory to be able to memorize dozens of things all at once and anyone can do it.

[@astrid4life1]

This is so amazing when you remember things by making a visual representation in your head. Thumbs up if you memorized the story he gave us to visualize in the beginning.

[@katendemuhamadi6350]

Hey

[@chickennuggets1837]

bruh@@katendemuhamadi6350

[@BENTOSPI]

I'm learning to speak english with aplication Mosalingua or Mosalearning, and I seen this video becouse of this aplication...this video is very great.

[@classic1144]

Possibly the best talk I've ever watched, and I have watched a few.

[@deressadinka7063]

that was just fascinating man, really thanks for sharing this with us 🙏🙏🙌🙌

[@vekashs7770]

Sherlock sent me here I was waiting for him to ,ention Sherlock when he talked about Baker 221 Baker street

[@DharmendraRaiMindMap]

Hats Off To Joshua Foer for getting the world 's spotlight on memory !

[@MrZardoz777]

That was fantastic! Thanks to uploader, glad I watched that one.

[@iiSeekRefuge]

the ending words were so emotional and deep... really enjoyed the speech

[@indexMemories]

He said it 14 minutes ago but I still remember it. It was the cookie monster. XD WHAT IS THIS SORCERY.

[@gojohngo106]

@semicolon autocolon me too lol

[@anarchofonzi8139]

I listened to the audiobook of his book Moonwalking with Einstein and he stepped through an example of a random list and encoding it into a memory palace. I still remember it days later. Pickled garlic, cottage cheese, peat-smoked salmon, six bottles of wine, three pairs of socks, a hula hoop, a snorkel, and a dry ice machine. there were a couple more items but I didn't run through the technique with them. but now I know that random list of items forward and backward because I made it into a journey in a location in my head.

[@pixxelwizzard]

I remembered what kind of cookie he was eating! :P

[@87vortex87]

I heard about this technique a couple of days before I had to make an exam, which I didn't though I was going to pass. I applied the memory palace and learned an entire book in two days, passed the exam en even till today I can still remember the information on each page of the book including figures and pages numbers.

[@amlaanbhattacharjee8001]

You have to be the kind of person who 'remembers to remember'. Brilliant quote for mindfullness, period.

[@ymgaki7715]

Bravo!! Great speech. He really got me thinking.

[@jad2805able]

"If you want to have a memorable life you have to be that person that remembers to remember." Joshua Foer

[@rossuk123]

sherlock sent me here

[@kevinclick5451]

Yep. Me too.

[@joaoviegas8209]

One more =)

[@abeersyed9024]

lol mee too

[@g3oMzQ]

Me too:

[@mouseassange7847]

Me too. I read Joshua Foyer's book shortly after falling in love with the fandom. I was fascinated by this technique, I was obsessed with creating a 'Mind Palace' of my own. And now I have. I have begun to sucessfully remember ridiculous things, such as 143 lines in a play, things I need to remember for a test, and names. It's very spectacular.

[@Phibil2]

After watching this, I invested about 4 hours over a two day period allocating a memorable character each playing card. It took about 15 mins to make a memory palace with 52 spaces. It took me 25 mins further to commit a shuffled pack of cards to memory. I made three mistakes. One month later and I can now do it in about 5 minutes, and I get faster each time remember a pack! This technique is insanely effective. Thank you Joshua Foer for spreading the word.

[@DJMartin68]

Wonderful video. I have often wondered what the effect of having so much information readily available at our fingertips would have on memory. I mean, why bother trying to remember anything when you could just look it up? And why bother learning about any particular subject when anyone could do so? As someone who remembers a lot of odd things this has been an interest for me. I think Joshua sums it up very well at the end: A good memory enrichs our lives and our experiences.

[@Savaniel]

Seriously one of the best TED talks I've seen in a while. Very insightful, and I can totally relate from when I memorized pi to 100 places. Not a huge feat, but I was proud!

[@liamvargo5498]

I have actually read this guys book before I watched this video "moonwalking with Einstein" it was great!

[@mohaimenulimam233]

Liam, Did they really help you? How much time it took?

[@anupamparihar1094]

Me too just finished

[@anupamparihar1094]

@@mohaimenulimam233 author makes it clear that even though he learns tricks to memorize things better but still forgots where he parked the car so it depends if you want to invest that time to learn impressive party tricks...as these tricks dont really help in daily lives

[@mohaimenulimam233]

@@anupamparihar1094 Too late bro.. I've finished that book 2 months earlier.. 😐😐

[@bettybarchetta]

Anyone except someone with aphantasia!! 🙄

[@ArtifexBarbarus]

I'll share this: Back in the 90s when I was a student at the Army's Defense Language Institute in Monterey taking the Japanese Basic Course, I ended up graduating having met the requirements for that course as well as the Japanese Intermediate and Advanced courses (roughly three years of famously intensive study completed in only nine months) because I proved weirdly adept at memorizing each new character on the first or second exposure to it. This allowed me to "leave school at school" and not toil away my evenings with flashcards or other study! The way I did it was I'd make up and memorize funny stories for myself (the funnier the better) that could explain how or why the character came to represent it's meaning (most Chinese and Japanese characters are compounds of component characters that each have distinct meanings). Over time, the stories grew increasingly elaborate and interconnected, recurring characters emerged with sweeping character arcs, all living in a Buddhist monastery or the village surrounding it. Sometimes in class, I'd crack myself up and folks would ask what was so funny, but I simply couldn't explain it to them without sounding like a lunatic. ;-) Years later I saw this TED Talk and realized that I'd constructed a "Memory Palace" just like Homerian poets used to do in order to memorize the Iliad!

[@GiovhannyArcher]

This is just awesome. I definitely learned something valuable, thank you for that.

[@egiphermutintamanengu2464]

I love this talk

[@cross4326]

I read his fucking book and some of the tricks in there for memory retention is awesome and truly works

[@seemakhandelwal3898]

What's the name of the book?

[@araw_buwan]

@@seemakhandelwal3898 Moonwalking with Einstein

[@haxpor]

Thank Joshua, this is something I need to practice more in each morning.

[@aprilsdays]

The method is called Memory Palace. I googled it and found more information. I like what Joshua said, we need to remember to remember. Don't lose our beautiful memories because of stupid things

[@Deekzlol]

For those unaware, Joshua Foer is also the author of an interesting book called Moonwalking with Einstein about the same topic.

[@commenter7893]

I read reviews about it and was disappointed in that the book is about a story and not a manual on how to effectively use techniques for memorizing things.

[@languageshumanities60]

@@commenter7893 u must be 100% new to the world of Cognitive Psychology. The 3 Principles of a Superpower Memory are: 1. Association, 2. Imagination, & 3. Location. Regardless of the vocabulary of whatever subject u want to memorise, any technique used to memorise the Keywords in it MUST totally 100% absolutely be based on ALL of the 3 Memory Principles by linking (=associating) your Primary Keywords(Nouns & Verbs) + your Secondary Keywords (Adjectives & Adverbs) with a fictitious(=imaginative) story such as a Science fiction story or a fantasy story along ALL the different Locations(=either parts of your body, as in the "Body System", or parts of an imaginary room/flat/house/planet/galaxy, as in the "Roman Room/Memory Palace System") within that story. In such cases, the Keyword is Storytelling. Now, that's the technique/method/way. Got it? --> The storytelling technique.

[@markgifford4034]

I told a friend 'you have a bad memory" he replied "I do to' I said 'no you don't' he replied "yes I do" i said 'no you don't" he replied "yes i do' I said "no you don't" he replied "don't what?"

[@muhammadyaseen6638]

Hahah

[@ThebossaruChamp]

I have played a trilogy of games for a few years now and I have memorized the places in that game very well. Items on the ground, enemies you face. I think that can work as an excellent memory palace.

[@shubhambhardwaj6952]

The formal education that we are recieving needs to remember lots of things which are abstract at some extent. So we need these kind of tricks to transform the abstract into real life thing.

[@GaryGunn]

Absolutely sensational speech ....:)

[@jnwin]

agreed!

[@rachelpolitte7434]

Just so you know, not everyone can see visual images in their minds, so this doesn’t actually apply to “everyone.” It’s called aphantasia, and I am one of these people who can’t see anything when I try to visualize.

[@araw_buwan]

How do you remember anything?

[@shardulvyas]

Then you must have really keen ear due to super strong auditory senses.

[@Form383]

Memory Artwork by Joshua....a true memory artist...thanks....

[@mfahz4067]

Thanks so much! I read his "Moonwalking with Einstein", and I'll be having a test tomorrow. Thanks for helping me back on track!

[@3randomtrippycolors215]

So, I was standing looking at my door, opened it to find a group of nude, heavy-set (and perhaps sweaty?) bicyclists peddling towards my front door at a good speed, then I turn around and walk back in and there's the cookie monster eating an oatmeal raisin cookie while sitting atop a tan horse. Followed by Britney Spears singing, scantily-clad (not a bad image) atop my coffee table, and last but not least I go to my kitchen (which has a yellow-bricked floor) and inside my oven are Dorothy and her companions from the classic movie...I'm sure I forgot something, but I'm giddy and will go check what I missed :3 Edit: After re-watching his instructions: I forgot to describe my door, I forgot that the cyclists kind of smashed into my place and bike parts flew everywhere, there was a light shining down onto the cookie monster as we waved at me, and the horse could talk. Not too bad I suppose..that was really fun though, that through his entire speech I could still remember most of that!

[@robsharp1856]

"An Elephant remembers everything" - I wonder what kind of weird things are going on in an elephant's brain to remember everything?

[@muhammadyaseen6638]

Haha he can't remember text!!!

[@phmfasl]

My psychology teacher showed us this video in class. This is very useful!!!!

[@taniahazelpichardo5609]

I loved the information I provide and the confidence I had when talking about the subject.

[@shikamarunara8920]

"And i said woahow, how come I never heard of this before? " he should have answered that by saying " because the education system will go bankrupt and no one will take student loans and then many things will happen accordingly like self taught phd level experts with no certification as well as home schooled game addicted genius children who have no need of leaving their home cuz they have ways of making money online that they taught themselves by memorising some books the stumbled upon in their school library. ...back in the day when they still went to school. .. and now although still teens they each have a phd understanding of some feild of science ....this is a detailed description of a nightmare that the minister of education has form time to time till he woke up in sweat and said to his wife : i must , *out of breath * i must with the help of media and the gov , hide every trace possible of the modern and ancient memory enhancing techniques from public to avoid such a disaster! ... His wife then says: i will go and make some coffe want some with your eggs and ham? He then says after swallowing realising what he sounded like *gulp* : yes please , that would be nice . *still breathing heavily but not as hard as before *... " //// Ofc if he said something remotely close in his talk like against the gov or edu systems ....the least of his problems would be banned ted talk , then arrested or just assassination . Maybe dissappear. So here i am fbi , nsa and interpol etc... i am explaining why non of our curriculums contains such ancient techs to improve our learning , we are being ripped of and fooled into thinking we need to pay for and edu because we cant possibly teach anything to ourselves nor self develop our skills unless we pay some group of experts (uni ) to that for us... once people realise this they will stop paying and going or sending their family members to such places (its personal as well since i hate my uni so u can imagine alk the emotional struggle i am going through watching this video and writing this comment. ... i am kind of venting but notnin private so i am hoping someone sees this while not really caring if no one sees it.... so do not take this comment the wrong way while parts are serious others are jokes...u decide whih are which ) So come and get me if you think i am wrong . This kind of thing should be taught at pre school, high school , uni and companies and money that is spent on higher edu can be spent onnthe certification but in a different way , convince me otherwise (fyi : i am lacking sleep as i am writing this)

[@willowsith]

I fully agree with your comment. I hope you get sleep though

[@leilazacharias9730]

University doesn‘t exist to make us remember things, in a way it just forces us to actually study things by testing our memory in exams. but nobody really thinks that we can‘t memorize everything by ourselves, it‘s rather that university is supposed to help filter out what is scientific and worth memorizing and what isn‘t

[@valita229]

Very informative. Liked it very much :) I am so attracted to brains!!! I think I might be a Zombie

[@alaskawatchers8045]

Absolutely loved the book "Moonwalking With Einstein". I've used mnemonics for years and I used this book to let others get an insight into my life of memorizing things using the Memory Palace and PAO along with some other techniques.

[@GONTARO99]

That was a great speech, I try using this technique from now on. I've searched for all kinds of other memory techniques, but never really found one that works.

[@skypon8]

I have a question. In the video it doesn't really describe how to do this technique and use it in daily life. So for instance can someone please give me of an example of how to remember new vocabulary words, random numbers (like of pi or something), or formulas using his method? That would really be appreciated thanks.

[@kiribundi]

+skypon8 The wikihow article on it is pretty useful

[@ThomasNimmesgern]

Thomas d'Auteuil Could you please tell us the name of the Wikihow article you refered to? Thankyou. :-)

[@02498Dream]

The Major system and the Pao system go hand-in-hand. Foer talks about them in his book Moonwalking with Einstein.

[@aaaight]

i ve learned 100 digits of pi in 2 hours and that was the first time i ve ever used a mind palace

[@Biskwyy]

What if i can't remember how to remember things from this video ?

[@IDMYM8]

Then, at that moment you fucked up

[@Katastrophi]

Thank you for sharing this TED talk, it was much better than his Colbert Report interview.

[@andrewtorik]

Thank you for this beautiful speech!

[@vintagejock3951]

Wow old comment

[@ramil256]

How to create big(100 room) memory palace?

[@tyronetealer4829]

+Maserk ylacflo2.hwe#

[@RiDankulous]

It's easier than you think.

[@oknarub3038]

So how we do it then? Tell us all so we can benefit

[@supermaster7470]

Buranku There's different methods: 1. Making yourself small. 2. Go outside your house. 3. Make your own from scratch.

[@fdxponome]

Interesting . I would like to have more info, but i dont know where to find it. Any tips ?

[@bighands69]

Search on google for memory palaces because that is one very popular method of breaking down information to be remember. When you start of with memory palaces uses small buildings with just a few rooms and place information into those. I my self use small houses but I then use streets with various houses and I name the houses and streets according to topics. This is generally referred to architectural memory techniques. And there are different techniques that can be used and you do not need to stick to one type you can use various. Wikipedia has a good article on "Art of memory".

[@bighands69]

There is one more thing I would add if you are interested this is not memory techniques but it can be combined with various techniques and that is self hypnosis. More or less this is a meditation technique which great as a focus tool and is fantastic to start training. Even doing it while you are in bed in the morning for 5 minutes can be great. If you have any questions just ask.

[@fdxponome]

bighands69 Hey man , thanks for all the info. I really woulld like to train my memory/focus. What other technique is this you talk about of self hypnosis ?

[@reahene2284]

try this course . i couldn't find any other course explaining "learning effectively and memory palace" better than this one: effective-learning.teachable.com/

[@Marvixx]

Amazing. Thank you!

[@houssameddineafyouni]

Such a nice speech man, really! Thank you for laying it out this way. I have been practicing this technique and it actually works. The one difficulty I am having is with new words, I can't seem to put my finger on it quite yet... Any advice? Thank you & peace to all

[@talhaahmed9652]

Im memorizing the first 1000 digits of pi, im around 150 right now

[@_godsl4yer_]

How long did it take? It seems like a nice way to train memory. My friend remembered a bunch of random numbers like root of 2. Useless yet it seems like a great life skill to have.

[@deeppurple6925]

Wow! you wasted a lot of precious time for a completely useless thing!

[@aaaight]

@@deeppurple6925 i ve learned the first 100 digits of pi in 2 hours. That was the first time i ve used a mind palace, it really works

[@slappy8941]

@@deeppurple6925 What if he's in a scenario like Bruce Willis in whichever Die Hard movie with Samuel L. Jackson where they had to solve puzzles to keep a bomb from going off, but the solution is the first hundred digits of pi? He'll be a hero, the terrorist will fall off the top of a building, and we'll all have a Merry Christmas.

[@muhammadyaseen6638]

@@aaaight you took a lot of time

[@oliverroy1992]

How would this apply to memorising binary?

[@thegoodlife8901]

Make every 0 and 1 into something visual and create a picture maybe

[@emmar1647]

+Darragh Mclovin that's actually pretty close. if he makes 0's into one thing and 1's into another, he'll only have two pictures, though. that's not a lot, and not enough for the scale he needs. so he makes longer combinations into specific images. he could learn to read binary first, but i'll tell you this man didnt. it says in joshuas book about it, moonwalking with einstein. each combination is one picture, also. it's one loci. (:

[@arow333]

+Oliver Roy This is how I would do it: First goal: Be able to recognize an 8 digit binary number instantly and effortlessly. (There's 256 of them.) -Step 1: Be able to recognize every 4 digit binary number instantly and effortlessly. (There's only 16 of them.) --Step 1a: Create an arbitrary peg mnemonic memory system for 0000 through 1111. Example: 0000 = hero; 0001 = bun; 0010 = shoe; 0011 = pee; etc. -Step 2: Use the peg mnemonic memory system for 4 digit binary to create another mnemonic memory system for 8 digit binary. Example: 0010 0011 = shoe + pee = dog (My dog peed on my shoe!); 0001 0000 = bun + hero = anpan man (the Japanese children's cartoon of a superhero with the face made of anpan). Create a mnemonic for all 256. Let's say 10011010 = leggings; 11001001 = koala; 10100000 = batman. -Step 3: Practice. Look at a bunch of 8 digit binary numbers and memorize them, in order. Example: 00010000 00100011 10100000 10011010 11001001 = anpan man + dog + batman + leggings + koala = "Yesterday, I witnessed Anpan Man being assaulted by a dog. All of a sudden, batman showed up. To my surprise, he put leggings on his pet koala instead of helping." This is simply one of many approaches to "Elaborative Encoding." With this method, you can create a means to condense the random binary numbers into pieces of meaning, and then you put the pieces of meaning together to make a story. When you need to regurgitate the binary equivalent, you just have to go in the reverse direction, decoding your story into the individual binary numbers. You can also make your process more efficient by adding extra levels of complexity later on. Example: Let's say you are looking at rows of 5 8-digit binary numbers. You decide that each row must correspond to exactly one sentence. You also decide that, if the first and last 8-digit binary numbers are animals, the location of the sentence will be at Petsmart OR the sentence takes place during the weekend. Let's say that this is easier for you to remember because you occasionally take your dog to Petsmart on weekends. Now you only have to come up with a sentence that uses 3 key words instead of 5, and you just have to remember that it is associated with that specific time/place. You have lost a little bit of information about the numbers, but you have also condensed your story even more.

[@danielsjohnson]

+arow333 thank you both for explaining how to do it in binary. I can see a little bit how this could be used on other non-visual stuff now.

[@DreadedEnigma]

+Oliver Roy chunking

[@FindingVickie]

Hey! I used to apply this technique to memorize page numbers when I didn't have a bookmark! Each page number was a battle between the forces of Even and Odds... And my job was to multiply and add them in various ways to make sure Evens always won. Each number had an attitude, and nines were MEAN.

[@TheSuf345]

I loved this talk so much!!

[@earFront]

What did he talk about? I forgot to remember, . . . . . mmmmmm Cookies.

[@Form383]

No. no....I think it's was .ummmm.m.... ..Monsters! yep!

[@sxli3340]

Cookies.s

[@SebastianPappG]

This is Interesting but somehow hard to imagine, invent, and memorize 😂. I don't understand also why people are paying 6k a ticket to see this thing live

[@oknarub3038]

E greu la început coane

[@BiMiHi]

6k ??????????

[@BoneyardLabs]

used this for a college test today......nailed it!!!

[@pvaultinfish]

it always comes back to presence of mind. know that you can train a calming,aware and fulfilling presence and now run with it

[@coltonfarris1230]

My only complaint is that the Greeks... SPOKE ANCIENT GREEK, NOT LATIN!

[@Penthox]

both tho