29. How to Build a Mind Palace and Master Your Memory

Have you ever tried to memorize a speech or presentation? How did you do it?

You likely spent hours repeating and rehearsing line by line, for hours and hours. Unfortunately, rote memorization is one of the most inefficient ways to remember information.

Today I teach you an ancient memory technique, called the Loci method (or "Mind Palace" for Sherlock fans) that will save you time, and help you become a master of your memory. 

Loci is the plural of Locus, which means location.  So, the history behind the loci method, or memory palace takes place 2500 years ago in ancient Greece, where an orator named Simonides (sy-MON-i-deez) was giving a speech inside a stone banquet hall.  Just after stepping outside to chat with someone, the giant stone building collapsed, and everyone inside perished.  And, their bodies were unrecognizable.  

But, Simonides realized that he was able to identify the remains because he remembered where each person was sitting - he could associate each person with a location.

As a human, your memories are wired to be associative.  That means, we store information based on what it is associated with.  It’s called elaborative encoding. it’s how our short term memories become long-term - by connecting a new memory with a pre-existing one.  Every memory has another memory attached with it.  And, the stronger the attachment, the more easily that memory can be recalled.

In this episode, we build a mind palace together, and try this out for ourselves!

Transcript of today's episode

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