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I’ve always had a good memory but when I was 12 I came across the book “How to Develop a Superpower Memory” by Harry Lorayne. In this book he delves into the topic of mnemonics. Each chapter covers a different aspect such as lists, foreign languages, faces, cards, et cetera.
Before reading the book I would always lose my glasses and constantly look at my watch because I’d forgotten what it said the last time. After reading it I couldn’t forget where my glasses where nor what time it was when I last looked at the watch. I also couldn’t forget where I had placed anything.
His techniques helped me remember phone numbers and French, Russian and Spanish words.
I was in a meeting once when the big boss looked at me and asked me why I wasn’t taking notes. I told him it’s because I remember everything about the meetings. That took him aback. Everyone else always took notes.
I’m not saying that I literally remember everything. I don’t. I do remember most of the gist of everything. I read a lot and I pick up grammar, spelling and other linguistic aspects from that material. This allows me to spot typos and grammatical mistakes much easier than most people. You might have experienced some of my corrections.
Mnemonics should be taught at a very early age. Without a basis for remembering things, how will anyone accumulate knowledge? Some years after I read his book a new book was published called “The Memory Book”. It has all of Harry’s techniques and then some. I found that book to be more difficult. Harry had an easy style of teaching. Harry used to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson every now and then. Before the show he would remember the names of all of the audience members. During the show random people were selected and Harry would name them.
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