Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0294: Reprise: Why memorize things when we have the Internet and Evernote?

Episode Date: April 23, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on the need to memorize things when we have the Internet and Evernote, with some extra comments on how he would change his answer today. What do you want to learn?��Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Today we're doing a reprise episode. When we release this episode, it's going to be during my sabbatical for some extended overseas travel. So basically we're re-presenting an old Master of Memory episode that I think is worth a refresher, but also with some new commentary from me based on my more experienced perspective. Today we're doing episode 12, which is about why we should memorize things regardless of the fact that we have the internet and Evernote. So the question was, why do we memorize things if we're able to look things up all the time? But I like the fact that in this episode, I emphasized that it's only good to memorize what's actually worth memorizing. So you actually want to think about the intended results of whatever it is that you're doing and make sure that it's actually worth the effort that it takes

to memorize it. And then I also put some emphasis on knowing where to look something up. So you want to know where something is, which is the first thing that I memorize in Scripture memory, for example. If I'm going to memorize a book of the Bible, the first thing that I memorize is the topics of each chapter so that I can quickly say where in the book something happens. And I also like the fact that I emphasized things that are handy for conversation. So you don't want to have to look something up when somebody says hi, you don't want to have to look up their name. So even though we are able to look things up, there are

some things that you don't want to have to look up. A couple of things that I'd change about this episode if I was to answer it today, I would add more about the value of being perceived as clever and spontaneous in conversation. That's just really, really valuable. And it's something that's a huge benefit of having mnemonics and memorizing things because you don't have to take any time to look things up. If you want to give somebody a funny greeting, you don't have to look up your repository of funny greetings. They're already there in your mnemonics toolbox. But here's the episode as it was originally delivered last March. Welcome to Master of Memory.

I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Brandon asked on Facebook, Do you have a process to figure out what's worth memorizing in a world where you have information at your fingertips with Google, etc.? Why do you need a complex memory when you have Evernote? Well, Brandon, that's a really good question, and I think we all need to be constantly asking ourselves this question

whenever we go out to learn something. Is this really worth memorizing, or should I just look it up anytime I need it? Now, that said, I really think that it's valuable to know stuff, to have knowledge, just in and of itself. That's just one of my core beliefs. You can agree or disagree with me on that, but also, I mean, I don't think there's any debate that it is handy to know things once in a while just because, you know, there are some things that come in handy in a variety of situations, just knowing them off the top of your head. The two big things are, first of all, if you're going to look something up, you have to know where to look for it.

And then in the second place, you'll want to know things in situations where you're unable to look something up. So to start with the first one, knowing where to look something is valuable. So for example, you could memorize references to something that you're wanting to look up. Let's say you wanted to remember where a particular subject is discussed in the book of Philippians. Well, if you knew that it was in chapter four, you could go ahead and find that. Otherwise, you'd have to do a word search and you might not remember exactly what words are being used. But if you have memorized what the general layout of the book is, you can remember where to look for it.

Another example would be regulatory code. If you work in an environment that's regulated by some sort of code, you'll want to know where to look for the right regulations, even if you don't have to memorize all those regulations. You still want to know where to look for them. Of course, also, you have to remember, you know, if you want to Google something, you have to remember to Google it. You have to remember how to open your browser and Google it. So I think fundamentally we have to remember some things in order to know where to look in order to find things out. And then secondly, if we aren't able to look something up, it has to be in our memory or we simply won't know it. And there are a few situations where that's really important.

So one of these situations, of course, is in conversations. Let's say that you wanted to remember a quote and you had to look it up. And by that time, the conversation has moved on somewhere else. It would be a lot better if you could just suddenly quote it without even having to look it up. And it just becomes a natural part of the conversation. Or let's say you wanted to remember a fact, and particularly a fact that, you know, you will verify with somebody else. So somebody says something about what the capital of Venezuela is. If you happen to know that that's not the capital of Venezuela, then that's going to help you. Otherwise, you know, you wouldn't even question them. You wouldn't bother to look it up in the first place because you would just take them at their word. So again,

I think that knowledge in conversations is really helpful because you're not necessarily going to be looking something up or looking up everything that's being talked about. But if it's already in your mind, your mind will be constantly looking things up and verifying them in the first place. And then, of course, as far as conversations go, I mean, there are some things that would be very embarrassing to look up, like if you didn't remember someone's name. That would be really embarrassing. You say, hi, pull out your iPhone and pull out your contacts and look up their name and say, John, how are you doing? And there are a lot of other things, not just in conversations, but in general, that would be embarrassing not to know,

like industry information. Let's say you work in a field where there's certain knowledge that you're expected to have. Practically speaking, you might just be able to look that up anytime you need it, but you'll be a lot more highly respected if you have certain things memorized that you just expected to have memorized. And then if you go above and beyond that by memorizing more things related to that industry, you'll be even more respected. The other thing I can think of as far as just having things in our memory instead of having to look them up is just general knowledge for ourselves personally. So encouraging things, things like scripture passages and whatever you would want to have in your mind,

even just for yourself, that you wouldn't want to have to go and look up every time you want to think of it. So I hope that gives you some idea of the kind of things that I think are valuable to memorize, whether it's just, you know, facts or passages, quotes. Always be thinking when you memorize, how is it that I could use this? Is this worth memorizing or should I go and look it up every time I want to know it? Because I'll grant that looking things up is easier than ever. So memorization isn't the end-all be-all of knowledge. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this reprise episode. For anyone who has any questions about learning or memorizing anything faster than ever,

feel free still to leave a message at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll be able to respond quickly to your message from wherever I am. I just won't be able to record an episode on that topic until I'm back in the States in May. Meanwhile, if you want to support the show, please check out our Spanish course at master of memory.com slash Spanish. Or if you want to follow my adventures in Argentina or wherever else I might happen to be, you can do that at timothymoser.com.