Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0471: How to memorize the streets of a city

Episode Date: December 28, 2015

Rhett wants to memorize the layout of streets in a city. In the episode, I describe some accelerated learning tactics for memorizing maps and learning street names quickly to create a strong mental map. 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.

Master of Memory 471. 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. Rhett submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Rhett says, do you know of a mnemonic technique that I could use for memorizing streets, their names and prefixes, and in particular their adjacent and connecting streets? So Rhett, I've done an episode before on memorizing local maps, but some of my techniques have been updated, and so I thought I'd do another episode for you.

Basically, there are a few techniques for doing this, but the main ones that I would recommend I'm actually going to combine in this episode. First of all, think about major landmarks of whatever street or city you're in. So maybe the major intersections of the two largest streets. If you actually just memorize the two largest streets in your city, one direction and another direction, like a north-south street and an east-west street, you can memorize lots of other things in the city very easily simply relative to those. So, for example, in Manhattan, those two streets might be Broadway and 14th Street. The reason is that Broadway intersects many major, you know, landmarks in Manhattan,

and 14th Street is kind of on the south end of Midtown, but it's also where many of the major subway stations are and where, you know, many of the lines cross 14th Street. So it's just a handy street to know. That's where Union Square is. So if you just learn 14th Street, east-west, and Broadway, north-south, then you can learn the quadrants where lots of other things are. For example, Wall Street is obviously south of 14th Street, but it's east of Broadway. And then the World Trade Center is south of 14th Street, but west of Broadway. And then West Side Stuff in Midtown is west of Broadway, but north of 14th

Street. And then you can memorize things that are east of Broadway and north of 14th Street, like the Empire State Building at 34th Street. To go from there and make it a little more complex, I would recommend memorizing a particular route through the city. So for example, in Manhattan, that might be Broadway going from Columbus Circle down to Union Square. And the reason is that in the first place, you're taking that major avenue that you've memorized and now attaching a bunch of landmarks to it. So you have multiple landmarks through the city, not just the intersection of Broadway and 14th Street, but several of those major landmarks along Broadway. So from Columbus Circle up at Central Park, down to the Empire State Building at 34th Street, down to the Flatiron

Building at Madison Square, and then down to Union Square. The point here is that you're focusing on a very small amount of information, just the major landmarks along Broadway, but based on that, you can memorize pretty much anything in midtown Manhattan just by the fact that it's, let's say, north of the Empire State Building, but south of Columbus Circle, and on the east or west side of Broadway. So that's something that you can do very quickly. You can really easily learn the major, let's say, building but south of Columbus Circle and on the east or west side of Broadway. So that's something that you can do very quickly. You can really easily learn the major, let's say, landmarks along one particular highway or one particular avenue, but then you can easily memorize the other things in

between those just based on that. So rehearse that route a little bit and you can learn other things relative to that. You just have to choose your route pretty proactively, I would say, because let's say, for example, if you're in Manhattan, you might memorize the route from Central Park down to, let's say, something in Nomad. But if your route is Broadway when you do that, then you're learning a lot more of the major landmarks and you can learn other things relative to that more easily. Now, taking this another step further in complexity and in sort of advanced mnemonic techniques, you might just go ahead and decide that on one side of Broadway, you'll imagine that everything is on fire. And then on the other side of Broadway, it's raining.

So those are two environments that we're suddenly putting on everything that's on one side of Broadway or the other. So you can always remember whether something is on the east side or the west side. And then as far as north-south goes, you can imagine that everything north of the Empire State Building is on ice, and everything south of the Empire State Building, to a certain point, is on a very rocky ground with no vegetation. And then when you go south of the Flatiron Building, suddenly everything is on water. So the purpose of that is that you don't just know these landmarks and try to learn things between these landmarks,

you're actually giving things labels, so that you know which side of the street they're on and how far north or south they are, just based on the fact that you can imagine, say, a restaurant being on rocks and in the rain. So if you're going to remember that a restaurant being on rocks and in the rain. So if you're going to remember that a restaurant is on rocks and in the rain, you can immediately place it on your map in your head of where it is relative to these major avenues.

Now, I did abbreviate the techniques somewhat in this episode, but if you want to go into more details and actually memorize downtown and midtown Manhattan, you can just go to masterofmemory.com start and the sixth lesson in that starter guide, which is free, no opt-in required, etc. You can just go out there and read it. And the sixth lesson goes into detail on all of this and brings you through an exercise where you memorize all the major streets and landmarks of Manhattan. Again, that's at masterofmemory.com slash start.

Meanwhile, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your specific learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.