Thread by @tasshinfogleman

Like us, ancient civilizations were deeply aware that our memories are flawed. But they took a very different approach to solving the problem.

The ability to memorize information - poems, events, people, ideas, etc. - was considered a moral virtue. Practicing memorization was thought to build character.

With these values, ancients developed incredible ways to memorize in efficient, effective ways. They discovered that ideas that are funny, dirty, and/or based on location were easy to memorize.

One of the most famous mnemonic tools is a memory palace. You have one or more clear locations that you know well, like a childhood home, as well as a pre-ordered path that you walk through the location in.

When you want or need to remember a series of related things, like verses in a poem or your shopping list, you place the items or ideas in memorable ways along the path in the memory palace. Try it - it’s fun and easy to use!

Ancient mnemonic techniques are still studied, used, and iterated on today, most notably by people competing in memory championships. Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein is an incredible read about these topics and more. I loved it!

Still, memory techniques aren’t especially well known or widely practiced these days. Two big reasons: the spread of writing and software.

Nowadays, it's easy to find people who think software is bad for us. Back then, the ancients worried writing was, too.

As an amateur Plato scholar, I’ll take this opportunity to state that despite claims to the contrary, I don’t think Plato is unequivocally anti-writing in his dialogue, the Phaedrus. I have pretty solid evidence to back me up: it’s a piece of writing.

One strategy people take for remembering things these days is to use Spaced Repetition Software (SRS), like Anki, Mnemosyne, or SuperMemo. SRS is also built into tools like Duolingo and Khan Academy.

I used to be a big fan of Anki and SRS. I used it to remember vocabulary, people's names, geography, programming languages, keyboard shortcuts... I even wrote a chapter in a book about it with @rwhe: Mindhacker (goodreads.com/book/show/1037…).

These days, I have a more nuanced view. I think SRS is widely misused.

I have many reasons for this, but one is that people try to use it to remember everything, even things that are irrelevant, useless, or even boring.

When asked about SRS, productivity expert Tiago Forte (@fortelabs) will typically say something like “I want to remember as little as possible.” Wow!

https://twitter.com/fortelabs/status/700704243850747905

Tiago's dismissal of Anki and SRS really surprised me when I first heard him say it.

His perspective is the exact opposite of what the ancients thought, as well as what SRS-abusing digital packrats think. (No judgement, I’m a reformed one.)

Instead of using SRS to pack your brain full of facts - and spend precious time keeping those facts, you can off-loading the things you need or want to remember into external tools like a notebook or software.

This frees up your brain to connect + be creative.

Tiago’s approach is called Personal Knowledge Management. PKM is a brilliant foundation for any knowledge worker and really anyone who engages with information and the internet. If that’s you, go learn Tiago’s ideas, stat.

In his famous polemic "Tagging is Broken," later republished on the Evernote blog as "Evernote and the Brain: Designing Creativity Workflows," (blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/1…) Tiago claims that tagging is widely misused.

Why?

Too much work for too little reward.

(Hmm… since he makes the same arguments against SRS, I could imagine him taking similar positions against ancient mnemonic tools and their modern equivalents!)

However, he does recommend tagging as a secondary workflow tool. One example: make temporary tags to organize a particular project while it’s still relevant. Delete the tags when it’s done!

I’ve been very interested to learn about all of these things: ancient mnemonic devices, SRS, and, most recently, Tiago's system for PKM.

My contention is that they each have their uses.

SRS produces incredible results: I passed Ancient Greek in college because of Anki. But don’t use it or mnemonic tools for remembering everything ever.

Instead, put a good PKM system first. Follow Tiago’s lead re: tagging, and use SRS + memory techniques as secondary tools.

Use SRS to remember names, or learn a language. Keep it relevant and related to your goals. If it stops being fun to review your cards, listen to the wisdom (and boredom) of your body.

Learn how to use mnemonic devices, but use them judiciously, sparingly.

Here's one use I’ve found for mnemonic devices as a secondary tool. They are great for capturing ideas + tasks when you don’t have a pen or smartphone, or can’t use one (when in conversation, or driving).

If I’m in that situation, I’ll use a memory palace that is a map of the United States. Most of my ideas or tasks fit easily into particular locations, like a city or state. You could easily use a different scale- a different country, or just your state, or town.

Above all, I think different solutions are useful to different people at different times in different times.

If anyone says X is a solution to Y problem for anyone and everyone ever, give what they say a try - but don’t believe them!