I don't think I've mentioned yet that I've now accomplished that statistic that I was aiming for - I've now won the last eight memory competitions I've competed in, which is a new record. Woo, and hoo, and hooray for me!
In more visually exciting news, I'm sure most of my readers have already checked this out, but there are lots and lots and lots of photos on memory-sports.com - click here and here to see just about everybody who was at the WMC, in the middle of memorising, recalling and generally hanging around. Great work, Florian!
Well done Ben, you really are awesome!
ReplyDeletexx
Hello Ben,
ReplyDeleteWhat are your images for these combination of cards.
QS/KC/10S/
JD/JS/KH .
I do cards in twos rather than threes. If I got that sequence of cards, it would be the following. There's some good examples there of how I have to stretch some of my words to get an image...
ReplyDeleteQS/KC = "score draw", a pools coupon (for those many people out there who don't know what a pools coupon is, it's a piece of paper with little crosses on it, basically). The coupon is being filled in by...
10S/JD = "stooges", the Three Stooges of American movie fame. I've never been a big fan of theirs, actually, but their name fits the 'Ben system' pattern nicely. They're clowning around and getting in the way of...
JS/KH = "show-dance", a stage dance act. A lot of my JS/something-H images, given the lack of useable words in the English language, start with 'show', which is pronounced to rhyme with 'now' or 'cow'. The jack of spades was the card that probably gave me the most trouble coming up with images.
So we've got a pools coupon, probably fluttering across the stage and being chased by Larry, Curly and Moe, who are bumping into the dancers and generally causing chaos.
Hello Ben,
ReplyDeleteThe coupon is being filled in by...
What they are filled with.
And, the cards will always be fluttering whatever the next image would be, say next image is a ball. So you have action assigned to every object in this way.
Your Journey includes objects in a room or just a room. Do you interact images with the room surroundings to preserve the order or image itself is a solution.
What type of images would you like to suggest us not to be included in a system. How a simple paper, pen, pencil, pin, shoe can be made more enjoyable.
A pools coupon is a traditional form of gambling on football matches - it's a list of Saturday's games, and you mark an X against the ones that are going to be draws. If you don't know what a pools coupon is, I really wouldn't advise you to include it in your memory images.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's only 'fluttering' because it's associated with the Three Stooges, who strike me as the kind of people who can't do the pools without the coupon blowing away in a draught, leading them to chase after it. I've never seen a Three Stooges film in full, but I think that's the kind of thing they did.
Objects and people do different things depending what those people and objects would most naturally do in any given situation. If the next image was a ball, the coupon would just be sitting on top of it, most likely, depending what the third image was. Paired with most people, the coupon would just be being filled in normally.
I briefly tried using person-action-object, but it doesn't work for me at all. It's too restrictive, and it's hard to remember who the person is if they're not performing the kind of action that that person normally performs.
My journeys generally just have a room - objects and people don't really interact with the background, normally. Sometimes they do, but not often.
I suggest you use whatever images are the first to come into your head when you're forming words with the Major system or whatever. Nothing is not enjoyable enough if you use your imagination. Shoes can kick things or make people taller, pens and pencils can draw on things, pins can stick into things, you get the idea.
Most important of all: You'll never get really, really good at memorising if you just follow other people's advice. Make up your own rules, they'll work better!
Hello Ben,
ReplyDeleteNicely explained.
Your idea is to use people also. How many people you have included in your method. If you got three different people in a sequence what story you make then.
Coupon sitting, you see it in the form of human being having hands, legs and face. Ball is still or in action. How they together will be interacting if third image is scale.
How many journey points you use for ten events. They are only rooms or they are environmental surroundings. Do you use the same journey again for the next event.
Vowels you use in the middle of word are strictly based on sounds or they are used like that. How much time did it take to come up with all your images.
Being an accountant, how many hours you have devoted in your beginning days.
I think about half of my images are people (or cartoon characters), but I've never counted them. If there are three people in a row, they interact in different ways depending on which people they are. There are no set rules for how they interact, apart from the general left-to-right order.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, when I say 'sitting' I just mean that the coupon is on top of the ball. No arms and legs and face. If the third image was a scale, the coupon would probably be landing on top of the ball and its added weight would be tipping the scale. But that's just how I would think of it. I'll say it again, there is ABSOLUTELY NO POINT in you trying to copy my methods in this kind of detail. Use your own imagination and have the objects do whatever YOU think makes sense!
I've never really counted how many locations I use for a world championship. Sit down and work it out yourself if you really want to... I don't use the same journey twice in a championship, I think it's best to leave them for a week or so in between uses.
All my vowels and consonants are based on sounds, not on spelling. It works a lot better that way. I don't know whether the vowel system would work if you tried to adapt it into your language - some languages work like that, some don't.
I don't remember how much time I spent with memorising at the start. I know that for six months while I was creating my system I was commuting to work on the train, 35 minutes each way, which gave me a lot of spare time to learn my list of images, and that was very helpful.
I'm not going to answer any more questions along these lines. There are memory books out there that don't have this much information in them, and it's already gone much too deeply into the way my own brain works, which is completely useless to anyone else who wants to learn memory techniques.
People who want to learn should learn the basic principles and then work out a more complicated technique on their own, without following anybody else's systems too closely. You'll be much more successful if you do that!
Hi Ben
ReplyDeleteWhen are you going to write your own book?