#SoG13 — Brain Games / Memory Palace
Lemme start with a question.
What did you have for dinner last Monday?
No?
Question 2.
Last time you went out to eat at a restaurant, where did you sit in the restaurant? Who sat next to you?
Dont tell me. But I can bet that you could recall!
Why do you remember where you sat? And not what you ate?
Because the way our minds are programmed, we tend to remember spatial data compared to all other types. I am sure you can remember where was that dining table in your last house and where in your kitchen was that refrigerator!
In fact, it is common for street magicians to remember the order of a randomly shuffled deck of cards in less than a minute.
How do they do it? Well, they seat each card at a location in their “memory palace” and as they navigate the palace, they can remember what card is at what place!
What? You are confusing me. What is a memory palace?
Ok. Lemme use an example.
Think of a place you know really well.
Say the house you live in.
Imagine you are walking in it with a blind friend and you are explaining the layout of the house to him.
Right outside, there is a doormat on the floor, a doorbell on the left hand side wall, a nameplate on the right hand side wall and of course a door.
In the house, we have this expansive hall. There is a shoe-rack towards the left. On the right is the 5-seater sofa set.
On further to left is the door leading to the kitchen and there is one shelf that has the gas stove
Up ahead is the bedroom and bang in front of the bed is a 56" TV, hanging from the wall
And so on and so forth
I am sure you can detail out your house in vivid detail.
Do you realise that even if you are forgetful af, you still remember these in great detail?
This ladies and gents is you memory palace. A palace in your head that you can recall in great detail without any special effort!
Now once you start placing objects at various nooks and crannies in your palace, you can remember them with surprising level of accuracy.
Phew.
This is the most simplistic explanation of a complex topic that I’ve ever managed!
Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci.
Coming back.
So our brains are among the most complex objects ever made.
And like I said, you can do amazing things with it.
And apparently, our brain is like a muscle.
No, dont hold me onto science. I am sure I am not scientifically correct.
I said “like” a muscle and the way you can train a muscle to grow, you can train your brain as well. And like with muscles, if you don’t train, they atrophy. You know how they say, baithe baithe jung?
Training the muscles is easy. Eat lot of proteins, clean carbs, train thrice a day, get good sex and you’re sorted.
How do you train the brain? How do you exercise it?
The tough way is that you throw a new challenge to it every month.
- Month 1. Learn a new language.
- Month 2. Learn a musical instrument.
- Month 3. Write with your unnatural hand.
- Month 4. Paint for a month.
- Month 5…
But this could be cumbersome.
And who will track progress?
What if you get bored?
Rather, you can do two things.
A, meditate (its been proven that people who meditate regularly have denser grey matter)
B, use those brain training apps!
Today, this short letter (after this mile-long context) will talk about these brain-training apps!
What is a brain training app?
Well, an app that throws different challenges at you, each designed to challenge one specific faculty (and thus a different part) in your head.
And with time, these challenges get more difficult and more demanding so that you do not stagnate!
The best part, these apps track your progress and tweak the games they throw at it.
There are a few available in the market.
I use the following three…
They have free versions with certain limitations. But I have a paid version of Peak and I play it everyday. Well, most of the days.
And honestly, I have seen my scores go up on most games. Apart from the ones that require maths skills — I suck at those. And with the scores, I have seen my real-life memory get better.
Trust me. There was a time when I had to shift thrice between SMS and Uber to fill in the OTP. And now I can recall it in one glance! Sounds like trifle but to me, its a HUGE achievement!
The apps work! Best part?
You can challenge your friends! How about you challenge me?
What next?
For you? Get one of those apps and every time you are free, rather than wasting time, play these games. Give these a swing for a week. Not more, not less. A week. If you dont see a marked improvement, you may go back to your Candies.
For me? Once I am back in Mumbai, I will work on my memory palace and get back to remembering a randomly shuffled deck of cards. I want to be able to do it under a minute. Lets see when I do it.
Till then, over and out!
Thanks,
This is an edited version of an email that I send EVERYday to a few friends. Should you want to subscribe, please do let me know (I am @saurabh on twitter). And yes, I hate spam as much as you do.
