Does the 4-Time US Memory Champ Nelson Dellis Ever Forget his Keys? Yes, and Here’s Why it Matters to your Memory
4-time USA memory champ Nelson Dellis insists there’s nothing that special about him. One day, he surprised himself with a training technique — perhaps he didn’t have a poor memory after all. We chat with Nelson to find out what he did to supercharge his memory.
Peak: Hi Nelson, thanks for chatting with Peak. You’re a four-time U.S. memory champion. What are your opponents like in these competitions?
Hello! Let me start by saying that I’m a huge fan of Peak. I’ve played with a lot of brain training software over the years, and Peak’s is the only one that kept me glued. Good stuff!
Anyways, back to the question. At your typical memory competition, it’s easy to imagine that most competitors are socially awkward, pimpled nerds with nothing better to do, but in fact it’s a varied range of people: a pizza delivery guy, a former clown performer, a retired army veteran who served in Afghanistan, an avid CrossFitter and mountaineer, a middle-schooler, a mom who is worried her memory is slipping away. They are all over the place!
Peak: Outside of competitions, what are the day-to-day benefits of having a memory as good as yours?
Honestly, the number one thing I’ve drawn from training my memory so extensively is confidence in everyday life.
I used to be shy, conservative, and a little over anxious, constantly worried about my poor memory. But now, I know how good my memory can be when I make the effort, that it allows for me to be aware of more important things in social settings. It’s a great thing to be confident in your memory and attention.
Peak: Do you ever forget things? Like where your keys are?
Of course. This is embarrassing, but I think it helps make my memory seem more human.
Some people think I’m just a tape-recorder, memorizing everything I see. But no, a lot of what I do is a conscious effort. If I stop trying, my memory can be total garbage.
Memory comes down to paying attention. That’s all it is. In memory competitions, all we’ve done really when it comes down to it, is develop strategies to pay better attention to material we have to memorize.
So with that in mind, naturally, there are times during the day when I’m not paying attention (I’m human! I get distracted too!), and that’s when I forget. I can be especially forgetful sometimes because I’m always thinking about my training and future competitions. There have been embarrassing stories of me having to go to the grocery store to get two items, and I come back with one … DOH!
Peak: When and how did you first realize you had a great memory?
“Realize you had a great memory” is the wrong way to phrase this. We ALL have great memories latent within us.
I first realized this when I read a book telling me I did, and then it showed me an example. I tried the example and was blown away that I was able to memorize what they had put in front of me (it was a list of the 20 largest bodies of water in the world).
I was still skeptical, but after a few weeks of training (this was back in 2008), I realized I had a great memory (so long as I trained it and used techniques).
Peak: Did you start training it right away? What was your first training regime like?
The first time I got into it, it was more like a hobby. My grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease so I was curious to see how these techniques would work on me.
I vaguely had the idea of wanting to compete in the next USA Memory Championship (2009), so my first training regime was basically training the disciplines from the event: cards, numbers, names, words, poems. I was busy, so it wasn’t a super strict regime. I competed, and did so-so, middle of the pack.
But it was the summer of 2009 when my grandmother finally succumbed to Alzheimer’s that I decided to up my training to something pretty crazy and obsessive. That is when I started to see mega-improvements.
Peak: How did you discover the techniques that you use today?
I started with Dominic O’Brien’s audio book Quantum Memory Power and then developed and tweaked the rest after that to suit my personal style.
A lot of the later tweaks came with hours and hours of trial and error. I’d have a new idea for a system for cards, for example, and then I’d spend weeks and countless hours training it. Most of the time they wouldn’t work, but they’d help me figure out what works and what doesn’t (for me).
Peak: Can you please describe the methods?
They can get very specific, but the basics are simple. These basic methods translate over ALL things I memorize.
It comes down to what I said before, paying attention. But how?
Well first, you have to take the thing you want to memorize and turn it into a mental picture; something that is absurd, weird, out of the ordinary.
Next, you need to store that picture in a location in your mind that you are familiar with. What a lot of us competitors use is what’s called a Memory Palace: a mental construct of a place you are familiar with like your home or office. Something you have memorized already without realizing it. The idea being that you take these silly pictures and place them (imagine them, rather) along a path through this place. So when you go to recall them later, you just imagine yourself walking through that same place, and the pictures will still be there.
Sounds complicated, but it works and it’s so cool!
Peak: If you re-use the same place for your Memory Palace, like your apartment, is there “interference” from past rounds of memorization?
Yes, so if I keep re-using the same Memory Palace, there is a high chance I’m going to confuse things. There might be “echoes” of items present there from the previous set. So what I do is I actually have a fairly large collection of palaces. Ones that I cycle through during my training. The idea being, I use one palace, say to memorize a deck of cards, and then the next time I use another. I’ll go through all my other palaces until I cycle back to that first one which will have forgotten itself by that time. Now, that’s for things I actually want to forget. These decks of cards I train to memorize are only interesting up until I recall it correctly. After that, I have no use for it and have no interest in holding it in my memory for any longer. So I let it fade. There might be other things I want to actually keep for longer (or even forever!). In those cases, I keep that palace preserved and I mentally review it from time to time to keep the contents alive. Does that make sense?
Peak: How does your training regime today differ from what you did when you just started? Do you change it leading up to a competition?
Oh man, competition is so strict these days and records are falling all the time. To stay relevant and competitive, you need to put a lot of hours of training in. So back in the day when standards weren’t so tough, it didn’t take that many hours to be up with the best. Now, it takes real discipline and dedication. I train multiple hours a day, and that goes up even more the 6 months before a big competition.
Peak: What’s the most difficult subject for you to remember, and any idea why?
Even though I hold the USA record for it (201 names in 15 minutes), it’s the hardest for me. Remembering names is always so random. You never know what face or name you’re going to get. With cards and numbers, conversely, it’s a fixed set. Yes it’s random, but you know that there are 52 cards and 10 different digits. Names are limitless! Gah!
Peak: You’ve spoken about memorization techniques, which are accessible to anyone who wants to train their memories. If the average person can improve their memory for better recall day-to-day, are they also able to train themselves to competition levels? Or are those levels only accessible to people born with an above-average aptitude?
Yes, definitely! To get up to competition level, as I mentioned above, it’s all about dedication and discipline.
Not everyone has that, unfortunately. But it’s the same with anything. If you want to be the best at something, or up with the best, you need to work. There are no shortcuts to the top. As Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “You can’t climb the ladder with your hands in your pocket.”
Peak: What are your top 3 tips for beginners?
Back when I started, there were very few resources out there to get started, but now on the Web, there are SO MANY. It’s easier than ever with apps to help you review, brain training sites, wikis with all the techniques explained, etc.
It really depends what your goals are though. Do you want to compete? Do you want to be the champion? A record holder? Stave off Alzheimer’s? Or just get better at remembering names in your daily life?
In general though, everyone will be starting in the same place. Here are three things to keep in mind:
1. We can ALL do this. I have rarely (if at all) seen anyone compete or do an amazing memory feat without using a memory technique. I used to think people who could do those types of things had a gift, but that’s not the case. So remember, we all have the capacity to do this. Stay confident!
2. Practice. You may have picked up on this, but I practice a lot. Granted, I’m training to become a champ, but regardless, to get better at something you need to practice. Maybe not a crazy amount of hours, but at least a few minutes a day. Memory takes practice, don’t forget that.
3. Keep at it. Memory is definitely something that weakens if you stop using it. Think of it like brushing your teeth, you do it every day without thinking about it to maintain oral health. If you stop, your teeth get nasty. Use your memory on a daily basis and it will be strong and healthy!
Peak: You’ve gone on to host your own competition, the annual Extreme Memory Tournament. Can you tell us a little about it?
Yes! I came up with this competition a few years ago, and we are now going into our third year as a competition. We’ve gotten such great feedback from it.
It stands apart from other memory competitions because the prize money is huge, and all the memory events are short, 1-on-1 matches. And best of all, it’s all digital (believe it or not, the other competitions are all done on paper), so all the action is easy to follow for viewers at the competition or at home.
Anybody can compete in this thing and we hold qualifiers at the beginning of every year. If you are interested, just check out the website!
Click here to share this interview with your Facebook friends.
