Turns out that when an atom of Cesium is bombarded with energy is starts vibrating / ticking and every such 9129631770 ticks counts as a second. Hence the name atomic clock. Now in order to remember that number I just go: button push meets cow cozy (actually thinking of a button with push written on it talking to a happy cow). Absolutely brilliant.

This was my first memory improvement book and I loved the techniques mentioned in here. Although extremely impressed, I know I have to keep working on these techniques for a long time to get comfortable with them. Will start recommending this book to a few people who might find it interesting.

"It is impossible to think without a mental picture." - Aristotle

The first chapters of another self-help book on mnemonics that seem to appear regularly have nothing new. A more recent one I read Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything (2012) was probably more thorough as an overview of what goes on in this arena. Who needs to memorize the fifty states in alphabetical order from A to W and backwards? It’s enough to know their geographical location in your mind’s eye. I did not care to go through this exercise to practice building a memory aid scheme. It does get better further on.

The chapter on absentmindedness is helpful. “Think of what you’re doing during the moment in which you’re doing it” to solve absentmindedness. (p. 96) The authors advise to make an association each time you put down your glasses or whatever and to force yourself to make a picture association between the object and the spot where you put it and make this a habit. (p. 97) The picture may be something ridiculous but you must be paying attention. You must make the effort and it will become a habit quite soon.

My interest in building a mnemonic method faded except the foreign language primer perhaps. This would have been useful before our most recent excursion into French speaking province but we have no such plans in the foreseeable future by which time this will be forgotten or hard to find.

Learning to convert numbers to words is formidable task. I simply opted out of it. I noticed that one of the authors established himself as some kind of a magician performer. There may be future in that for someone not for me.

Super interesting book. The concepts are explained well and seem somewhat applicable in everyday life. The first two concepts are easy to pick up, but the next two are fairly hard to learn on the fly. In the moment I felt lost when I couldn’t pick these up as quick as the first two while reading. But then at the end, they give a disclaimer that this book is not a novel, but meant to be used as a guide. A book that you go back, reread and apply as circumstances arise. In the moment, some reading felt futile, but with that note from the authors in mind, it makes more sense. So I guess just know that this is one of those books before reading lol.

Anyone looking to improve their memory will be astounded by this book. You don't have to take drugs! Changed my perspective and incorporated its teachings into my everyday life. A must read!

My Rating: 5+ stars

Reviewed by: Mrs. N

The way cheaper alternative to all those meddling and costly training programs of Jim Kwik and the like :) Suggested methods really work if you practice well, some – even quite fast and with little efforts. The thing is that with emerging technologies people no longer care about training their memory. Each and every remembering process gets easily replaced by combination of hard- and software, in the same time putting our mind’s abilities in certain limits and even reducing these abilities (e.g. attention span).

Not a page turner after the first 4 or 5 chapters

This is a book on improving your memory by using a combination of systems and associations to remember common things such as names, places, telephone numbers, appointments etc. The first couple of concepts on Link and Substitution were great and then it got quite repetitive through the rest of the chapters. I guess once you 'memorize' a few tricks it can basically be applied to many areas of life. By a few hacks, I was able to memorize all 50 states of the US alphabetically. That said, for the rest it does get quite repetitive and will take time and patience to memorize the remaining memory systems.

Many might find this helpful but I found it very tedious so it took forever to read.

Great book on memory techniques and how memory works
peg method very useful
applied this myself for chess coaching with great results

Great reminder about how our memories really work!

What do a magician and a former NBA basketball player have in common? In Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas’s case, it was an affinity for memorization techniques. Together, they wrote The Memory Book, a collection of strategies intended to teach anyone how to improve their memorization skills and recall nearly any kind of information.

In our guide, we’ll share some basic memory principles that underpin Lorayne and Lucas’s strategies. We’ll also closely examine three of their fundamental memorization techniques. First, we’ll discuss how to remember sequences of information using image-based associations. Then, we’ll teach you how to create stand-in words to picture abstract information. Finally, we’ll apply those first two skills to recall sequences of ideas. Throughout the guide, we’ll expand on the authors’ techniques with additional strategies for improving your memory and dive deeper into some of the science behind the authors’ strategies.

This really is a classic. By Harry Lorayne, "The Yoda of Memory Training", who has introduced ancient and new mnemonic techniques to the modern world. The book is written with simplicity, it contains a lot of practical exercises and examples. I was able to skim-read and take what I needed from it. It's a good resource for anyone wanting to develop systems to improve their memory.

This book is about three systems:
1. Link system
2. Substitute system
3. Peg system

Link system tells you to link all the things you want to remember using a weird relation. (Not all of them at once, but as a linked list). And this works!
Example if you want to remember, mouse, aeroplane, chair. Visualize a mouse flying over an aeroplane. And a chair dropping out of aeroplane. As you are forcing your mind to think more about the relations, it memorized the relations. (You are being more mindful here, the author even sorts every word wrt the alphabets, results: more mindful and hence a better memory)

Substitute system tells you to replace the words you don't know with a word sounding the same. Works for foreign languages, new words and new names etc.

Peg system is little complex that it matches all the ten numbers to ten different sounds. And then you can also visualize intangible numbers with tangible concepts.

The initial barrier is big enough for people to be reluctant to learn this.