Ask HN: How to improve your memory permanently | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to improve your memory permanently

22 pointsHeidaradar9 comments

is there a way to improve your memory permanently, I've heard playing board games, learning a new language, doing exercise, gymnastics are all ways to improve memory permanently. Yes, I use spaced repetition but I don't want so much overreliance on it, I have too many cards to remember.

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With respect to working memory, this week's Huberman podcast (Tools to Enhance Working Memory & Attention) could be insightful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQlTmOFM4Qs

Heavy metal detox, PRL-8-53, CDP Choline, Ginko bilboa, microdosing, tDCS (some positions, and frequencies), transcranial red light therapy, HBOT, brain entrainment devices, various peptides, racetams, floating chamber... And this is just tip of an iceberg.

Personally I am suspended in a tank of concentrated spice gas

I've heard great things about bacopa monnieri[0], but many people complain about decreased motivation as a side effect

Horizontal eye movements have consistently been shown to improve memory retrieval, dependent on handedness [1]

[0]: https://examine.com/supplements/bacopa-monnieri/

[1]: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Horizontal-but-not-ver...

As it seems to me, it's highly depends on the kind of material you're trying to memorize and the cause you're trying to memorize this.

What usually works for me when I'm trying to learn something new:

- I write down or retell what I have just read. From my experience the ability to reproduce what you have just read with your own words extremely increase probability that you will be able to do this later.

- I try to build some kind of system from the new information: A depends on B, B depends on C etc. Sometimes I draw it with diagrams, but most of the time explicit conclusion of what types of things and connections between them was mentioned in an article is more than enough.

- I try to connect the new knowledge to my experience. I realize that this may not work if you need to memorize something like Maxwell's equations, but it's still possible to build links to what you already know OR ask right questions and learn the missing pieces that help you to build a bridge to what you already know.

So, you may improve your habits of how you consume new information to improve your memory.

If I need to remember something like shopping list I just write it down in notes and don't worry.

As with many other things, the first step should be to fix your sleep/ diet/ exercise.

The book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything [0] explores this. It has been a while since I read it, but from what I remember, the author explores the techniques used by the champion of some international memory competition (where the goal is to memorize something like a really long sequence of digits or the order of a deck of cards as fast as possible).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein

The Attention Revolution is a manual for improving your capacity to pay attention. Not exactly memory training, but your ability to direct your attention and focus impacts how much/well you retain information.

https://www.amazon.com/Attention-Revolution-Unlocking-Power-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

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