Brain Balls

My determination to keep going with the whole memory thing has been re-fuelled... more than once.

The lovely taranova posted a piece entitled Memory. Very lovely as always....

So I knew I was on the right track....

My book (The Memory Book by Tony Buzan) arrived and here began the next step - improving my memory. It began with a look at where my memory is at right now. I was surprised to discover that my memory is not as bad as I had thought. An average person, untrained in memory techniques will score between 40% and 60% overall on these tests. I scored about 50%. Which firmly puts my memory at average. Quite a nice surprise!

Obviously there is a bit of underlying psychology about how the memory works, which science geek that I am, I have really enjoyed. It also fits really well with the trail of enquiry began with Incognito by Monsieur Eagleman. Im proving the way I use my brain and understanding my brain is definitely a thread right now....

And then onto the techniques... These are great and all the ones I have tried so far certainly work... I look forward to going further. Now apparently I have to take a couple of days and practice my current technique before moving on to the next xhapter.....

But I have learnt some new stuff about myself. I like using my brain but my memory has often been neglected because I am pretty good at figuring things out. Why remember a technique for something if you can figure it out from scratch pretty quickly. I got fairly good at remembering concepts as they get slotted into my world view like a thread in a piece of fabric but I am horrendously bad at remembering facts. And that is why I think my memory is bad....

The book had a section on remembering the planets and their position in our solar system. Stats about how many people in a thousand, remembered how much and their confidence level.... One in a thousand actually knew all the planets and their positions and was confident of this. i put myself slightly lower the scale - quite a lot lower actually and I was not being modest.

Confronted with a diagram however and the bits of knowledge I have allowed me to slot the planets in to their appropriate places.... Mercury is tiny and very hot and sits next to the sun. Then venus - a swirling toxic mess of gases with a surface so hot it would set even the Goddess of Love on fire.... Then us - third rock from the sun as per that great sitcom about aliens visiting and trying to live amongst us.... Then Mars of the war of the worlds and Kim Stanley Rombinsons mars series, easily identifiable in the diagram by being red, and relatively small. Then there was a really, really big planet, which could only be Jupiter because that is a gas giant... Then I knew Pluto is tiny so that had to be the last one. I remembered uranus and guessed it's position but completely forgot neptune.... So i was one point away from full marks.

I now know the planets and their order and am confident I will remember them. What else will I be able to learn now? If I develop my memory to actually retain all the things I learn..... and I love learning and have never stopped..... *sigh*

We don't learn to use our brains very well. Why don't they teach that in school. Teach people to think and they will learn because they can do nothing else....