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Tools and Techniques for Improving your Memory? 40

Posted by Cliff from the memory-enhancement dept.
An Anonymous Coward asks: "Like many of you, I'm a IT drone trying to complete various tech certifications. My question is simple: how do you manage to remember all this junk? A lot of it comes naturally to me, but remembering which commandline switch does what or remembering some obscure reference to a tool sometimes causes me to blank on a test. Instructor-led courses seem to be a very expensive, very general overview of material, which almost require you to buy your own study guides to get more complete details. After you leave said classroom, you don't remember most of the topic anyway (Dilbert's 'I summon the vast power of Certification!' come to mind). So I ask the Slashdot crowd: what tools or memory techniques do you use to retain and remember the information you learn?"
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Tools and Techniques for Improving your Memory? More

Tools and Techniques for Improving your Memory?

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  • Use it. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by krogoth ( 134320 ) <slashdot.garandnet@net> on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @06:40PM (#2469202) Homepage
    Use it a lot, and you won't even have to think about it. My firewalling forces passive FTP, so from now on i'll remember that it's wget --passive-ftp, because I use wget to FTP files and directories frequently. Similarly, i've memorized the fact that du -hc --max-depth=1 in the root directory will give me a nice report on where my GBs are going, because I do that a lot. And I can do ssh/scp in my sleep :)

    • A phrase we used to use a lot in my old job.
    • writing stuff down is another way. just write stuff down 20 times and you remember it.
      used to do that at school..then i didnt need to do it at university since theres less learning by rote there and more practical learning.

  • A few things (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rw2 ( 17419 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @06:48PM (#2469231) Homepage
    I've never seen anything in the strong science category, but here are some (perhaps placeboes) that have helped me from time to time.

    1) Phosphatidyl Choline [google.com] is a precursor to acetyl choline a neurotransmitter associated with memory

    2) I've used machines and programs (sadly none of which I can reference right now) that produce sound in stereo such that the left and right ears recieve offset signals and this is supposed to help the different sides of the brain communicate. I don't know what, if any, brain effect this has beyond a white noise that helps me concentrate with fewer distractions, but I find this technique to be so successful that the reason I can't reference a program right now is that I burned some of this noise onto a CD years ago and have been using it as needed ever since. The literature on the subject claims that different frequencies do different things and I find this to be true in my case, suggesting that there is more going on than simply white noise blocking out background. For example, one of the tracks on my CD is supposed to bring you down to a sleep like state. If I use this while trying to work I get very strong headaches. Not something I want to repeat over and over, but I've done it a few times to see if it was reproducable. It was.

    3) Pressure. Most people don't think well under pressure. Don't fall into the downward spiral of getting pissed that you can't remember something. It will only make it harder to remember more stuff.

    4) Concentration. 2 touches on this, but it's a fact that people who concentrate on one task (instead of reading /. during compiles for example :-)) are better able to remember the details of what they are doing. The brain is pretty crummy at task switching.

    • the reason I can't reference a program right now is that I burned some of this noise onto a CD years ago and have been using it as needed ever since.

      I, and I'm sure others here, would love more information on this. Perhaps even a link to the .wav of this magical CD for others to mirror... I'm assuming that mp3'ing it would just destroy the charasteristics.

      I've never heard of this before but hell, I'm willing to give it a shot. :-)

      • I'd definately be interested too. I have a hard time falling asleep so that would be an awesome bonus as well, hehe..
      • A program that generates such sounds is Brain Wave Generator [bwgen.com]. It is Windows shareware, but the FAQ on the website says it runs on Wine.

        On another note, has anyone tried SuperMemo [supermemo.com]? This is a software flashcard program. I like the concept behind it, and even bought the software. But the user interface is so horrible that I can't stand to use it. Are there any better alternatives?
    • Here are two that I've found:

      Brainwave Generator [bwgen.com] - Handy windows program with builtin presets to do all the things you mentioned. This is probably the program you used.

      Cool Edit Pro [syntrillium.com] - This software has a Brain Synchronizer built in to allow you to create your own subliminal messages and brain synchronizer sounds [consciousdreaming.com].
  • Someone once told me when I was in college, I think it was one of my engineering professors, that you don't go to college to learn, you go there to learn how to learn. I can't begin to tell you how true that has turned out to be.

    At the start of a new project, you're usually at the bottom of the learning curve, now do you memorize all the new specfications there are about the project? No, you research them, understand them, and pool together the resources you will need to find information on that topic. I still open my first year C programming book at least a few times a month, and looking at a man page to get some info on a command line switch is a very common occurence also. Engineering specs. for whatever project I'm working on are always close at hand too. A search on the internet to verify and find out more info on a topic also very common. I think about all the classes I took in college and what percentage of that actual knowledge I use on a daily basis and its probably around 10-20%. Now if I look at all the stuff I've learned since then, enormous. And the more you learn, the more you learn how much more there is to learn. (sorry for all the cliche-like lines, but they're really true)

    So basically, what I'm trying to say here, is take the stuff you learn in class as a seed, and then use it to grow from, you don't have to retain all that information, just know that you can find it if you need it at some point.
    Hope that helps...

    KidA
    • you don't go to college to learn, you go there to learn how to learn. Very true. But you've still got to pass those damned tests...

      • Yes, but at least how tests go here at msoe.edu, the professors either provide you with all the formulas you would need, or you're allowed to bring in your own 'cheat sheet' or the like to a majority of the tests.

        I think the teachers realize that for most students there is a choice: a. learn the underlying material, or b. memorize the formulas

        and they would rather discourage the latter option

    • This is similar to my experience learning physics (AP Physics C my junior year in high school). You have to learn to think, not just rote memorization. Don't just learn the basic formulas, learn how to use them. Ditto for other technical topics. Just because you know every command line switch for [insert favoirte console prog here] doesn't mean you know how to use it. If you're trying to learn something, don't just memorize, go out and use it. You may never need it again, but you'll probably remember enough. Though I have never taken a certification test (I'm a senior in HS), I think that they would be heavy on application.

      Just my $0.02. For all I know, I'm wrong about the tests...
    • ...you don't go to college to learn, you go there to learn how to learn.
      Crud, that was what my teachers were telling me in /high school/. Not that I'm saying that my education was better than yours, just that I'm wondering if teachers ever stop using that line. If you're supposed to be "learning how to learn" in freaking /college/, then what were high school and elementary school for? (The cynical part of me wants to say "keeping kids off the street and out of the workforce and teaching them to take orders meekly"...)

  • The hard way to improve your memory (Score:4, Funny)

    by PD ( 9577 ) <slashdotlinux@pdrap.org> on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @08:08PM (#2469611) Homepage Journal
    Get married. Your spouse will remember all those little things you would rather forget.

  • I'd like to add these two suggestions to what the others said:

    1. Never use an acronym ("What does dd stand for?" or "What does the -x switch stand for?") without knowing what it means.
    2. Memory works by making links between concepts. Try to associate as many things as possible to what you're trying to learn, even if it doesn't make sense (you'll then remember that it doesn't make sense, which will make you remember the piece of information that you're trying to remember).
    3. Memory works by repetition. That's the part nobody wants to do, because it's tedious and boring. But what you need to do is not "intensive" repetition (ie. repeating the concept 50 times in a row). What you should do is repeat the concept often. You don't forget the stuff you think about once every day. Just think about it, don't try to memorize it. It'll come by itself. A good trick is to be worried about an exam. This will make you think about stuff very often.
    4. A very easy trick: sleep a lot. Don't study for at least 1 hour before going to bed. Have regular bed/wakeup times. I've often realized that I got good grades when I went to bed early, thinking "Fuck that, I'll never be able to remember that stuff".
    5. If you have friends studying the same stuff, talk with them about it. Ask yourselves test questions. It will make you see concepts from another angle, and will reduce the chances of you studying the wrong stuff.
  • There's a very easy method for remembering everything. You just...uhhh...ehhh...damn, I forgot again.
  • It it really very simple, you just forget something that you already know, and the new knowledge can take it place. Just be careful what you forget, Like that time I took the wine makeing class and I forgot how to drive. Doh!
  • When I forget a command, I start typing a command that sounds appropriate and keep hitting the TAB key (auto completion) until the right command shows up. From that point adding --help usually brings up the switches you need and if all else fails man [command] does the trick. While this will not work on a test, it is a good method when you are on the actual machine.

    The only sure-fire method to remembering a certain command is use. I bet no one here has forgotten about ls (to the point that I always end up typing it in DOS too) but some of the other obscure commands that you might use once in a blue moon are easily forgotten so you just need to use them more.

    Disclaimer: TAB completion doesn't work in all shells so YMMV.
    For Windows 2000 users out there, never fear. You too can have TAB completion with nothing more than a simple registry change [rojakpot.com].
  • Personally, when I had to start a new job and learn unfamiliar technology, I decided to quit smoking pot. That was a couple years ago and I really do feel that my mind is much sharper for having quit. Also, I discovered that the small but ever present gut I had been toting around since high school pretty much went away on its own. I have a feeling it was a munchie-induced gut.

    If you don't smoke pot, I still have a tip for you. Good people. Thats right, make sure you have at least a few genuinely supportive and happy people in your life. Your mind can do so much more if it's secure and at ease with your life. My 2 cents.

  • Many involve using visualization, or audiorhythms - both techniques (and others) were probably used to help storytellers remember stories like the Iliad and the Odyssey. But if it's junk, why do you want to remember it. Remember this: in general useful things will eventually stick. Useless book-larnin won't.
  • There are a number of good books showing how to improve memory. There is a long history of this, starting with Simonides of Ceos. Try Frances A. Yates, The Art of Memory, University of Chicago Press, 1966. Or for a shorter book that contains many exercises and tricks [how to memorize all of the states of the U.S. in alphabetical order in a way that you can recite it backwards, forwards, or starting from any point, etc], and other such tricks, try Harry Lorayne & Jerry Lucas, The Memory Book, Ballantine Books, New York, 1974.
  • I always hated things like memorizing which options are on which menus, and what obscure letter combination makes the command-line version do what obscure task.

    Those things are all available via reference. Reference books/tools(like `man`) are good things. Actually LEARNING how something works is always better than simply MEMORIZING how to do something specific.

    f'rinstance, it's simple to tell someone that you need to chmod 755 a CGI script to get it to work right, but the real value is in learning what those three numbers actually mean, why 7s and 5s and how to apply the concept of permissions to things other than CGI.

    I know I didn't really answer your question.. just expressing a beef I have about (pseudo-)education.
    • Amen to that. And to the guy up above who said "Use it." If you are regularly practicing what you know, you'll retain it--and the rest you can look up. I know that doesn't help you pass the cert tests, but I would say just cram it and don't worry about long-term retention. Some of the most important things to know aren't on the tests, and a lot of what is on them is not common enough to be worth wasting memorization time on anyway. Don't worry about the crap that's in the books--you can always go back and look it up again. It's what is not in the books that you need to remember.

      Don't have any patience with interviewers who expect you to be able to regurgitate technical minutae when you're looking for a job, either. They generally don't understand the really important things and aren't much fun to work for. The ones who ask you about the broader applications of the technology are the ones you want to impress, IMHO.
  • These things really drain the old grey matter of it's retentive capacity.

  • It worked for you when (if?) you had to memorize multiplication tables. Flashcards really help learning definitions.

    Once you know what something is, you've gotta know what it does. I'm a chemist, so once I could recognize a reaction (on flashcards), I made myself draw out the mechanism and list what it was used for. My brother even worte a simple program for me, so I had to select the right series of radio buttons showing the steps of the mechanism.

    Using the info, either by actually employing it or by repeating it in drills, really helps too.

    Good luck in your certification studying.


  • I'm surprised no one has mentioned mind maps yet.

    Does anyone out there actually use them? I have a friend who uses them religiously and he's quite well known for amazing people with the amount of subject detail he's able to repeat on request.
    • Mind Maps rock. I use them all the time, and they're invaluable, but that is because I'm a very visual person. I think the most important think in improving your memory is to understand yourself better, and figure out what type of learner you are. There are lots of books on figuring out what sort of learner you are, and techniques that different types of learners can use to maximise their retention/input speed. Learning is fun, but learning really quickly is more fun.
  • I've been taking courses in Chinese for a little over two years, which involves a lot of character memorization, and have found a few things that help me memorize how to read/write the characters. Some of them might be similarly helpful in keeping the commands straight-- I definitely used some of this when I was a sysadmin.

    1. Rote memorization: drill yourself on command names and functions. Practice matching the command name with the definition, and vice versa. Do this often so it sticks.

    2. Frequent use: incorporate what you are learning into your daily work as much as you can. This will make you more fluent in what you are learning, and give concrete demonstrations of behavior. Of course, we are also more likely to remember things we use often.

    3. (Perhaps most important) Associations and relations: trying to remember a bunch of discrete names and definitions isn't necessarily especially helpful, particularly when the amount of stuff you have to keep straight gets large. In doing the character memorization, I've found such relations as "looks like", "same character as another word", "doesn't look like", etc to be helpful. For command memorization you can expand this to include "behaves like", "does the opposite of", etc. Putting your knowledge in context can help with the times when you "blank out". Also, many command names and options are based around mnemonics, so trying to understand these can be helpful.


    All this aside, the people who have commented that the ability to find information is much more important than the ability to spit back memorized stuff are absolutely correct. While it is obviously vital to have some baseline level of knowledge in your line of work, I am somewhat dubious about employers that emphasis certifications and knowledge of obscurities, rather than problem solving ability and the ability to learn new skills if necessary.

  • I'm an EE student, so I don't have to memorize much, but when tested on some sort of list I have used this method, apples verilog australia branch = Amy's very awesome butt.
  • Rather than understanding or the ability to look things up, certification tests often require regurgitation of facts. Here are my suggestions for ROUTE memorization:

    1) Physiological: Get proper sleep diet and lifestyle as much as possible. Makes everything else easier. Drink plenty of water.

    2) Mnemonics: I still remember mnemonics I used for things years ago, can't even recite the alphabet without hearing the alphabet song from kindergarten! To remember 802.x standard numbers for Network+ I used 802.3 = "Threethernet" (ethernet), 802.5 = "Five TOKEN RING" sung to 12 days of Christmas, etc... It's easy to see that the numbers in this example are arbitrary and have no "understanding based" way of associating to the subjects to which they correspond, which is why mnemonics are so helpful here. Making mnemonics funny, dirty or otherwise memorable will help you remember them.

    3) Primacy/Recency effect: Study in short bursts, periodically interrupt your study for breaks. This is because you recall better what you studied at the beginning and end of your sessions.

    4) Repetition: Use flashcards or software (I wrote my own) to drill on those things that are particulary hard to memorize. Actually making your own questions is harder than learning them once they are made, but this is good because...

    5) Study actively: You will remember things better if you take your own notes. Write things down, ask questions, note down anything you don't know. Recite things outloud. Invloving sight(reading), touch(writing) and sound(reciting) increases your "neurological involvement" with the subject matter, which makes a huge difference in your ability to recall.

    I can also recomend:
    Audiowhiz [audiowhiz.com] makes cd's for specific tests. Listen during your commute. Their site seems to be down now, but do a search and you'll find them from other vendors.

    A book called "The Einstein Factor" by Win Wenger, Richard Poe. Offers a bunch of novel, creative techniques, not just the same old junk that most memory books regurgitate. I can't guarantee all these will work for you (especially Photoreading), but they are worth a try.

    also see nomis80's post which is dead on.

    -"No, I don't want any pot. Can you score me some smart drugs?"

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