Chapter 63 Fully mobilize and use the visual function

The content of that speech has slowly disappeared from my memory with the loss of time, but now I can rewrite it based on those pictures if necessary-because those pictures have always remained in my mind clearly. In the early years of Mark Twain's speaking career, he was inseparable from notes and abstracts.He later discovered that by simply using his visual memory, he could discard notes and summaries.He described the transformation process in Chapo Magazine: "Dates are the hardest thing to remember. They consist of flat numbers that don't attract attention, and they can't be organized into graphics so that they don't catch the eye. Pictures make dates stand out—especially if you design them yourself. , I have experience with this. You can't really go wrong, it's very important that you design the picture yourself. 30 years ago, I had to give a speech every night, and I had to use a note to help myself, not to put I am confused. The note usually has the beginning of some sentences written, there are 11 sentences, and it looks like this:

In that area, the weather— The custom at that time was—— But Californians have never heard of— "There are 11 sentences in all. They are the beginning of each paragraph and help me so that no paragraph will be missed when I give a speech. But they are written on paper and they all look the same. They cannot form any graphics, I can remember They, but have never been able to remember their order with certainty, so have to hold the paper at all times and look at it from time to time. Once something went wrong, and I don't know where I got them. You never I can't imagine how panicked I was that night. I had to start thinking about other, more reliable methods. So, I mentally memorized the first words of each sentence in order-in, that, but Wait - before going on stage the next night, I ink these ten words on my ten fingernails, but it doesn't work. I can only remember it temporarily, but forget it immediately. Now the problem It's that I can't figure out which finger I've used and which one should be next because I can't just lick the ink off the nail after I'm done with that finger though it helps me , but it also arouses the audience's curiosity. Even if I haven't done that, the audience is already curious about me. It seems to them that I am more interested in my nails than my speech. After the speech, there is even a Two well-meaning people came over and asked if there was something wrong with my hand.

"I suddenly had the idea of ​​drawing pictures. In two minutes, I made six pictures with my pen to replace the 11 reminder sentences. Once I finished drawing, I put those pictures aside, because I am sure that as long as I close Close my eyes, I can see them in front of my eyes at any time. So, all my troubles disappeared. It was 25 years ago, and the content of that speech slowly faded from my memory with the passage of time but now I can rewrite it from those drawings if I need to—because they are always vivid in my mind." I also use this method to help me remember.Once I was going to give a lecture on memory, and I needed to quote a lot from this chapter, so I used pictures to remember the main points. I imagined this scene: Roosevelt was sitting in a room reading history books, and the crowd was under his window. The streets were shouted loudly, and the band kept playing music.I see Edison gazing into a cherry tree and Lincoln reading a newspaper aloud.I pictured Mark Twain licking his fingernails in front of an audience.You see how easy it all becomes.

So how to remember the order of these pictures?In the order of one, two, three, four?No, it's a little difficult.I turned the numbers into pictures as well, and connected the pictures of the numbers with the pictures of the main points.For example, the sound of the first point (one) is a bit like running (run), so I represent a running horse as one.I imagined Roosevelt in his room, reading a book on a galloping horse.Two (two), I chose a word zoo (zoo) with a similar sound.So Edison's cherry tree grew next to the iron cage of the big bear in the zoo.Three (three), isn't it somewhat similar to tree (tree)?I imagined Lincoln lying across the top of a tree, reading aloud to his mate.Four (four), I imagine - the door (door).Mark Twain stands in front of an open door with his back against a pillar and licks the ink off his fingernails as he addresses an audience.

I know very well that many people reading this will think that this is ridiculous.And in fact it is, but that's one of the reasons it works.The absurd and the weird are easy to remember.Even if I remember the order of points numerically, it might be easy to forget, but in the way I have just described, it is almost impossible to forget it.When I think about the third point, I just have to ask myself: what's in the tree?Immediately I saw Lincoln reading aloud on it. To make it easier to remember, I've turned the numbers one through twenty into pictures that sound like the numbers.I have listed them below, and if you spend half an hour memorizing these pictorial numbers, you can remember nineteen things at any time, repeat them in their correct order, and say which of them is Which is the eighth item in your memory, which is the fourteenth, and so on.

Here are the pictorial numbers.You can try it out, it's fun. (1) run (run) - imagine a horse running. (2) zoo (zoo) - imagine a bear cage in a zoo. (3) tree (tree) - imagine that the thing to be remembered is hung on a big tree. (4) door (door) - or any sound like four (four) items or animals. (5) beehive (hive). (6) sick (ill) - imagine a Red Cross nurse. (7) heaven (heaven) - the streets are covered with gold, and the angels are playing the harp. (8) gate (gate). (9) wine (wine) - the wine bottle is overturned on the table, and the wine in the bottle flows out and drips under the table.Incorporating movement into the drawing can add to the impression.

(10) den (beast den) - rocky caves deep in the jungle are the dens of beasts. (11) shelf—(shelf)—Imagine that someone is putting something on the shelf. (12) hurting (injured) - imagine you see blood spurting from a wound, staining the thirteenth thing red. (13) Courting (court) - a couple sitting on a bench intimacy. (14) lifting (lifting) - a very strong man is holding something high above his head. (15) licking (fighting) - a fierce fight. (16) leavening—A housewife is kneading dough and kneading the seventeenth item into the dough. (17) waiting (waiting) - a woman standing in a fork in the road, waiting for someone.

(18) pining (lovesickness) - a woman is crying, imagine her tears dripping on the nineteenth item you wish to remember. (19) horn of plenty - a goat horn filled with flowers, fruit and corn. If you want to give it a try, first take a few minutes to memorize these number drawings.You can even design the graphics yourself if you want.For example, ten (ten), you can think of it as wren (chick), or fountain pen (fountain pen), or hen (hen), or anything that sounds like ten (ten).Suppose the tenth thing you need to remember is a windmill. Imagine the hen sitting on the windmill, or the windmill pumping ink to fill the fountain pen.Then, when you ask yourself what the tenth item is, you don't need to think of ten at all, just ask where the hen is sitting.You might think this won't do much, but it's worth a try.I believe that it will not be long before others will be surprised by your extremely unusual memory.It was so much fun.