Full text of memory expert Chester Lian’s talk: Memory- Unlocked at TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet conference.
TRANSCRIPT:
Chester Lian- Speedcuber
Watching someone solve a Rubik’s cube is like going through the five stages of grief.
See, at first you’re like- “No way! What… did you see that?” Stage One: denial.
And then you think about yourself trying to solve this, getting stuck, getting frustrated. Now you’re at Stage Two: anger.
And then you think to yourself, wait, maybe that guy on stage is going to teach me how to do this today. Stage three: bargaining.
And then immediately you realize that that’s not possible because I only have 12 minutes on stage today, so you’re disappointed and you go into stage four: depression.
Finally you get to stage five: acceptance: “Oh, well, I guess I’m not going to learn this today. It’s not even that cool anyway, it’s just a stupid party trick.”
And you’re right. I’ve been doing this for almost nine years now and I can safely say that this is my second most useless hobby. My most useless hobby is solving Rubik’s cubes blindfolded.
I used to think that if I just got really good at this and like make it to the world championships, I get all this media attention and fame and fortune. And now that I’ve actually set two world records doing this, you probably don’t even know they have a world championships for this.
The first step to solving a cube blindfolded is to memorize it. The secret though is not to memorize the colors, but to memorize your solution. Your entire solution encoded into a sequence of letters and numbers that only you can decipher.
So for example, on this cube, my solution sequence goes something like this: C, W, P, H, B, O, E, M, S, L, 1, 7, 8, 2, 6, 2, 3, 4, 3.
that’s it. That’s all I need to solve this cube blindfolded.
By the way, that’s a great password in case you need one.
So how do you go about memorizing that in just 20 seconds?
Well, first of all, my memory sucks in real life. I can’t… I’m bad at names, I’m bad at directions. I don’t even know what I had for dinner last night.
But I came across this memory technique. It’s called the method of Loci, also called the memory palace or the mind palace. And what it is… what it does is, it’s based on this really simple idea that there are just so many things that we know and remember without even trying.
What I mean by that?
For example, the layout of your house, your family members, your daily routine, these are all the things that you don’t have to think about. You just know them. You don’t have to remember where your kitchen is. You don’t have to remember what your office looks like. You don’t have to remember how many siblings you have.
You just know these things and this is what we’re going to exploit to help us remember things that we otherwise can’t.
And now if you can memorize that completely random bunch of letters and numbers and whatever, then you can memorize anything, just about anything.
With a little bit of creativity, I’ve used the same exact method to memorize things like my schedule, my grocery list, my flight information, cards…cards at the blackjack table. That’s a good skill to have. And of course this talk itself.
So what started out as my completely useless hobby has turned out to be pretty useful. And the best part is all of you can learn this. Anyone can learn this. You, you, you, all of you here can learn this.
So how does it actually work?
Here’s the demonstration.
This is Elena.
Chester Lian (to Elena): Say Hi
Elena: Hi
Chester Lian: Everyone say, Hi Elena.
I picked Elena from the audience earlier today.
Chester Lian: How old are you?
Elena: 13.
So what are we going to do now is this, and you can all play along. Elena has no idea what’s about to happen, but she’s going to memorize that.
So what we’re going to do is walk through your house.
So first thing you do, wake up in the morning. You’re in your bedroom.
Elena: Yeah.
Chester Lian: Can you picture yourself in there? Can you visualize yourself in your bedroom, sleeping, Staring at the ceiling?
Elena: Yeah.
Chester Lian: What’s next? You go…
Elena: Go in the bathroom. Get dressed.
Chester Lian: Okay. You do your morning stuff. Brush your teeth in the bathroom. Can you picture yourself doing that?
Elena: Yeah.
Chester Lian: Next, you go…
Elena: Go the kitchen to get breakfast.
Chester Lian: You get breakfast in your kitchen? Okay, you can visualize that as well. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Elena: Cereal.
Chester Lian: Cereal. Cereal is good. Good for you. And then, uh, and then you go to your living room.
Elena: Yeah.
Chester Lian: What do you usually do there?
Elena: Um, depending, but usually math.
Chester Lian: Math? Okay
Elena: Yes
Chester Lian: I do math in my living room all the time too. And then what happens after that?
Chester Lian: Okay, so you take your dog to the park for a walk.
So, let’s go through that all over again. You start in your bedroom, you just woke up and then you go to the bathroom to do your… to brush your teeth, get dressed, whatnot. And then you go to the kitchen to have delicious cereal and then you do math in their living room. And finally you go walk your dog.
Okay. Now she’s completely prepared to memorize this thing if she doesn’t even know that yet.
So in the interest of time, Elena’s going to memorize the letters… the letter part of this, and I’m going to memorize all the numbers. So this is what’s going to happen.
Your first two letters are CW. CW is a cow. So you wake up in your bed, you just open your eyes, you will stare at the ceiling and a giant cow just like comes crashing through the ceiling, landing on you.
Can you all see that? You’re all waking up a bit and the giant cow just comes crashing down on you.
Cow. What are your letters?
Elena: CW
Chester Lian: CW. Great. Next you go brush your teeth and your next few letters are PH. PH is Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.
So you’re brushing your teeth, right? And you’re looking in the mirror and you don’t see yourself. You see ‘Winnie the Pooh’ is waving at you.
So you’re in your bathroom. And what are your two letters?
Elena: PH
Chester Lian: Because ‘Winnie the Pooh’ is there. Next you go BO…BO Barack Obama. So you’re going to, you’re going to kitchen to have your cereal. And on the cereal box is Barack Obama. Somehow he’s on the cereal box. So your next few letters is…
Elena: BO
Chester Lian: And the next you have EM. Do you know who Eminem is?
Elena: (No)
Chester Lian: No? Do you have a friend called Emily?
Elena: Yes.
Chester Lian: Okay, good, Emily. Emily’s better than Eminem.
Okay. So you go to your living room, you’re doing math, and then suddenly the doorbell rings and you go answer the door. And who’s there? Emily. So what are your two letters?
Elena: E M
Chester Lian: E M. finally you go walk your dog and your letters are SL. S L is the statue of Liberty. So you were walking your dog…
You’re walking your dog and suddenly he just goes, he or she?
Elena: she.
Chester Lian: She. She just goes crazy. She just starts barking randomly. And then you look up and you see the Statue of Liberty in your park. So what are your letters?
Chester Lian: Okay, so you wake up in bed. What are your letters?
Elena: C W
Chester Lian: Because there was a?
Elena: Cow
Chester Lian: There was a cow. Don’t be so afraid of the cow. It was a cow. And then you go brush your teeth. Your letters are…?
Elena: P H
Chester Lian: Because…
Elena: Winnie the Pooh.
Chester Lian: and then you go eat breakfast and your letters are?
Elena: B O
Chester Lian: Because…
Elena: Barack Obama
Chester Lian: He doesn’t actually have B O, well, I don’t know about that. And then you go do math and who rings the doorbell?
Elena: Emily
Chester Lian: And so your letters are…?
Elena: E M
Chester Lian: and you walk your dog…
Elena: Statue of Liberty
Chester Lian: which is…
Elena: S L
Chester Lian: Great.
Now my turn to memorize this: 1, 7, 8, 2, 6, 2, 3, 4, 3.
If you heard that 1, 7, 8, 2, 6, 2, 3, 4, 3…that’s what I am memorizing and here it goes.
(Chester Lian started solving Rubik’s cube)
All right, my part is done. Now it’s your part.
What are your first two letters?
Elena: C W
Chester Lian: C W…What’s next?
Elena: P H
Chester Lian: P H. What’s next?
Elena: B O
Chester Lian: B O… I liked it. What’s next?
Elena: E M
Chester Lian: E M. What’s next?
Elena: S L
Chester Lian: S L
(Chester Lian shows solved Rubik’s Cube to audience)
Thank You.
Another round of Applause for Elena.
Now you can substitute those letters with anything. Like I said, your schedule, your grocery list, anything.
These days we have phones and tablets and things that help us remember things, but sometimes try to work that brain a little bit. Try to remember things like that. You can just walk through your house; walk through your daily routine and memorize things like that.
