Tiago Silva presentation @ BarcampPT 2010, about brain tricks and reminding techniques.

1. MIND HACKING 101
Hacking Into Your Brain’s Permanent Storage
Tiago Silva
tsilva@hive.pt
@tiagosilva
2010

2. Mind Hacking 101
An (Un)Healthy Obsession
. Had to learn a lot of boring stuff
. Refused to, it was just too boring
. Exam was 50% theory, 50% practical
. Solution: hammer theory and pray
. Problem: how to memorize 200 pages
. Hint: Guinness World of Records

3. Mind Hacking 101
Guiness World of Records
. Ben Pridmore can memorize:
- 930 binary digits in 5 minutes
- 4140 binary digits in 30 minutes
- 364 playing cards in 10 minutes
- 1404 playing cards in 60 minutes
. There had to be a trick
. There was a trick
. I learned the trick, and passed... barely...

4. Mind Hacking 101
Self-Assessment
1. Chicken 6. Computer
2. Mountain 7. Baseball Bat
3. Barbara Streisand 8. Snake
4. Book 9.Car
5. Cigar 10. Apple

5. Mind Hacking 101
Keep in Mind
Storage amd retrieval
. We’re good at storing information
. We suck at retrieving information
. This limitation can be hacked
Encoding
. Repetition sucks, is boring, and unreliable
. Use all your senses
. Make a hollywood mental movie
. Embed emotions
. Use stupidity

6. Mind Hacking 101
The Link System
. Sequential access
. Create a storyline
. Make each item an actor
. Make each actor interact with the next
. Keep it stupid!

7. Mind Hacking 101
The Peg System
. Direct access
. Link System is like a Tape
. Peg System is like RAM
1 - Tree (one trunk) 6 - Revolver (six bullets)
2 - Light Switch (on/off) 7 - Dice (lucky number seven)
3 - Stool (three legs) 8 - Skate (it rhymes)
4 - Car (four doors) 9 - Cat (nine lives)
5 - Hand (five fingers) 10 - Bowling (10 pins)

8. Mind Hacking 101
The Major System
. Use phonems to turn numbers into words
. Extend the Peg System
. Memorize any number
0 - S, Z 5-L 15 = T - L = TaiL
1 - T, D 6 - SH, J 25 = N - L = NaiL
2-N 7 - K, G 30 = M - S = MouSe
3-M 8 - F, V 38 = M - V = MoVie
4-R 9 - P, B

9. Mind Hacking 101
Übergeekness
314 = MTR = MoToR
3.1415926
=
159 = TLP = TuLiP
535897932 26 = NJ = NuDGe
384626433 53 = LM = LaMa
58 = LV = LaVa
83279502 ...

10. Mind Hacking 101
Breaking the Bank
. Memorize playing cards
. Drive Casinos bankrupt (I wish...)
. Encode cards with Major System
. Apply Link System
. Apply Peg System
. Layout Pegs spatially 2 of Clubs = C2 = CaN
5 of Diamonds = D5 = DoLL
8 of Hearts = H8 = HiVe
3 of Spades = S3 = SaM

11. Mind Hacking 101
Remembering Everything
. Software that knows what you forgot
. Make a database with all you knowledge
. Make mini-daily reviews
. Result: you know everything

12. Mind Hacking 101
Memory Tracking Systems
. Supermemo (horrible interface)
. Mnemosyne (open source but basic)
. Fullrecall (uses neural network for nice predictions)
. Nihonaid (mine, discontinued, but still in sourceforge)

13. Mind Hacking 101
Unforgetter
. Software-as-a-Service Memory Tracker
. As easy as it can be
. Generic: works for everything
. Uses crowdsourcing to weed out bad content
. Manages motivation

14. Q&A
“there is no such thing
as dumb questions,
only weird presentations”
Tiago Silva
tsilva@hive.pt