New Memory Research Blog Format: Come Help Me Learn

Confession time. I’m hiding from my Anki flashcards. I have been for months.

I’m guessing that this isn’t what you expect to read on a memory site.

But you know what? I’m excited. When the old ways aren’t working, you know it’s time to try something new. We’re going to take this site to a whole new level.

These Memory Methods Do Work … For Tests

So far, you’ve only seen my successes. I researched, I experimented, I combined techniques. Amazing! All these memory techniques actually worked.

And they still do work – if your goals are modest. If you only want to get A’s on all your fact-based tests, then sure, you can do that.

Seriously. You can. Read this site, learn Anki, and go get those A’s. No excuses. Tests are an antiquated mechanism, and spaced repetition should eventually make them obsolete. In the meantime, you can rake in the grades.

What About Books? Thoughts? Moments?

But grades aren’t everything. (Especially after graduation.) Maybe you want more.

I do. I want to keep what I learn – not in school, but in life. Books, thoughts, conversations, experiences. I hate how quickly they evaporate.

For months now, I’ve known that for these kinds of memories, my current methods won’t work. My thousands of flashcards stopped helping me. So I stopped reviewing them.

At first, I thought I was just getting lazy. Flashcard fatigue. But that’s not the answer. I’m trying to remember what I read. My whole flashcard method has major problems.

A Memory Research Blog

In the next few posts, I’ll explore those problems thoroughly. Problems lead to solutions.

To find those solutions, I need to research and experiment. Try new things. Fail. Try again.

And I want to take you along.

The first time around, I worked in isolation. When I thought I had researched and tested enough to share it, I built this site.

This time, I want to tell you as I go. I’ll make mistakes, I’ll hit dead ends. I’m no guru.

But I do know that our minds are amazing. That’s why we’re so bothered by our forgetting. We know we’re not thinking at our best.

I’ll still leave the “Memory Basics” Guide and other articles up. For new readers, Anki and mnemonics can change their lives. So many people just need a way to retain a few hundred critical facts in their minds. These tools could solve millions of short-term practical problems.

But most of the time, I’ll be blogging about my memory research. I’ll share what I find, what I try, and how it goes. I love it when other people share these “behind-the-scenes” details. Now it’s my turn.

This is going to be fun.