Secrets of the Massively Distributed Memory Palace with Richard Rubin

Imagine memorizing seven decks of playing cards.

Now imagine knowing the location of each card in each deck by number. In other words, if someone names the 2 of clubs, you know how far down in the deck it is, such as the 27th card from the top.

Now, you might be thinking…

How the heck is that going to help me pass an exam, get a raise or learn a language?

Magnetic Friends, I believe that memorizing cards will help you in multiple ways that directly relates to each of these goals.

In fact, it’s one path towards what Richard Rubin calls the Massively Distributed Memory Palace.

And that’s exactly what we talk about in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, amongst other topics of interest:

• Harry Lorayne
• Bruno Furst
• The implications of AI for mnemonists
• Memory Palace books and linguistics books
• Ancient memory techniques and more modern approaches
• Mnemonic imagery in the context of phonics, reading and the implications for comprehending mnemonics
• Memdeck considerations, including the Tamariz stack

And of course, Richard’s take on the Memory Palace technique.

Who is Richard Rubin?

Richard is a memory athlete with impressive stats.

He also creates incredible and fun memory demonstrations, often based around magic and mentalism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8onVcbXusE

I think his ideas are fantastic and his insights into memory improvement profound, so I suggest following him on YouTube. And check back here for a link to his forthcoming website when it’s ready.

The Massively Distributed Memory Palace

I’m going to let Richard explain this himself, so please enjoy the conversation.

And the cool thing are the connections to other mnemonic strategies I’ve seen before. For example in Giordano Bruno’s writing and especially the mnemonic writings of Robert Fludd.

What I love so much about this conversation, is that Bruno himself once said that those who think enough about mnemonics will reach similar, if not the same conclusions. It’s a lot like how magicians independently arrive at various moves and wind up calling essentially the same thing a different name.

This point is important because the more teachers we have, the more people will discover the fundamental logic that supports all learning assisted by elaborative rehearsal, properly optimized spaced repetition and tactics like chunking.

My belief is that the Mnemonics Renaissance given full steam by Tony Buzan with the memory competitions and massively supported by books like Moonwalking with Einstein is only going to continue growing.

So my hat is off to Richard and I hope you’ll support him along with all the other great memory athletes and teachers who are out there doing great things to inspire and encourage others.