Someone left a comment regarding when the book will come out, and instead of leaving a long response in the comments section, I figured it warranted a proper post:
I'm really sorry about the delay, but there is one really important hangup. To summarize what has happened over the last many months: I over-invested in a mnemonic technique that was based SOLELY on leveraging the power of AI image generation, and the results were not what I had expected.
Since I basically rewrote my "global mnemonic system" to accommodate for AI images, after the failure of this system, I had to decide what to do. I had two options: 1. Use the same mnemonic system that I was using previously (Which I had been using for many years) or 2. rewrite the system while making adjustments in light of what I had learned. Although it is time consuming, I opted for option 2. Think of it as when Microsoft failed with Windows Vista or Windows 8 so they course corrected with Windows 7 or Windows 10.
When I first started creating an organized mnemonic system years and years ago (Which at the time was mainly for Japanese character readings), I didn't TRULY know what I was doing, I was just learning as I went along. Essentially this entire blog is an exercise in self-experimentation, and I simply post my results here. Over the years I have learned what mnemonic systems are easier to work with compared to other systems. For example, source material WITH linear scenarios and progression seem to be more effective/faster to associate mnemonic meaning than source material WITHOUT linear scenarios and progression. So for example, a Tarantino movie or a TV show that features many flashbacks will not work as well as something with a straightforward beginning, middle and end. Not that stories with non-linear source material are IMPOSSIBLE to use with an organized mnemonic system, but it seems like it requires more work to create and maintain.
These are the kinds of useful insights I want to articulate and put out onto the internet so others in the same position as me can benefit from my failures. I like to think of myself as a cartographer that is exploring a mostly unexplored and windy cave. Many passages lead to dead ends, but it's still worth it to KNOW that it is a dead end. I don't want to say "This works, I recommend you do this too" unless I know that FOR A CERTAINTY it ACTUALLY works. When I started experimenting with AI images, I thought FOR SURE this was going to change the world of mnemonics, but instead it ended up being a great SUPPLEMENT somewhere in the middle. I have a pattern of doing this with many things, actually. Heck, this same cycle happened to me with SuperMemo itself. I started using it, became WAY too obsessed with it, and eventually found a balance in between the two extremes of NOT using it and using it TOO MUCH. I think I have found this balance when it comes to the application of AI images in mnemonic systems, and I'm in the process of proving this to myself. I'm not sure how much work is remaining until I feel like I can put my "stamp of a approval" on the system, but I don't want to recommend it too early because I don't want to mislead anyone.
I don't want to say "I did this for 2 weeks and it was useful!" I would rather say "having tried system x, y and z thoroughly, I can say absolutely system x is the way to go."
So again, sorry for the delay! But as a famous nerd once said:
Thanks for the update. We will happily keep waiting! Is this mnemonic material central to the book? If not, you could also leave it to the second book :) and just focus in this first book on your ideas that are already matured. But, of course, this is your choice!
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from you again. By the way, Merry Christmas!
Thanks a lot! Yeah sorry for the long radio silence. My general philosophy is “make stuff I would like to consume if someone else made it,” and I feel like the book would be mostly incomplete if this experiment weren’t fully fleshed out. I guess it’s not completely essential as a core idea of the book, but it is the refinement of a system that basically helped me get fluent in Japanese. It is basically a “Method of Loci” but focusing of stories involving works of fiction rather than locations. Video game levels, movies, cartoons, TV shows, the idea is to use these various locations (and the stories associated with them) as source material to “store” information. When I first tried it out years ago, I was able to remember Japanese character readings so quickly and with such accuracy it felt like magic. When I took the JLPT it felt like fun because I didn’t just “have a good feeling” about the kanji readings, I knew them with 100% certainty. It was wild, I didn’t think I could do something like that. Since that time I tried to adjust the system to allow for more information to be stored, but I kind of got “lost in the weeds” for a few years in focusing too much on mnemonics and not the actual information learned using the mnemonics. The system worked fine but it felt bloated when I would review flashcards associated with them. So when GOOD AI image generation became a thing (mainly MidJourney), I thought that this would answer all of my mnemonic problems since our brains LOVE pictures and it would super easy to build an entire mnemonic “alphabet” with this. But while images are powerful, visuals alone aren’t enough to create the link that I first felt way back when. So after rewriting my mnemonic system to account for AI images, I decided to go back to the drawing board and revert to my old system but 1. Removing bloat and 2. Fixing stories that didn’t quite work. Basically I spent a lot of time thoroughly figuring out what systems did not work, and now I’m mostly left with (what hopefully) are the most useful components of a large scale flexible mnemonic system. I’m basically in the proving stages, making sure this system works as well as I think it should. All signs point to “yes,” but it might take a few weeks to truly know its effectiveness (memory experiments are often like that for me; takes some time but eventually the results are very obvious). The book is basically my story of how I started using SuperMemo, what it has helped me do and what have been my best practices over the years. It also has an extensive section of “SuperMemo adjacent” life hack style things that have helped me turn effort into actual doing stuff (something that SuperMemo gave me a taste of). Nothing ground breaking, but I like that I’ve spent a lot of time doing the wrong thing so I’m somewhat left with what works pretty well. But for me, the mnemonic alphabet system (Kanji Town as I originally thought of it) is something I would like to include, and I want to at least leave an extensive template for others to use if they want to use the same system or something similar to it. If you have any questions prior to the book coming out, please ask. 👍
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