Memory, learning, reading techniques

Memory, learning, reading techniques

Hi all. I have a set of questions, hope this will trigger attention of
many, so this becomes a thread filled with quality knowledge stuff -
might help many people:

* What is the best way to memorize life-based things? By life-based
things I consider things that often happen in one's life: remembering
the list of things you need to do today, what you worked on yesterday,
what you have read, the movies you have watched, birthdays, prices in
shops, etc. - any common thing you do or need to do almost every day.
The emphasis is on the ubiquity - remembering as much as possible. Of
course, selectivity is important, as is prioritization - remember the
most important things the best. I know a lot of people who can
remember things way back in the past and not make a mistake often. How
do they do it? Do they use some helping mechanisms, like mind maps,
concept maps and such? If so, do they use these mechanisms physically
(i.e. really drawing maps) or mentally (i.e. just imaging them)?

* I have read about people being fond of different type of learning -
visual, auditory, kinesthesis. Is there a good test that can help
someone determine which type they belong (or lean) to? Do you know
anyone who changed their type, e.g. was auditory once and became
visual? If so, how successful were they? Did they do it comfortably?
Were the results appropriate (or should they have sticked to their
"original" type)? How much time did they spend doing it? Do you agree
that such types exist, at the end? If so, which is the best type in
your opinion?

* What is the best way to learn? I don't restrict myself to learning
only domain-specific things, but suggesting these would be nice, also.
I generally focus on the things one needs to learn - e.g. how to drive
a car, how to play a piano, how to read books, how to remember and
recite poems, etc. The most important thing is how to learn so you can
remember it quickly and exactly - doesn't have to (and probably
cannot) be 100%, but as high as possible. How do you learn? Do you
know anyone learning better then you - how do they do it? Do emotions
help or hinder learning?

* When one learns, it often needs to read. How fast do you do it and
what is your comprehension rate (i.e. how "good" do you read)? What do
you think about speed reading? Do you think it is a good thing, good
mostly, good sometimes, bad mostly or bad always? Do you have any
suggestions about this? What do your friends do - do they read better
or worse then you? Is someone applying some kind (and what kind) of
speed reading and what is their success rate with this?

The best would be if you have any links to the sites or books where
this is explained. I searched over the Internet for a while, but found
no sites that explain this in a manner that is practically useful. I
found some theory, but not nearly enough and certainly not covering it
in a coherent way to have a complete picture of what is the next step
in one's development. I think that everything, certainly including
memory, can be made better, there just needs to be a right way. Do you
know what the right way is? Did you have any similar situations
(whether having them yourself or you could observe someone having
them)? If so, how did you solve them?

If you could, it would be very nice to supply some references about
what you are talking. Most of what I have read on the Internet is
based on some assumptions, which one can just try and "see for
himself" - not an easy task and, more importantly, one would waste a
lot of time trying with possible negative consequences if he is not
"suitable" for that method, the method has flaws, the method is not
suitable for the given task or the method is misapplied. I would be
glad to read for a week only to get a glimpse of something, but I
think some assurance (e.g. texts backed-up by some research) is an
important factor for deciding whether this is a good way forward.

If you got so far, thanks for even reading this. I am really looking
forward for any comments on this one.

Re: Memory, learning, reading techniques

Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, & Steel" and "Collapse" reports that the
New Guinea highlanders thot him retarded. He could follow a hunter
into the forest, and listen to the man expound for hours, drawing on
an encyclopedic scale memory, on the characteristics of the flora and
fauna encountered. But the same man cannot handle simple algebra.

Some of us have ROM, some of us have RAM. Since the corporate
structure has databases and written inventory records, it dont care
about ROM, and academia has therefore defined "intelligence" for them
in terms of RAM.

Archaeologist M. Gimbutas reports on over 250 different icons that
were used in the Chalcolithic era, 7000 years ago, to handle the
inventory of early agrarain communities. They developed first writing,
such as the Gradesnica platter, 7000 years ago. It has, for the
Aryans, been RAM ever since.

DNA shows that Native Europeans evolved in villages of 150-300 people
over the last 10,000 years; Africans in tribes of 75-150, with other
races somewhere in the range. Nobody was expected to remember
everything. The shamen and witches who ran things did what we now call
'case management'. Because of the physical lifestyle of men in the
fields, or craftsmen in the shop, men developed a different mentality,
to focus more attentively on the task at hand, while the women in the
village communicated with each other what resources they had in
storage, and what the priorities would be. The mental strategies that
were needed were different, and coping strategies with the limits were
as well.

Whatever would work for you best, would work better within a village
where the women knew you, and knew what your challenges and gifts
were. Not being in the kind of community your ancestors evolved in is
a challenge.