The Mind Palace (Part 2)

One of the biggest challenges with the mind palace is that it takes a lot of work and to be honest, it doesn't necessarily bode well for the technique. I'm not saying that it isn't a worthwhile endeavor to create a mind palace, but you sort of need to be in it for the long haul for it to be effective. Let's illustrate this point.

If you wanted to become a concert level pianist, versus a person that wanted to just learn to play the piano, what would be the difference? The difference would be in the amount of time that you would invest in the practice session and the final intention of all that practice. So I guess the question is, do you want to be a concert pianist or do you simply want to learn to play?

Personally, my version of the mind palace is sort of a blend between quick encoding and long term memory. I basically try to memorize quickly the things that matter most and leave everything else on the floor. Like Sherlock Holmes I only endeavor to remember things that are worth remembering, so I don't spend time memorizing an infinite amount of things because I don't feel I need an infinite amount of things to draw upon.

However, there is something to be said for having a large amount of organized information in your noodle. The more we know, the more we can associate the things we experience to the things that we already know. This can give you a big advantage in terms of gaining insight and improve your ability to learn new things. That's of course, a conversation left for another more post.