When I was a kid, I probably spent hundreds of hours playing 3D FPS games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Ken's Labyrinth, etc.<p>I was curious as how "transferable" spatial memorization in a video game in the form of a "virtual memory palace" would be since the conventional approach is based off physically real familiar locations.<p>Surprisingly I found using a combination of memory palaces built off video game levels in conjunction with a PAO approach towards compressing three numerical values into a single visual image to be highly effective - though I mostly used it for parlor tricks like memorizing a randomly shuffled deck.<p>If you're interested in learning more about the memory competitions, memory palaces, etc. I highly recommend the book "Moonwalking with Einstein":<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein</a>
Reminds me of the Rubik's cube blindfolded world record, which memorizes the whole cube in under 5 seconds: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdHPag6z2NY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdHPag6z2NY</a><p>My personal best had 20 seconds of memorization, for context.
One of the British TV shows that I've been introduced to over the past half decade of YouTube binging was Taskmaster (its British weird / funny)... and one of those tasks was to memorize the order of playing cards in 5 minutes.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/aSQnWQUyekk" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/aSQnWQUyekk</a><p>The winner was <i>really</i> impressive in what was done (second place was also very impressive).
They say numbers, but apparently it's only single-digit numbers:<p>> They give you 80 random numbers that they display on a screen. You have to memorize all of those numbers as fast as possible, then click a button and a recall sheet appears. I wrote down all of the 80 digits — and I got them all right.<p>Insanely impressive one could do that in 13.5 seconds...
This app does a terrific job of teaching memory palaces. Ironically it’s made by the guy in the background of the article image. <a href="https://memoryos.com/" rel="nofollow">https://memoryos.com/</a>
Gift link: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/science/vishvaa-rajakumar-memory-techniques.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zU4.x08k.ZnwwJhIWlDGZ&smid=url-share" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/science/vishvaa-rajakumar...</a>
i'm assuming you have to remember them in order, otherwise, i could do pretty good. let's see there were some 1's maybe some 2's, umm a zero