More Benefits of Memory Work
Having a big picture and hooks for every piece of information just makes you want to know more.
Again from Memory Craft. Here the author is walking the reader through an example of using the method of loci, or memory palace technique, to remember the countries of the world in order of their population from greatest to least (bold emphasis mine).
Location eight is Bangladesh. Bangladesh? I checked the list thoroughly. Is Bangladesh really the eighth most populous country in the world? With more people than Russia and Germany and Japan? At the time of writing, yes. Why then doesn't it feature more in history? Why haven't I heard more about Bangladesh? Why hasn't Bangladesh used that massive population to take over other countries? When I first encountered this fact, I stopped memorising and started reading about Bangladesh. This happens constantly. You will very quickly discover that having a big picture and hooks for every piece of information just makes you want to know more. . . .
If you put every country of the world into a memory palace, then whatever you hear on the news, read in books or learn from friends can be hooked into those images, which are the starting points for stories to encode everything you want to know about the country. You can fill this memory palace for the rest of your life.
When the Caribbean was hit by hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria in 2017, the news reports constantly referred to a string of mostly small countries. I knew almost nothing about them, but having those hooks in place made the news so much more real, giving life to the countries. Cape Verde, Cuba, Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, the Virgin Islands, Haiti, Puerto Rico … With each country's name, my mind instantly jumped to its location in my memory palace.
