Anyone with sufficient motivation can remember almost anything. There is an ancient technique to remember hundreds of random numbers in a short amount of time by breaking down the number, then linking each component to an image and forming an easy to remember story from those images. For example, the images corresponding to 314165 could be mother (314) and 165 (tissue). Those images are derived by linking each digit to a consonant. You can then add any vowel to make words. The system uses sounds rather than spelling, so that even though tissue is spelled with double-s, it’s pronounced as a soft sh.
| Digit | Consonant sound |
|---|---|
| 0 | S, Z |
| 1 | T, D |
| 2 | N |
| 3 | M |
| 4 | R |
| 5 | L |
| 6 | CH, SH |
| 7 | C, K, G |
| 8 | F, V |
| 9 | B, P |
You now just need to remember your mother sneezing into a tissue.
There is a major caveat: Being able to remember 10,000 random numbers doesn’t mean you’ll remember where you left your car keys. This is one of the big insights from one of my favorite non-fiction books, Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, where he describes his path from average Joe to memory world champion.
Nehaveigur 