In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn the connection between Robin Williams and the most unusable Memory Palace in the world.
At least, the most unusable Memory Palace for me. And you'll hear about why and how I'm trying to change it so that, even if it can't be used, I can at least reduce the unhappy memories associated with it.
Program Notes
This week's episode is based on a somewhat crazy email I sent out to Magnetic Memory Method Newsletter subscribers. For these program notes, I'm providing you that letter in its entirety.
What I'm referring to at the beginning of the newsletter doesn't really matter. Let's just say I wrote something a bit harsh and some people rightly called me out on it.
But there was madness behind my methods, and so I took the opportunity to explain the context behind the disruption.
And I think it's a nice way to begin 2015 on a positive note.
Because when you listen to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll find an idea about how to eliminate negative associations you may have with places that you would otherwise find impossible to use for the Method of Loci in a Memory Palace or any other mnemonic technique.
So without further adieu, here is that newsletter:
Dear Memorizers,
The following newsletter won't teach you anything about memory skills.
But it will tell you about the one place that I will never, ever use as a Memory Palace.
If that's of no interest to you, now would be the best time to stop reading.
If you're curious, I'll tell you a little bit about it.
First, though, a note about the message from the day before yesterday. Some people found it cool and said so. Others found it uncool.
And said so.
I'm not going to bandy around the bush with apologies and the like for those who felt offended. I'll say only that you have a Bipolar operator at the helm of this ship – or at least that's the label I given me in the Memory Palace I'll never use.
What does this mean?
It means that when people say that I'm unprofessional …
They're right.
Not that being professional was ever my intention.
I'm just some dude who writes about memory skills.
The same memory skills that without exaggeration saved my life.
Since Robin Williams died, I've been trying to find a way to say something about it.
And what some people considered yesterday's meltdown (others heroic), finally provides an avenue.
Of sorts.
You see, Robin Williams crushed me, and more than a little. Taking his own life crushed a lot of people, but perhaps the Bipolar more than most.
Not that he self-identified. Carrie Fisher, another nut enjoying the all-too brief blasts of sun here at Club Manic, wrote that he doubted he was Bipolar.
Only, the way she recounts it, he doubted it in a rather Bipolar way.
Anyway, Robin Williams factors into the development of the Magnetic Memory Method in an important way. I've talked lots about how I discovered Memory Palaces during a deep depression. I've share how this lucky enabled me to keep going through grad school and in the end succeed. And it's an important part of the original of the MMM.
What I haven't talked about much, if at all, is how this "Bipolar" journey got started in the first place.
In truth, who knows, but in the most evident way, I once upon a time wrote a poem.
A really long poem.
I still have it.
It was even published in a good old fashioned book.
Eventually.
Anyhow, I stayed up for 5 or 6 nights with almost no sleep writing this epic poem. When finished, I ran around campus with an armful of copies and gave it to friends and strangers alike. I also emailed it to all my professors and their teaching assistants.
Some of those professors expressed concern. One of the teac
Published on 10 years, 11 months ago
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