I find that when I’m trying to remember things I automatically add patterns as a mnemonic overlay. E.g., when I’m trying to remember a phone number I will frequently attach a pattern I noticed in the digits (e.g., it’s mostly the primes in a row or it’s 3 digits followed by their product). Arbitrary/random data (like phone numbers) are some of the hardest things to remember, but for vocabulary, historical events, and even facts about people I’m socializing with - usually there are lots more patterns to choose from.

I have a lot of trouble choosing which pieces of knowledge stick best in my mind - so as I encounter data, some things stick easily and some fall out of my mind almost immediately. However, the more I know in the vicinity of a particular topic, the easier it is to find something to attach a new fact to - and the more likely it is to stick in my mind, even if I need to follow a bit of a circuitous route to recalling it.

A great example of this is pared (wall in Spanish) - for some reason, it doesn’t stick easily in my mind and I’ve forgotten it a few times already, but emparedado (sandwich in Latin American Spanish) sticks very well. The way I remember the word for wall in Spanish when it doesn’t come immediately is to pass through the very cool (and therefore easy to remember) node for the etymology of sandwich:

Emparedado --> a sandwich is a food between two walls --> emparedado

As I find weirdly bright nodes in my Spanish studies (and maybe in some other topics), I’ll try to post them here.

I remember best those facts that make for engaging stories or that I find counter-intuitive - what makes facts easy for others to remember?