Deduction #7

Another College Student!

This one was fun. Right off the bat, we have a female subject. Evidently she is quite the bookworm based on the stack of Young Adult novels on the right side of the desk. Next we have her name, Annie, which is written on several of the pieces of paper on the bulletin board running the length of the desk. We could talk about her affinity for horses, or the fact that she seems to be a Vikings fan, or the operating system of her computer (Windows 7 I think), but I think I've found something more interesting. A closer inspection of the lanyards hanging just behind the lamp reveal the logo of UST, a Catholic College in St. Paul, Minnesota. That by itself is not a ton to go on. However, once we add the brand-new student ID (still in sleeve) and what appears to be a welcome packet on the desk, I feel quite safe in assuming that you are an incoming Freshman at the school.

Now that we know a little about the who, let's talk about where. Given previous information, we should answer the question of whether this picture was taken in a dorm room. I'm confident it was not. The layout of the room (lamp reflection) suggest single-occupant bedroom. Not only that, but this picture was sent to me about a month ago, a full 10 days before you could have moved in. Based on a few quick statistics from UST's website, I conclude that you most likely are staying in a dorm the first year.

Now for the fun part. The picture was taken with an Apple Device (Ipad) which, as we know from previous deductions, has a nasty habit of encoding GPS data into its pictures. Without going into too much detail, I was able to get a pretty good lock on your location at the time the picture was taken. This type of information would allow someone to, oh I don't know, find the Facebook page for the incoming freshman class of UST, search for the name "Annie," and narrow the search by hometown. Upon doing that, one would discover that you ARE in fact staying in a dorm (the exact one will not be mentioned), and that you were at one point engaged in the process of searching for a flatmate in true Sherlockian fashion. If the cup in your room (reflection in picture frame) is any indication, you must be quite happy about the number and proximity of Arby's at your new location in the dorms.

Happy sleuthing!

10,000

We did it! Ladies an gentlemen, the blogger version of my blog (the original, pre-Tumblr version) has reached over 10,000 views! This is a huge milestone for me, and it has renewed my motivation to continue the experiment and help others improve their deduction/induction/memory skills.

Thanks to everyone who has commented, submitted pictures for practice, and suggested ideas for posts, and practiced along with me! Keep it up!

Deduction #6

Another two-for-one!

Number one - how do we know that these were taken by the same person? Just in case the lighting, decor, and wall coloring were not enough to convince you, we also have the metadata from the picture to confirm that the photos were taken at approximately the same time by the same phone (which by the way was an Iphone 5s) (See a fun little computer trick).

Another interesting thing about this picture's metadata is that it contains some very specific GPS data which supposedly marks the location the picture was taken. Unfortunately, plugging in the data verbatim yields a location somewhere is Kazakhstan, which worried me greatly as there was nothing in the pictures to suggest that as a viable location. In fact, the many English book titles along with the dollar bill attached to your desk might seem to suggest that you live in America. Further exploration of the metadata shows us that the pictures were taken at approximately 11:25 am, but submitted to Padlet about 3 hours prior at about 8:35. If we assume it took about 10 minutes for you to upload the pictures (which I feel is a reasonable assumption given all the data), then via this method we can safely say that you fall into the Eastern Time Zone.

Needless to say I was quite confused about your location. Especially after I noticed that the bottom left corner of your mathematics textbook on the desk. "Chapitre 3." Not a phrase you'd expect on the East Coast of the United States. But it did give me something to go on. Either the girl to whom this room belongs is home-schooled by french parents OR the language of the area in which she lives is French. If we assume the second, then certain parts of Canada meet 2 of the 3 location stipulations - must be in Eastern Time Zone, and must speak French and English fairly commonly. The only outlier seems to be the GPS coordinates. After considering the options, I decided that the balance of probability rested with the notion that somehow the GPS data must be wrong. So I set out to find out HOW wrong.

As it turns out, when Iphone pictures are transferred, either through certain apps or image editing software, the GPS data is altered, resulting in the + and - signs being cut off the front. For those of you unfamiliar with latitude and longitude measurements, the signs allows the reader to ascertain which hemisphere will be used. Without them, the numbers in the GPS field could refer to exactly 4 locations in the world. (++, --, +-, -+). After looking at the possible locations, I found that one of them is a house in Montreal.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5,-73.8,10z

In the interest of not giving away this person's address, I've truncated the data so as not to deliver such a precise location.

Now onto the fun stuff.

Tentatively, I'm going to say we have a fairly well-rounded, bi-lingual, christian, right-handed female near her early teens with medium to long hair, living in an upper middle class household.

Well rounded based on the piano, soccer ball and packaged assumption that she's either a fan or a player (admittedly weak), and all of the books with titles in two languages (bi-lingual). The religious pictures on the top left part of the book shelf (combined with an over 80% Christian population in Montreal) says Christian. Right-handed because the notebook and pen are placed to the right of the textbook, and all of the writing utensils on the desk are to the right side. Female should be a pretty easy one at this point. We've got the shoe and dress on the desk shelf, various figurines on the bookshelf, and a hair clip on the desk top. Speaking of the hair clip - we can eliminate excessively short hair cuts as our subject would have little use for this type of clip. Upper middle class household based partly on the style of the bookshelves, the price of the matching sets of the various book series, and the local neighborhood property values (easier to find when you have the subject's location).

The only one I'm not super comfortable with is the age of the subject. I managed to find that textbook online, and it appears to be for cycle 1 of the secondary education program in Canada, which I believe equates to upper middle school/ early high school in the USA. In addition, the books on the shelf (the ones I recognize) are young adult titles (Ex: Hunger Games, Caster Chronicles). But something seems off. Either this room has been recently cleaned, the age of the subject is actually higher than I suspected, or this is one organized teenager.

My big question is this - "What is written on that dollar bill?"

If you have any questions, critiques, or violent disagreements, please comment or send me a message. If these are your pictures, please respond and let me know how I did, and be sure to clear up any mistakes I may have made.

Mind Palace - Organization

Hey guys. Since my last post, I've been hard at work tweaking my mind palace so that it functions at its maximum potential. in light of that, I'm going to do some more posts on how to organize and maximize the efficiency of your mind palace.

For those of you looking for an update, I've now permanently stored the following data in my memory palace:

• The order of the U.S. Presidents (and some of the vice presidents... still in progress)
• Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If"
• An excerpt from "Hunting Season" by Beau Taplin
• The name and year of every movie to win an Academy Award for Best Picture
• A few debit card numbers (mine, that is)
• The order of a specific deck of playing cards (used for magic tricks)
• All of the locations of the above data relative to my mind palace

If the last bullet point seems a little circular, rest assured that it's not. It IS, however, what I would like to discuss with you today.

(Warning: Meta-Thinking Paragraph Ahead)
You see, having a lot of knowledge and being able to utilize it are two completely different concepts. While having a functional memory palace in which to store specific types of information can be / is incredibly useful, it's only useful insofar as you remember where you put everything. In other words, you can know that you know who the 19th president was, but until you actually go into your palace and pull Rutherford B. Hayes out, you don't actually know who the 19th president was. If someone came up to you and asked what data you've put away in your mind palace, how would you go about answering their question? In short, while it is very easy to know things, soon one discovers that the harder problem is actually to know what you know.

This is one of the main problems with utilizing the memory palace method to permanently store lots of information - no doubt something Sherlock Holmes would have had to deal with fairly early on in his exploits. Rest assured, there is a solution. For the purposes of this post, we're going to refer to it as The Index. Thus far, I have experimented with 2 variations which we'll call web and map indexing.

What is an index?

If you've ever been to a library, you should know the answer to this question. An index is a system of organization, usually taking the form of a list (often alphabetized). How does this apply to us? The short version is this - we're going to make a mind palace containing everything we know, AND where to find it.

The Web:
In experimenting with the web index, I created a small room (think elementary school classroom) and painted the walls all different colors and lined them with bookshelves of different kinds and various decorations so that no two walls were even remotely similar. On the bookshelves, I placed tiny trinkets - things that would remind me of the specific information stored within them - as well as a reminder of the location where the information was stored. (Ex: A picture of President Obama standing in front of my old home would tell me that the U.S. presidents were stored in that home.) I had one trinket for every chunk of information I had logged away. One problem I ran into with this method was that it quickly became difficult to store information, especially literature, on the bookshelf with other similar data. In order to fix this issue, I would recommend creating tiny rooms hidden behind the bookshelves to serve as the set of loci (Latin word for locations) rather than the bookshelf itself. The method functions like a web in that while there are no expressly visualized pathways to your various mind palaces, they ARE connected through your trinkets, making each trinket a vital link to the information you want to remember.

The Map:
The thing about map indexing is that it doesn't actually exist. Sure, I gave a name to the concept, but the essential bit here is that we're just making a bigger mind palace. Rather, we are combining all of our existing mind palaces into one gigantic cobbled together neighborhood of mind palaces. For a more in-depth look at this idea, check out "The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci" by Johnathan D. Spence. Old-school mnemonists used to use city blocks, or whole cities, as mind palaces, making the amount of information you can store as large as the city in which you stored it. Then, we can rename houses, blocks, or even streets to segment the data you are storing (Ex: The "head trauma" room in the "Emergency Medicine" house on "Science Street"). The tricky thing about this method is that in order to effectively use such a large area, one must be either very familiar with the area or very willing to make up a lot of the missing details on their own. One more difficulty is that even if you use a neighborhood you know well, odds are that you don't know the layouts of all the houses. But really, there's no reason to use those houses, is there? One could simply use the layout of an old neighborhood and plant all of the houses one has known or lived in to create a new neighborhood full of memory storage space.

Mind Palace - Putting it Into Practice

Previously, we've discussed the basic structure of a mind palace and what it's used for. Today, I'm going to discuss some basic encoding methods, and the building blocks for creating your own.

But first, a little history...

The practice of using a person's visual/spatial memory to organize non-visual non-spatial data has been around since the ancient Greeks. In its simplest terms, a Mind Palace utilizes images to organize and store information for later retrieval. The ancient Greeks and Romans used this system, also called the method of loci (meaning places/locations), for remembering anything from names of soldiers to important speeches. In fact, the expression "in the first place" refers to the technique of placing talking points in a mind palace (First thing you want to say goes in the first place in your mind palace). The method of loci was also used very often for everyday knowledge - something that, today, you could simply look up in a book. The first "books" were more like very lengthy scrolls with no chapter headings, page numbers, and little to no spacing or punctuation. This meant that in order to efficiently use a book as a reference, much of the organizational data would have to be stored in one's own head. Today, there is less of a need for a mind palace, but it can still be a useful technique for reliably internalizing everything from a list of names to a phone number to a shuffled pack of playing cards. A detective today using a mind palace filled with crime solving information would be able to have infinitely more data at his fingertips without the dependance on technological devices to access the information he needed.

Now for encoding....

The first thing you need to remember about encoding data into a mind palace is that it's not an exact science by any means. There are an infinite number of ways to encode information, and very little information can be coded verbatim. Mind palaces are most useful when the data can be easily broken down, only the general idea is important, or you're working with small, simple data to begin with. Rest assured, any data can be encoded, but not all data can be encoded quickly. As there is no one-hundred-percent right way to encode data for use in a mind palace, I'm just going to give you a few rules of thumb which have served me (and several unnamed international memory champions) quite well.

•  Make it Simple:
• Most of the time, a person who uses a mind palace won't be remembering anything much more complicated than a shopping list. It's important to remember that less really is more. There's no point in telling yourself a long story to remember every single thing - you might as well just memorize the list by reading it over and over again. A good rule of thumb is that whenever you're trying to remember a list of distinct objects, simply place comically large versions of the objects in various loci in your mind palace (Ex: eggs, cheese, and fruit can code to a giant egg on your porch, a huge wheel of cheese on your couch, and a massive fruit basket on your bed).
• Use Relationships:
• Sometimes, you'll be at loss for what images to place in your mind. My advice to you is to quickly think about things which are related to the item you wish to memorize, and use those instead. As an example, let's say your girlfriend gives you a list of things to pick up - one of these things is hummus. You don't know how to visualize hummus - but you know that it falls into the category of Greek food. Instead of trying in vain to place hummus in your mind palace, you place a Greek temple filled with food in there instead. This will remind you that you are looking for a Greek food item, which will send you back to hummus.
• Homophones are Your Friends
• In a pinch, words that sound similar may also be substituted quite easily, leading to quicker and easier memory storage. A great way to think about this technique is to imagine trying to memorize a list of names of people you've never met. Let's say one of the names on that list is "Kanasha". If you're like me, this doesn't evoke any useful images right off the bat. What I would do in this situation is visualize a few old people sitting around a table playing Canasta (if you don't know what that is either, then you may want to find a different image), and use that.
• More than Just Your Eyes
• In the case that you find yourself working with kind of a vague image, remember - YOU HAVE 5 USEABLE SENSES. You're not limited to just your eyes. You can also use touch, taste, smell, and hearing to enhance the images you've placed. Let's say you don't have a very specific idea about what a tuna looks like. You know it's a fish, but beyond that, you're lost. You do, however, know what canned tuna smells like. Why not imagine a sort of generic fish, then add in the idea that it smells like a tuna sandwich? Bingo.
• Make it Weird
• Nothing hurts a mind palace more than banality. If you want to remember things, for the love of all things cold and rational MAKE THEM MEMORABLE. Think of it as if you were telling yourself a story as you walk through your mind palace. It'll be much easier to recall if you know that it's Darth Vader is waiting for you down the hall as and not your old boss from the previous year (unless you had a really exciting boss). As a general rule, make your images as large, crazy, wacky, lewd, crude, or otherwise weird as you can. You're brain is hardwired to remember those things BETTER, LONGER, and EASIER.

If you're interested in continuing your education in the area of mind palaces and tricks involved, I highly recommend reading Josh Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein. It's an excellent read and is invaluable in  expanding one's knowledge of the mind's potential (not to mention, it's where I learned much of what I know about these techniques).

As always, I appreciate your input. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to me. If there's ever a topic you don't understand, something you need clarified, or you'd like to suggest an idea for a post - send in a comment or drop me a message and I'll do my very best to help. Happy memorizing!

Training Regimen Available!

It is my great pleasure to tell you that I have begun posting the exact training regimen which I use, rather than vaguely alluding to it as I have been. I will be adding more training games as we go, but the two that are up at this point are the most fundamental to the training process.

If you're viewing this on Tumblr, you may also reach the training regimen page through here.

If you've never tried any of the deductive exercises in the past, I highly recommend you give this a shot. It starts off slow, but it can be surprisingly fun.

I hope you find these exercises as helpful as I do, and I hope you enjoy training with me!

Again, here's the link to the page  ---> Training Exercises

Where to Look - Hands

 

            A) Left Palm                                 B) Right Palm

                              D) Right Back

A person's hands tell us a lot about them. What they do,where they've been, how they act, and what they're feeling - all fair game if you know what to look for. Today, we'll be examining a pair of hands, and the conclusions one may draw from them.

       C)  Left Back


Gender - There are very few reasons why gender must be deduced from someone's hands alone (perhaps only their hands are in view in an important photograph). That being said, it may still be useful to you down the road. For starters, look at their choice of watch - this person chose a definitively masculine watch. This preference, in addition to the hand-dryness (seen on palms), the state of their cuticles (seen on backs), and the scars from cuts (right palm and right back) push the balance of probability towards male. Keep in mind, as with all of our deductive exercises, we are rarely 100% certain - we deal in probabilities. In this case, the odds are clearly in favor of the gender being male.

Handedness - This is a much more regularly useful deduction to make. The first thing we can look for is, again, the watch. Most of the time, right-handed individuals will wear their watch on their left hand, as it tends to get in the way when they write. This statistic is not as strong in left-handed people, due mostly to the fact that the widely accepted "correct" way to wear a watch is on the left hand. Still, a watch on the right and is a good indication of left-handedness, and vice versa. Other things to be aware of are the scars on the right hand. This would seem to indicate right-handedness in the same way that a worn out tire would suggest more use than one with a lot of tread.

Habits - Zooming in on the fingernails would show no jagged edges. Do not make the mistake of blindly assuming this person doesn't bite their nails. Indeed they might. The only thing this tells us it that they have not very recently (within a day or two).

A look at their fingertips, when examined closely, show a discrepancy between the amount of skin on each finger. Notice that on the right hand, the fingerprints are easily visible, whereas on the left, the skin seems smoother and shinier. This would indicate that the subject performs an activity which regularly removes surface skin from the fingertips of only one hand. This would be a great time to ask if the subject plays guitar, or perhaps the violin. A yes to either question would give us more evidence that the subject is right handed, as the finger positions on either instrument are usually performed by the non-dominant hand.

Another interesting place to look is the pinkie nail on either hand. Having a longer-than-average nail on the little finger is an interesting observation in that it is a potential indicator of many different things. One fairly benign option is that it is used to clean out the ear and/or nose quickly and discretely. On the other end of the scale, it is used by some as a convenient place for resting certain powder-esque drugs before snorting them up one's nose. And somewhere in the middle, some cultures view a long pinkie nail as a sign of wealth or social status. Be careful, for nothing conclusive may be said about this observation without further evidence.

Random Deductions:

While many of the following facts may not present a solid conclusion one way or the other, remember that in day to day deductions, you are not limited to just someone's hands. The following list is simply to get you thinking about things which you may be able to confirm either by asking or deducing from further details.

• Military Experience - on a digital watch, you may notice that the time is set to 24 hour format. This is a great way to shift the balance of probability toward or away from military experience. Military time is an odd system to have to get used to, and most people don't unless they have a reason.
• Income - Notice the watch (brand, material it is made of, number of scratches, etc.). This can help to narrow down someone's income. Be wary - many people give watches as gifts, so this may not be a sure-fire indicator.
• Recent Reading/Writing - Look for ink stains/smudges on the fingertips and the palm-heels (area above the wrist opposite the thumb). This may give an indication that your subject has been writing/drawing/reading a newspaper recently.
• Beyond Ink - Be on the lookout for any odd discoloration as a result of grease, stamps, etc. which can tell you a lot about your subject's recent activities (Ex: half washed off stamp could mean they went to a club the night before).
• Fear/Temperature - The color of the skin on your subjects hand can tell you if they are scared or simply cold. In both situations, the body pulls blood away from the skin and sends it to the vital organs and major muscle groups. This will result in the person's hands looking paler and feeling colder. To decide whether your subject is scared or cold, try shaking hands with them early on to establish a control.
• Diet - Trembling hands can be a symptom of a fight-or-flight response, not eating enough, or a reaction to a stimulant (caffeine for example). Be sure to check for additional details before assuming they're starving themselves.
• Rings - Rings are about commitment. Obviously, a ring on the left hand ring finger tells you who they’re committed to. While some rings are worn for fashion or sentimental reasons, be on the lookout for promise rings, engagement rings, or class rings, which you can use to narrow down where they’ve been.

I hope you enjoyed the first of many "Where to Look" posts. As always, if you have any comments or questions about anything on the blog, be sure to comment or send me a message. Your feedback is important and much appreciated.