Mind Performance Hacks

編故事的記憶方法，確實經典哦

購物清單也用心記憶，對記憶力的訓練要進入生活的方方面面

Generalists are, in short, memetic sluts, and they have a great time, but you don't have to be a memetic slut to benefit from broadening your tastes. ;-) Sharp analogy.

Hack 27. Play Mind Music You can condition yourself to use your favorite music as a creative trigger, as well as a filter for environmental noise, and if you put it on your iPod or MP3 CD Player, you will always have it at hand. 你可以利用自己喜欢的音乐作为创造力触发器设置自己进入状态，音乐也可以过滤掉周边的噪音。将这一类音乐放入iPod等音乐播放器中，随身携带。 Practically everyone has worked to music at one time or another, from late-night college study sessions to the night shift at a fast-food joint. Consider the beat of a drum to encourage a crew pulling at oars, or the fife and drum corps of an army. Music has always been used to change people's moods and get them to work together; it coevolved with ritual drama, which was also used to change people's state of mind. However, what is appropriate for one situation might not be appropriate for another, and the same music that gets a team working in synchrony might be completely distracting for someone who is trying to think in solitude. The converse holds true, of course. Some kinds of music are appropriate for thinking that would probably be a drag on physical work. In Action Get yourself a good pair of headphones that are as sonically isolated as possible, and make yourself a mind music MP3 CD or playlist on your iPod that you can fill with music to help you concentrate and focus on thinking. You might already have an idea what music this might be; if not, see the "In Real Life" section of this hack for some ideas. Condition yourself to think while this music is playing so that it becomes a kind of musical thinking cap: put it on and you become a thinker for the duration. To that end, listen to this music only when you intend to think so that your conditioned response of thinking hard while it is on does not become extinguished accidentally. You don't need a lot of different pieces in your mind-music collection, because your response will probably be stronger if their scope is limited. You must decide how much music should be in your mind-music collection. A short, quickly repeating loop of music drives some people crazy. However, if you have a good sense of how long one of your typical working sessions is, you can use your mind music as a timer. You can pace your work like a workout, with both warm-up and cool-down music. When you hear a certain piece of music, you will know that it is time to start wrapping up. A short music loop can nevertheless be useful, because you will sometimes associate certain thoughts you are having with a certain part of the music you are hearing, so that on the next time through the loop, you will be reminded of those thoughts when you hear that part of the music again, in an interesting and sometimes creatively fruitfulmental echo effect. Instrumental music is preferable, because research has shown that people need to keep the speech centers of their brains free to think about complex information. As pointed out in "Talk to Yourself" [Hack #62], you can listen to pop music or talk radio while driving a familiar route without many turns, but if you get off the highway and need to locate a new destination, you'll turn off the radio because it's distracting you from thinking. But don't rule out music with lyrics entirely. If you're in a good mood and the music is upbeat, you might find the music will occasionally toss up lyrics that seed your creative random number generator [Hack #19] as well as get your toes tapping, so you are filled with new ideas. Chants (such as Gregorian chants) and music in foreign languages are a gray area in this respect. To some extent, you are likely to hear a voice in another language as just another instrument, or your brain might treat the music as a verbal Rorschach test onto which to project some creative and interesting lyrics of its own. Yet another alternative is that you will unconsciously strain to make out the foreign-language lyrics in your own language so that they interfere almost as much as lyrics you do understand. Gauge your own reaction, which will probably vary from piece to piece. In Real Life Here are the pieces on my mind-music CD, all instrumental: * The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Glenn Gould * Music for Airports by Brian Eno * Neroli: Thinking Music, Part IV by Brian Eno * Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano by Claude Bolling and Jean-Pierre Rampal Specifically, I have found that almost any Bach is good for thinking, because of its formal nature. I chose Glenn Gould's performance of the Goldberg Variations because it is legendary; the confluence of a composer and a performer of genius spurs me on. I placed the two fugues on the CD into a separate folder so that I can put just the Goldbergs on repeat mode if I wish; they already form a kind of musical closed circle, so this is appropriate. //古典音乐易于思考 Almost at the other end of the spectrum, Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano bubbles with playfulness. It is less subdued than the other pieces on my disc and therefore more suited for filtering out noise from the environment. I listen to it when I am designing games, or when I need some playful energy; not only have I loved this piece for a long time, but also I have fond memories of a late friend at Yale who in the spring used to play its flute part barefoot in the courtyard. He was one of the most creative people I ever knew, and I like to think of his playful spirit occasionally entering my work. Thus, one can choose mind music for personal reasons as well. //长笛和爵士钢琴的欢快愉悦激发做的激情与想象力 If you are not familiar with ambient music or Brian Eno, become so. Ambient music is not to all tastes, but as the title Thinking Music, Part IV suggests, it is specifically designed to enhance rather than detract from one's ability to concentrate. //环境音乐使人集中注意力 As Brian Eno writes in his 1978 "Ambient Music Manifesto: "Whereas conventional background music [e.g., Muzak] is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to 'brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. As for the two Eno pieces in my collection, Thinking Music, Part IV is deep and somewhat dark, suitable for ponderous thoughts, and Music for Airports is somewhat lighter. I note with satisfaction that many other people online have chosen this piece as "thinking music," too.