Last year, I realized I'd forgotten everything I was learning. I mean everything. Determined to remember at least a single thing from the halfway sentient daydream that was my COVID experience, I created a system to remember everything. Fast forward an entire year, as it felt like 2021 did automatically, and I've followed this system religiously. This video is the most important piece I've shared so far, and this technique is really the only reason I've been able to learn so much over the past two years. In this piece, I'll explain the memory system I've created, why it works according to science, and how it enables me to remember every single thing I learn without exception. [Music] When it gets right down to it, our brains work pretty flawlessly as it is. Our brains could have evolved to remember every minute detail and event that's happened throughout our lives, but there needed to be a reason to, which there just never was. Creatures evolve through life or death experiences. If we remember which mushroom will kill us, you know, we have a better chance of

living. If we remember what the clouds looked like on our sixth birthday, it just doesn't give us a lot of information. Just imagine if one minute from now you remembered every little detail in this frame, every previous frame of video you've ever seen. Also, 99.9% of that would serve no purpose. A large part of the autistic spectrum consists of differences in how people's brains are unable to filter out over-stimulation through the complexities of our world. But most brains are amazing at forgetting useless information. You'll probably understand the general concept and point of this video. We won't remember what I said word for word in the introduction. The point of having a photographic memory shouldn't just be to remember every little detail of perception, but instead remember what we deem as important, not what our subconscious automatically filters out. This is the reason I developed this system. Part one: the science. So how do our brains choose what information to store and what to discard? Well, it isn't just life or death related. I'll remember for the rest of my life a

dream I had when I was five where the animated trolls from the original Hobbit invaded my kitchen and yet that's not increasing my chances of survival. The average layperson trying to learn nuclear physics for the first time will probably find it very difficult to retain that information. This is Dr. Sean Kane explaining his research on the cognitive psychology of learning and memory. What it shows us is two things. The first is that our brains remember importance. The second is that importance is determined by value, relation, and repetition. These three items are what all non-physical cognitive memory research revolves around. Understanding this is critical to understanding how to create a photographic memory for yourself. Value: our brains decide what is valuable based on its use in our lives. That's why, as King said, learning nuclear physics is difficult. When I was five, my brain subconsciously decided that this recurring troll nightmare had value. Now, why was this? You know, most of the time, what the case is is that our brains have an emotion bias. If we elicit a strong emotion like pure

terror. Our brains treat that event as valuable. Otherwise, why would we have not slept for days just because these stupid cartoon drills won't stop entering every single dream? YouTube relation more than anything. I consider myself a filmmaker. I remember lens characteristics and lighting setups, etc. Because all of this information relates to me. Relating information to yourself is something that happens consciously but still impacts your subconscious. What's powerful is that if you start learning something new like music, at first, it won't relate to anything, but soon that new information relates to previous information in that same category. Repetition. Now to get back to the nightmare trolls. Another strong reason why I remember these little men is the repetition of this memory. I've thought about this memory consistently since I was five. Every time I've seen the cartoon Hobbit, I remember them in my kitchen. And on top of that, I feel like this is my first memory. So, because of this, whenever someone asks me what my first memory is, I bring up the cold sleepless nights of 2008. Repetition like this ensures any

memory can stay in your mind no matter how bad you want those trolls to leave. Part two: the memory system. When the German sociologist Nicholas Luhmann became a professor, he was asked what his main research project would be. In these three decades, he published 70 books and 400 academic articles on a huge variety of subjects, from science to art to history to philosophy, and progressed a multitude of fields to new heights. This German lad is important to our story because he popularized a method of expanding your memory called the Zettelkasten method. Now, this method isn't at all what this video is about, but to put it simply, the method consists of writing notes on small pieces of paper with a numbering system to be able to link new notes to other notes. Since Luhmann's focus was on writing books, this makes sense. He said books would write themselves, and if you had 90,000 notes of various subjects all linked together, I'm sure that entire books were just swimming around the millions of words strung together on his desk.

however, the zettlecast method failed to see a large opportunity. Here is where my memory system comes in. See, Lumen and Zedel Caston both missed out on half a century of research in your cognitive memory that I talked about in the first part of this piece. What I realized over a year ago was that if you take the science behind why we remember what we do and our memory biases into account, then a new method can be created. One that works with the natural functions of the brain. This method is the Xettlecast method taken to a new height. One that isn't just writing interconnected notes, but instead one that makes its way back into our brain, allowing us to remember everything that we want to. And here's how it works. The three rules are simplicity, personal connection, and to benefit from human-specific memory biases. The three key concepts are information translation and representation. Information goes in your head, you translate it to the real world on paper, then you represent that information in a new way. Let me explain step one. Grab an index card. Step two.

title it with what you want to remember. Step three: fill the card with information about the subject. Make it sound personal and very informal. Now, this is crucial. If the card sounds like a Wikipedia article, you failed. Step four: write your own personal connection to the information. This is huge. Once your brain recognizes what you wrote is important, it just sticks. It really is amazing how well this small step works. Step five: draw a picture. This is the final step to being able to remember literally anything you write down. By drawing the subject of this note, it can't remain abstract. The idea is able to be visualized, and the representation of the information can now stay in your brain. Now, this might sound simple. After all, it doesn't seem to be too different from jotting down a note like normal. Well, I did an experiment to validate this over the last year. While building my collection of siriani notes, I've also been making notes on my phone. After a year of doing this, it's remarkable the difference of what I remember from typing a note versus doing this process.

of the memory system. I will literally read a note on my phone and not even be able to remember how it ends. That's how little of it remains in my brain. For the siriani notes, on the other hand, I can't believe how much I remember after a bit less than a year. The stack of notes has grown pretty substantially in the past year. I've read books that I remember basically nothing from, but I've also read books I took siriani notes on, and I could literally answer any question about it. It's gotten to the point where anything important enters my head, I immediately take a note on, and so far, they've all remained in my head. Memory based on intention. Now, the last part of this video talks about the mindset shift that comes with this memory system. But before that, I explained value in relation within the system, but I haven't talked about the third concept, which, if you remember, was repetition. Now, this is a really cool benefit of having this whole system be physical. See, the stack of the notes is always sitting on my desk. When I'm bored.

I'll flip through the cards. If I need to find one, I'll end up reading dozens along the way because of how short they are. You don't get this if the system is digital, which is why I think that cards are the way to go. The expansion of my memory that I can't even begin to describe has made it certain that I'm never going back to the normal lame version of memory. But along with the literal benefits of this year-long experiment, something else surprising started to happen: a substantial mindset shift towards new information. This channel is about continuous learning and expanding your awareness. What this new memory system has done for me is created this strange drive to learn more. For the first time in my life, I can literally quantify the knowledge in my brain, which is like super trippy to think about. The size of the stack is the amount of intentional information I've added to my mind. The bigger the stack gets, I just get to see how much more I'm learning, and I get more driven to grow it. This memory

system has literally gamified the expansion of knowledge, which again I just can't reiterate is like crazy. My progress within film photography, engineering, and CGI isn't just measured by deadlines and goals now. Now I can measure it by stacks of memory chunks sitting on my desk. It really feels like it makes learning the goal of a project even before starting this YouTube. I've made probably over 30 cards on storytelling, editing, channel growth, thumbnails, how to relate complex ideas, and so on to try and grow this channel. My goal with this system is to just keep growing it. In some ways, it's changed too over the last year. I recently started writing examples instead of connections because I realized an example that relates to my life could hold even more value for how my brain interprets the information. So to wrap things up, I wasn't exaggerating when I said that this was the most important video I've released. The system has transformed how I retain information and everything I'm able to do because of that. If any of you try out or

implement this method in your own lives. Let me know. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Uh, the channel is still like really small, so I'll see every comment. Um, with that being said, I've learned a lot over this last year, and I attribute a hundred percent of that to this method. So, give it a shot. I think it could change your life too. I'll see you next time. You

How I Developed A Photographic Memory

How I Developed A Photographic Memory