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What is a memory palace?

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A memory palace is a mnenomic device -- a technique for memorization -- that that was widely practiced in the Western World before the invention of the printing press.

A memory palace is not a real building. It is an imaginary structure created in one's mind for the purpose of storing information. To create a memory palace, one imagines a series of rooms, and in each room one places an image or collection of images that represent the facts or ideas one wishes to remember. To remember these ideas, one imagines oneself walking through the rooms of the palace. Seeing the images in the rooms jogs one's memory, calling to mind the things one wishes to recall.

A memory palace is, in effect, a virtual space in which one stores a large trove of knowledge -- very much like a website. This website is my own memory palace, with a key difference from the old kind: other people can enter it too, not just me.

My memory palace will contain everything I know that I might wish to share with others. To start, it will contain all the information relevant to the courses I teach and have taught at Duke Kunshan University and elsewhere. But it will not be limited to that -- it will also contain an archive of things to read, resources to use, information I wish to make public: in short, anything I might mention to you that you might want to learn more about or share with others. 

I will constantly be adding new "rooms" to the memory palace. It is always under construction.