Memorize 2,000,000 keywords and other book in the book series

After 10 years of writing blogs and video courses, I finally published another new book. It is expected to be the first in the series. Here I explain more about the book series and future plans.

The power tools of KeyToStudy

Amazon now provides a tool for book series.  We created a new series for accelerate learning and commit to populate it with at least 4 books.

In 2014 we published a book “The Key to Study Skills: Simple Strategies to Double Your Reading, Memory, and Focus”. This book became a bestseller, and it has been steadily selling for the last 10 years. It is a very deep and detailed book dealing with basic speedreading and memorization skills  – the most fundamental tools of accelerated learning.

With more than 200,000 students, some of our students need to upgrade their learning well above the basic needs we used to offer a decade ago. They use 1:1 training with Anna and the video masterclasses we sell on Thinkific, but often asked for books that enable different and occasionally deeper perspectives.

This year we are planning to add 3 new books with tentative names:

• Memorize 2,000,000 keywords. This book is already available both as an ebook and as a paperback.
• Read x3, x8, x20 and x60 faster.
• Analyze 1000 articles in a weekend.

Please note that the names are fixed only once the book is published, and even then there may be some variations.

Memorization, speedreading and speedwriting

For the last decade, I have developed multiple video masterclasses, and spent a long time trying to mix and match them. These three skills simply fit perfectly: speedreading, memorization, and what I call speedwriting.

Memory skills are central to any learning. There are different kinds of memory for “what” and “how”. Descriptive memory deals with “what”: factoids and connections and it can be improved in a myriad of ways, maybe x100 or more.  Procedural memory deals with “how”, and practice, practice, practice.

To practice memory we ideally need to consume a lot of useful information, otherwise our entire memorization process is a colossal waste of time. Initially, reading is not very effective compared with video training and formal education. However, with some training, the reading speed can be improved x60, well above any other way we can use to consume information. Yet to store so much information, the memory needs to be both very strong and incredibly fast. Reading fast without great memory results in a sort of amnesia, where we remember that we read something but not why or what we read.

Once we acquire large amounts of knowledge, it feels like the endgame. Yet, the reality is very different. We need to revision our knowledge constantly and retrieve it actively. Otherwise, we forget, or cannot use the knowledge creatively. Here there are several useful options. One is called spaced repetition, e.g. working with Anki. This method is useful for example when learning rarely used foreign words. Another method is what I call speedwriting. Create a reading diary, and review it, group articles together, and then write your own piece. Speedwriting really helps to consolidate knowledge and establish expertise, but it requires a lot of reading for non-trivial insights.

What else can be added to the mix?

Three more books might be added after that:

• Systematic creativity and logical markers
• Enhanced senses and sleephacking
• Polymath thinking and raising polymath children

I have these three books fully drafted and ready for editing.

Systematic creativity takes the issue of speedwriting one step further. It focuses on the connections we make between the factoids, the way we represent knowledge, and how we can use it creatively. Since I am author of books and patents, the things I can do creatively usually converge to books and patents. I guess for other people, systematic creativity may converge to other and very different achievements.

Supersenses and sleephacking is a sort of extension to speedreading. Speedreading relies on eidetic memory, acquired synesthesia, and other strange capabilities of the human brain. At very fast reading speeds, the entire process becomes largely subconscious, and yet we need tools to control it.  Lucid dreaming is another example of a process with is mainly subconscious, and yet can be easily controlled with some training. Without a reasonably good understanding of the human senses, the entire process becomes enigmatic.

Polymath thinking is an extension of memory. One of the biggest questions we ask in our family: why do I care and why should I spend any effort remembering this? My answer often is: all knowledge is connected. The connections between different kinds of knowledge and the insights we can derive depend on curiosity and skill. Yet all of us have this intuitive understanding that everything is connected on some deeper level. Very few very unique people may solve protein folding problems using knot theory on supercomputers with artificial intelligence. The rest of us simply derive unique and inventive solutions to trivial issues or cool stories for dinner with friends.

A complementary skillset

There is a large complementary skillset that I cover in a different series under a different brand, KeyToVision. The relevant books are likely to appear in 2025.

• Productivity. This is a huge field of ideas. Even discussing the 3 states of top productivity (flow, controlled multitasking, and creative rumination) may require more than one book.
• Prioritization. For example, consider our habits and the things we learn as investments. Can we build a diverse portfolio with compound interest? To make this more complex, notice that we can trade time, money, and effort. For example, we can outsource some of our knowledge to ChatGPT. Is it good?

In the past, I tried to combine these subjects with KeyToStudy. The result was sufficiently confusing for me to stop. For example: If we have X time units, should we invest in learning a foreign language, or acquire deeper professional expertise, or maybe train to learn better? I am not sure I have the required tools for my personal use, let alone teaching others to do something better.

Remember I briefly mentioned procedural memory? It is a part of the productivity toolset. Moreover, it is notoriously hard to work with. And, as I improved my declarative memory I became acutely aware of the limitations of my procedural memory.

You are welcome to visit my keytovision and smartorfun blogs for more discussions on productivity subjects.

Read the entire series

I do not really think you can buy all of the books in one of my series in a batch. Rather I recommend progressing from book to book within each series, in the order the books appear in the series. Also note that on Amazon each book appears twice: as an ebook and as a paperback.

Happy reading!