When the prison banned board games, we played chess in our minds

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/02/11/when-the-prison-banned-board-games-we-played-chess-in-our-minds

by danso • 5 years ago

292 181 5 years ago

There is a book "Schachnovelle" by Stefan Zweig (don't know the English title) who starts to play against himself in while in prison. Good read.

techer• 5 years ago

The Royal Game apparently

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game

tyingq14• 5 years ago

I'm hoping there's some broad reform coming for jails and prisons in the US. Currently, there's no uniformity in the way prisoners are treated. It's not unusual, in the US, for a prison to have no television, no books, little actually edible food, limited human interaction, etc. You can't even write a letter if you don't have someone on the outside funding your commissary account.

That setup, of course, just ends up being a gladiator school and/or permanent psychosis camp.

yellowapple9• 5 years ago

Yep. It boils down to rehabilitation v. retribution. Rehabilitation is effective at preventing recidivism. Retribution is politically expedient.

And this goes beyond prisons, too. Kinda hard to not turn to crime again if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail.

tyingq14• 5 years ago

"if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail"

That's a great point that I haven't seen discussed in the media. When I was young, only "Fortune 500" type companies could afford background checks, so you had a fighting chance at getting a decent job.

Now, anybody can buy a instant background check online, and you can get not just felony data, but misdemeanor data, and even "just arrests, not convictions". And it's dirt cheap to do so. So, job prospects are dim, and even simple stuff like renting an apartment is difficult as well.

slibhb• 5 years ago

No it doesn't. It's perfectly fair to be against the lack of uniformity in how prisoners are treated without being against retributive justice. That prisoners' lives should not depend on "the whims of the prison's management" (as another poster put it) is just common sense.

SilasX6• 5 years ago

Well, if you do give them practical job training, another voting segment is going to scream bloody murder at "prison labor".

ravenstine2• 5 years ago

I think you can have a level of both. Obviously we don't want crime to be free of consequence, but we also don't want inmates to commit crimes again after their sentence(both for the sake of others and their own). In the US, we mostly care about retribution, even when we say that we want reformation. All the time I hear from people about how we need to focus on rehabilitation, but then hear a lot of the same people shout "lock 'em up!" even for property crimes.

I'm not one to be in the "America is bad at everything" camp, but I think one of the most negative aspects of our culture is that we act entitled to everything like the world is Burger King and we should get everything our way(or your money back). Fries too cold? Send 'em back and don't tip the server! Someone backed into our rear fender? Sue 'em for all they've got! Someone stole your TV? Lock 'em up and throw away the key! It all stems from materialism.

paxys• 5 years ago

Permanent psychosis camp is an apt description. The US makes its prisons as hellish as possible – and post-prison life as difficult as possible – as a form of punishment, and that results in some of the highest rates of recidivism in the world.

What's worse is that people get incarcerated for increasingly severe crimes. A drug offender spending a stint in prison is very likely to go back in for a more violent crime with a few years of release.

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2019/may/3/long-term-re...

tyingq14• 5 years ago

"get incarcerated for increasingly severe crimes"

I'm guessing at least partly due to the "gladiator school" aspect.

caconym_• 5 years ago

I broadly agree with you but I think you're ascribing too much coherent judicial intention to the way we treat prisoners. Sure, people are sent there as punishment, but it seems more like the way they're treated once they get there is mostly down to profit motive on the part of big prison-industrial players who outright run some prisons and provide services to most (all?) others, and individual depravity on the part of the bullies and sadists who are drawn to working in the industry.

Just the fact that I can reasonably call it an "industry" should be setting off major alarm bells. Our prison system is one of the most terrifying and evil things that exist in the real world.

Karunamon• 5 years ago

Unlikely. Far too many people willingly short-circuit all rationality in favor of ineffective, but emotionally-satisfying stances like being "tough on crime".

Treating prisoners as crappy as they can get away with is usually something in favor of a US politician with any ability to do something about it.

csnover6• 5 years ago

I’m not optimistic about it, but I do wonder if the experience of living through a pandemic will give folks a fresh perspective on just how rough imprisonment is, and a willingness to consider alternatives. If it’s torture to be stuck in your own home for a year—with your own bed, food, schedule, entertainment, family, and hot water—just imagine how much worse it must be for someone locked up in a cage for decades without even those basic freedoms. If you believe that long prison sentencing is a deterrent, and someone told you that breaking a law would cause you to have to live another year of pandemic life, does that not feel deterrent enough?

Mediterraneo104• 5 years ago

Has pandemic lockdown really changed that many people’s views? In some countries it has become a faux pas to complain about lockdown conditions. Often that is because people don’t want to hear complaining about things we seemingly have little control over, but sometimes it is because some people honestly don’t see any problem with life in lockdown.

For example, when scientific advisors to some governments appear in national media and say there could be upsides to maintaining social distancing for potentially years into the future, and this evokes little popular outcry outside a tiny fringe of wacko “great reset”/antivaxxer conspiracy theorists on Twitter, then you start to wonder if a lot of the population has simply accepted the new normal. That might create less sympathy with prisoners, not more.

renewiltord• 5 years ago

Hardly. I will simulate a response to you:

I can't believe you would complain about living IN YOUR OWN HOME nice and comfortable while PEOPLE ARE DYING. To compare this to prison is an INSULT to OUR HEALTHCARE HEROES. We're IN A PANDEMIC

There are enough loud voices from people with high Right-Wing Authoritarian Scores (which isn't a Republican/Democrat axis, before you decide I'm being needlessly political) that will shout you down.

As a personal test, I am buying GEO and CoreCivic to see how much I believe.

dfxm122• 5 years ago

Controversies around even the idea of prisoners getting the vaccine, as a vulnerable population, seem to suggest the perspective will not change, I think: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/sta...

jedimastert• 5 years ago

Unfortunately a large part of the population is conditioned to not see convicts as people, let alone citizens deserving of any kind of rights or freedoms

see: The consistent running "joke" throughout American pop culture of men getting raped on a regular basis

tgsovlerkhgsel5• 5 years ago

It's supposed to be a severe punishment, usually reserved for serious or repeat offenders.

If someone works their ass off at minimum wage for a week, just to have the fruit of their work stolen in a minute, and the thief got caught doing this for the third time (which means the thief likely also got away with it dozens of times), what then?

Most importantly, why should that person work their ass off for another week, instead of going somewhere else, stealing something, and enjoying the remaining 39 hours off?

House arrest exists, but it depends on that person not just ignoring it and running away, and is significantly milder for the reasons you listed.

meddlepal• 5 years ago

I'm hoping there's some broad reform coming for jails and prisons in the US.

Doubtful. Prison reform isn't popular at all amongst voting blocs that matter to politicians and it's a hard sell to the public tuned into a "safety first" and "lock 'em up and throw away the key" attitude.

tyingq14• 5 years ago

I say I'm hopeful because there have been meaningful changes in bail reform and decriminalizing drug possession recently. Some attitudes do seem to be changing.

spoonjim4• 5 years ago

I think suburban America broadly does not want psychopaths running around which is what burglars and drug dealers become when they spend 10 years in prison.

spoonjim4• 5 years ago

I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t send people to jail for more than 3 months if they’re not going for their entire lives. I don’t want people coming out of a place like that into my suburban neighborhood.

vharuck• 5 years ago

This is interesting. Is the 3 months number something arbitrary? Are there major groups advocating this? Beyond limiting the harm if prison, short stints could make gangs harder to form in non-lifer prisons.

SilverRed3• 5 years ago

Would that not push for more life sentences? Would you now send a rapist to prison for life instead of 10 or so years? 3 months is far too short.

stouset2• 5 years ago

I don't think I agree with this, but it has made me think about the problem differently.

We don't send somebody to the hospital for "30 days", or "1 year". We don't do it when putting somebody under the care of a psychiatrist either. We deal with the patient until they're recovered.

Perhaps this should be the approach we take with prisoners. They're in prison until a professional determines they're rehabilitated and ready to reintegrate back into the rest of society. With—potentially—minimum and maximum durations to ensure some safety rails on the system.

I have to admit I don't know what this looks like, and I don't mean to gloss over the fact that there are incredibly difficult questions this raises that don't have good answers (what does it mean for a murderer to be "rehabilitated"?), but I do wonder if at least considering the problem from this perspective might prove helpful.

wnevets3• 5 years ago

Reducing privatization of prisons is the first step. Prisons as a profit center is just legalized slavery.

GhostVII2• 5 years ago

Less than 9% of prisoners are in private prisons, so I don't think that would make a significant difference. I mean it might be a good thing to do, but won't help the vast majority of prisoners.

mc32• 5 years ago

The percentage of inmates in private prisons is about 8% of the prison pop in the US. New Zealand and Australia top us at 11 and 19%.

The issue goes beyond privatization.

irrational• 5 years ago

Is there a prison review website? Let's say I wanted to get sent to the "nicest" prison in the USA (not a white collar "tennis-camp" prison). What crime would I need to commit where to have the highest chance of getting sent there?

temp0826• 5 years ago

Startup idea- RodIronDoor, GlassDoor for prisons?

everdrive• 5 years ago

No books seems unusually cruel. And to what possible benefit?

tyingq14• 5 years ago

To be fair, that's not true everywhere, but it is true in many places. Though in some places where it is allowed, someone on the outside has to buy it for you. Not everyone has someone on the outside.

nashashmi• 5 years ago

Stories of prison bring up ideas like this. But I don’t think uniformity in treatment would work.

If a person is in prison for violence then treatment would be no more violent games and videos.

If a person was in prison for theft or gambling related, then treatment would be prohibiting acts that deal with money or games of chance.

If a person was involved in bribery or lying, then treatment would be avoiding anything that involves cheats.

tyingq14• 5 years ago

I meant uniformity of rules across institutions. I don't have an issue with different rules for different types of prisoners. Just that those have some uniformity across the various places. Right now, you can do prison time in a county jail (yes, serving an actual sentence in jail), in a state prison, or in a federal prison. The state prisons, particularly, are all over the place on rules and environment. And those serving sentences in county jails are also typically getting the short end of the stick, as the facility rules aren't made for long-term inmates.

jMyles4• 5 years ago

The abolitionist movement has been mostly dormant since the reconstruction era, but seems to be alive again this past year.

We need to ensure that these dots are connected; prisons are not only the moral successor to slavery, but the literal legal framework by which it continues.

Strictly speaking, slavery is not against the law in the United States; this carve out in the 13th amendment was seized upon immediately and remains with us today.

njharman• 5 years ago

One of the biggest in progress "reforms" is decriminalizing marijuana and end of the "war on drugs" in general. Keeping 20% of prison population from ever going there.

ROARosen• 5 years ago

I sometimes wonder, since prison is meant for those who commit crimes, so presumably when society decided prison is appropriate for certain crimes, didn't that mean automatically no social interaction for prisoners, since the ideal society would not have (any other) criminals? If yes, that would mean solitary confinement is the only real imprisonment.

There are lot's of other ways to take this question with this line of reasoning but I'll leave it at this for now.

LocalH• 5 years ago

This comes from a common mindset that people in prison deserve no rights because they broke the law. They don't take into account the fact that there are people there who don't deserve to be (either because they are innocent, or because the law they violated was unjust), and if incarcerated people have "no rights", then they can't fight for their freedom.

binarymax• 5 years ago

This is really going to help Wally's quest to GM. Playing blindfolded is one of the best training tools in the box. They'll get better at being able to see deeper and deeper without needing to touch the pieces on the board.

jeremyjh5• 5 years ago

"Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens. Some people have attained GM later in life, 30s, 40s and even older - but all GMs have been child prodigies and most - if not all - attain International Master in their teens or early twenties.

SamBam4• 5 years ago

It's certainly rare, but it's not unheard of.

Mikhail Chigorin apparently learned the rules of chess at 16, but only really started playing at 27.

Gersz Salwe started playing around age 20, and apparently entered his first tournament at 36.

And in terms of blooming late, Oscar Shapiro and Bernard Friend became GMs in their 70s.

(Also, I don't see it stated anywhere that the prisoner was not an exceptionally-talented youth.)

bsder• 5 years ago

"Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens.

Mostly, I think, because becoming a GM is a full-time job and you don't earn any money while doing it.

You need to go to a lot of tournaments around the world, continuously study to get prepared for opponents, and have enough money to fund it all.

So, you really have to want it as an adult and have nothing else that you would prefer to do.

lambda_obrien• 5 years ago

That's kinda true for most things in competitive arenas, right? Sports, chess, e gaming, etc. I hate it, but at mid life I'm way slower thinking than I was 20 years ago, there's no chance I could compete with young people on raw talent in many areas, I might win some online games because of superior strategy, but I'll never have the speed to beat young, experienced gamers.

icelancer2• 5 years ago

It's plenty possible, but few have the desire to put in that much work as they get older. There are people who play at near-GM-level strength in tournaments reflected in their single tournament evaluations, but don't play enough to obtain 2500+ rating or score enough GM norms in major tournaments.

There's a even a guy from Russia who is 2550ish rating and isn't even an IM because he hasn't scored enough norms, and is 3000+ bullet/blitz on Chesscom, which is incredibly elite.

Someone picking up chess at age 25 could certainly become a GM. They just usually don't have the desire for it.

j4yav• 5 years ago

I don’t think it’s actually correct that all GMs were child prodigies.

faizshah• 5 years ago

We used to play connect 4 like this in high school, it’s frustratingly difficult to remember the game state but it’s easy to play (you just call out the column). You can easily forget the board position if you think too long about a move and as the game progresses it becomes more difficult to keep track of the game state. But it’s a lot of fun, I can imagine it becomes a lot easier over time especially when they are so experienced in chess.

InitialLastName• 5 years ago

I had a friend in high school who would play mental chess while weight training. He claimed it was good practice for his golf game; I think he was just showing off.

WalterBright• 5 years ago

I find it impossible to do any abstract thinking while lifting.

nxpnsv• 5 years ago

That’s inspiring, and also depressing, worth a read though. I feel keeping a whole game in your head is a good way to deal being locked up,

tyingq14• 5 years ago

"“alligator” for A, “baseball” for B, “constellation” for C, “dinosaur” for D, “elephant” for E and “golf ball” for G.

Shame there wasn't anyone to share "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, etc" with them. It works well in practice, has less syllables, and probably has many in prison that already know it.

83457• 5 years ago

I'm sure the words they chose sounded suspicious if heard repeatedly but if heard just occasionally they were probably less so than words like Delta, Foxtrot, Tango, etc.

air7• 5 years ago

On the contrary. It's beautiful to see what people come up with when they're not tethered to the norm.

tyingq14• 5 years ago

Perhaps. "Constellation" is particularly odd to me though. There are lots of unique lesser used words with 2 syllables instead of 4. So I'm curious why they chose it.

slingnow• 5 years ago

Yeah, it's a shame there was no one to share the most well-known way to relate words to the alphabet that likely many of the guards would already be familiar with.

Had you considered they chose these words for good reason?

tyingq14• 5 years ago

I am curious, for example, why "Constellation" and not, say, "Comet". I've done quite a lot of volunteer work for jails and prisons, so yes, I'm dismissive that the guards would care about that. The article mentions they are using a chessboard, noting moves, etc. Nothing about keeping it secret. What was banned was face to face board games in common areas.

Issues with guards come from different scenarios than this one. The cell areas are typically very loud and chaotic from a noise perspective. That's mentioned in the article.

elihu• 5 years ago

On the other hand, using your own phonetic alphabet is a way to disambiguate your communications in a noisy channel. If someone hears someone say "Charlie 6" they could be talking about anything. But "constellation 6" is almost definitely a chess game.

AcerbicZero• 5 years ago

I’ve had serious issues with the judicial system in this country for years now, but banning board games is just a new level of absurd.

How a system so unjust can exist in a modern “democracy” is beyond me.

djrogers• 5 years ago

Did you read the article? It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one.

jMyles4• 5 years ago

It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one.

I'm not sure what that means - just that it is an administrative restriction rather than something adjudicated in a court of law?

This doesn't make it less absurd, and might make it more.

olliej• 5 years ago

That seems like the new "reason" -- at least it's more valid than the old reason of "stopping gambling". There was a documentary, Netflix maybe?, where guards would routinely do sweeps and find any game pieces that prisoners has made - paper folded to make dice, notes and score sheets for D&D, etc

hertzrat3• 5 years ago

Let the inmates decide for themselves. I’m sure they’ve had enough “we’re doing this for your own good” for a lifetime

EliRivers• 5 years ago

Genuinely thought they were both going to get put in solitary and have their sentences extended for engaging in gang activities, based on their coded messages to each other. Good God, but I have low expectations of this prison system.

cletus• 5 years ago

To me the state of US prisons reveals a really dark aspect to US culture and that is there's a real penchant for... cruelty. Like here's just a partial list of major problems just off the top of my head:

- The essentially institutionalized use of rape as a means of controlling inmates;

- Ridiculously long sentences for relatively minor offences as just another casualty of the disastrous war on drugs;

- commissaries as a profit center with ridiculously marked up prices;

- ridiculous costs for telephone calls as another profit center, making it more difficult for inmates to maintain social ties to family;

- prisoners count as citizens but can't vote. Also prisons are jobs. This makes prisons the perfect tool for gerrymandering and pork barreling;

- being charged (not convicted but _charged) with a felony while on parole violates your parole and can send you back to prison to serve the remainder of your sentence. I don't know how this passes the due process test;

- Overcharging to force plea deals;

- Paying prisoners <5c/hour;

- Forcing prisoners to pay a co-pay to see a doctor. $2-5 might not sound like much but it is at 5c/hour;

- Female prisoners may need to see a doctor to get adequate tampons or sanitary napkins. See above for why that's a problem;

- 5c/hour incentivized individuals and private companies to use prison labour to undercut real competitors;

- You don't really have a choice: working is typically mandatory;

- Prison food. 'Nuff said.

- The "are you a felon?" scarlet letter you'll carry for the rest of your life. This actually causes problems even for the ultra-rich. As one example, it has caused real problems for Mark Wahlberg, such that at one point he sought a pardon from the Massachussetts governor for what was a fairly vicious assault when he was young. That effort failed. I absolutely oppposed the Wahlberg pardon. He shouldn't get an exemption. Reform this stupid system instead;

- Early release prisoners having to pay for their own drug tests where they have huge problems even finding a job as a felon in the first place;

- Disenfranchising felons in fairly stupid ways that are clearly a form of voter suppression ie they can't vote for really no good reason;

- Overcrowding;

- Privatizing of prisons;

- Having a delay between parole being granted and the prisoner being released. This is so dumb. This allows other prisoners to "tax" the parolee as any infraction during that period may violate their conditions of release. In comparison I saw a show about a prison in Mexico where a prisoner was called intot he warden's office, told he'd been freed and he was immediately free to go (probably for this "taxing" reason). I was honestly surprised at how humane Mexican prisons seemed in this show (compared to their US equivalents);

I don't think it's an understatement to call the US prison system to be a humanitarian crisis and a blight on the soul of the country.

ravenstine2• 5 years ago

You had so many more points to make, but your first one stuck out to me:

- The essentially institutionalized use of rape as a means of controlling inmates;

It's super messed up that, although we make a big deal about rape in our culture, when it comes to someone going to prison, even for nonviolent offenses in some cases, it's socially acceptable to joke about men being anally raped in prison. I suppose there are some especially bad people whom I'd care less about being raped, honestly, but I think it's kind of sick to wish that upon someone. In some ways it's worse than admitting to wanting someone dead because it's intended to be especially sadistic and humiliating. It's sexist as well; just imagine the kind of response someone would get if they joked about a woman getting raped in prison. If you're a man, Americans believe you deserve to get raped if you commit a crime, or are at least callously indifferent to it.

facesonflags• 5 years ago

Perhaps presenting the for-profit system with more profitable uses for the space is the way out, for better or worse. For example, Louisiana has filled empty space with ICE detainees at a higher rate per resident. Something to take into account with reform.

drstewart2• 5 years ago

Can you share more about how amazing Mexican prisons are? I can only find stuff like this:

"Mexico’s Prisoners Face Extortion Fees to Live: Report"

https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/mexico-prisoners-face-ex...

"Murders, corruption and crime: The hell of Mexican prisons"

https://www.thejournal.ie/mexican-prisons-3418092-Jun2017/

"Mexican prisons: over 500 riots per year"

https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/mexican-prisons-over-...

But of course these can't be right since you saw a television show that portrayed them in a grand humanitarian light, and how could that possibly be inaccurate?

aerovistae• 5 years ago

Your sarcastic and condescending tone detracts from your point and from the conversation. You could say the same thing in a polite and genuine way and be more likely to attract meaningful responses.

fastball2• 5 years ago

RTFA everyone. Board games weren't banned out of an abundance of malice.

jMyles4• 5 years ago

No policy is ever enacted in such a way that an abundance of malice is the express basis.

This restriction has no basis in science or sense. A respiratory pathogen may provide another in a long line of childish excuses, but make no mistake: slavery itself is an abundance of malice.

fastball2• 5 years ago

Where did slavery come into this?

ArneVogel• 5 years ago

If anybody wants to play chess in their minds, Lichess has a option to turn the pieces invisible [1]. It's not quite as hard as playing by voice as you have the move list you can refer to but it's a start.

[1] https://lichess.org/account/preferences/game-display bottom of the page

Buttons840• 5 years ago

There is also an option to have the computer read moves to you and you can make moves and query the state of the board by typing commands. Streamers use this to play blindfolded, while the stream shows the board position normally to viewers.

asauce• 5 years ago

I’m an active user of Lichess and never knew about this mode. Thanks for sharing!

irishsultan• 5 years ago

Another option is "Move list while playing", which you can set to never. I haven't tried it yet, but combining these two should get you there.

myth_drannon• 5 years ago

Reminds me Natan Sharansky story. Being jailed in Soviet prison, in solitary confinement he played chess in his mind. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25560162

qwerty456127• 5 years ago

A common advice is to avoid playing anything in prison. You will always be forced to pay something if you loose (and you probably will loose because people don't play fair there) even if you didn't intend to bet.

hutzlibu• 5 years ago

A more common advice is to avoid prison in the first place. And if you are there ... I believe prison culture has differences, just like on the outside world.

Lio• 5 years ago

This reminds me of this story of a man who played mental chess in a soviet gulag to stay sane.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162

GrantZvolsky2• 5 years ago

My grandmother[1] was a political prisoner and her favourite pastime while in prison was poetry. Since the inmates weren't allowed to have any possessions, not even a strip of paper, she composed poems in her head. She later published them in a poetry collection and I know people who memorized the entire collection. She herself had a phenomenal memory for poetry. Her friends would often call and ask for her to tell them the lyrics of old songs and poems, and even in her late 70s she never failed to answer their request without consulting her library. My mum once challenged her and asked her to recite the 50 minute-long Máj[2]. If she weren't interrupted after 10 minutes, she probably would have recited the entire thing. She was able to memorize a poem after hearing it just once and it seemed that she retained poems indefinitely. I don't know whether this talent was the result of 6 years in an environment where memory is the only means to persist information, but it seems likely that it played a role.

Another less impressive anecdatum is my own experience of about a year with a phone that couldn't remember phone numbers. In the beginning I memorized numbers out of necessity. By the end of the year I had a mental address book of about 30 numbers and new numbers could be added effortlessly. The bewildered looks of people giving me their number without me pulling out a phone to write it down were priceless.

[1] https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BEena_Kuklov%C3%A1-J%C3%...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoX5y_JZ40

briefcomment• 5 years ago

When you memorized numbers that way, did you "see" the numbers in your mind's eye? And when you went to recall it, did you basically read it from that impression? I sometimes memorize numbers and other strings that way.

GrantZvolsky2• 5 years ago

It feels as though I simultaneously remember and recall an image of the number as well as its numeric value. What helps me remember the numeric value is identifying its interesting properties and patterns.

This mental phone book improved my ability to memorize other types of random strings. On one occasion I memorized a 20-digit hexadecimal license key, though I had to read it about three times. The client who watched as I keyed it in was very impressed. On a second thought it isn't that impressive given it's 12 digits short of a UUID.

nilram• 5 years ago

Not the GP, but for me, in the context of numbers that I use on a keypad (or, ahem, in the context of a rotary dial), the physical actions are linked into the memorization, along with some combination of aural and visual memory.

sn412• 5 years ago

In ancient Indian mathematics, people would compose poetry based on tables of numbers, so that things such as sine tables, and the value of pi up to certain number of decimal places, were easier to remember [1]. A delightful example given in the site is "Milk is best for breakfast, when it is morning, it should be stirred. But Gopālan says there is no milk - the number of days of English months in order.", which in the appropriate alphabet, represents the number of days in the months of the Gregorian calendar.

[1] https://artofmemory.com/wiki/Katapayadi_System#:~:text=In%20...

antiterra• 5 years ago

There’s a literary organization/movement called Oulipo[1] that similarly works with patterns and algorithms to creatively restrict or generate writing.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo

jeofken2• 5 years ago

If you want to remember the first digits of Pi, use this:

“How I wish I could calculate Pi” 3.141592

Cthulhu_• 5 years ago

I've learned a trick using the knuckles of the hand to remember the days of the months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckle_mnemonic

confidantlake• 5 years ago

In high school there was a kid who could play blindfolded. As someone who has no mind's eye this completely blew my mind.

Balgair• 5 years ago

Somewhat related: Playing the video game Mike Tyson's Punch Out while blindfolded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZT6JEOC3D8

RickJWagner• 5 years ago

Interesting. I once had a language professor from cold-war era Czechoslavakia. He was in the military and had to stand around in formations for hours. He found a like-minded friend and played chess 'in their heads' as they stood.

Extra: After he moved to the USA, he applied his mental skills to poker where he became a world-class lowball player.

adonovan• 5 years ago

When I was I high school I played some mental chess against the school’s star player. (He could beat me when he alone was blindfold.) I’m not a great chess player but I was surprised how far it was possible to play before making a mistake. Gives me hope in case I should end up behind bars.

hartator• 5 years ago

And on top of everything, board games—including chess—have been completely banned to promote social distancing.

Well that sucks.

YeGoblynQueenne• 5 years ago

> At the heart of our mental chess game lies a profound lesson: It is easy to play the victim in life, to allow your circumstances to dictate your disposition. But the difference between being content or distraught is a matter of perspective.

Good advice, but only as long as you don't let the bastards that screwed you up get away with it just because you got over it. Don't let yourself be fine with letting others treat you like dirt.

danjaco• 5 years ago

The vast majority of people are in prison on non-violent drug charges; it is horrific how society believes that they are all horrible people who deserve to be there and doesn't care about them at all. Even under normal circumstances, the institution cares little for their rehabilitation, and now they are under atrocious conditions such as these. Many psychologists consider solitary confinement to be a form of torture, but as we know, in covid times that no longer matters.

When the prison banned board games, we played chess in our minds

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