Sinatra lyrics, African capitals, summer birthstones… is there any point in memorizing something that you can look up in thirty seconds? With a phone in every pocket, has memorization lost its value? It’s an interesting question. My answer is no. In a world where memorization is scarce, its value only rises. Memorization has strange and surprising powers.
I like memorizing poetry. Why? Because it makes you think very carefully about each word. The thought density of a poem is high. It took a long time to pack all that meaning into it, and it takes a long time to unpack it. Memorization helps that process. Like a archaeologist at a dig, every time you sift through the dirt, you unearth a little more treasure. And once you have committed a poem to memory, you can enjoy device-free playback in any setting at any time. A walk through the countryside, a bout of insomnia, raking leaves, all these can be enriched by a remembered poem.
Beyond interpretation, there is performance. Memorizing poetry is a reliable magic trick. It’s impressive to hear strong, confident words pouring forth without hitch or hesitation, like a stream driving down a mountainside. It feels good to say it and it feels good to hear it. And in the modern age, the differentiating power of having a poem at ready recall is all the stronger. It’s not that hard to do, but even so, people come up to you and say, “I could never do that.”
Even given all this, though, I found it difficult to memorize poems quickly and reliably. I tried a few apps (and there are a number of them), but I didn’t like them. I ultimately got the general-purpose memorization app called Anki, which then led me to Remnote. Taken together, I found the tailor-built poetry apps didn’t have the features I wanted, while the general-purpose apps were too diffuse for me to put to work on poetry.
One day, I found myself musing about how my poetry app would work if I had the skill to write apps. And then I realized that I do have the skill. To be more precise, because of AI, the effort required has plunged to the point that I have the skill, you have the skill, and my cat Mozy has about 80% of the skill needed to create a JavaScript app. You need to start reminding yourself on a regular basis: you have all the skill you need to write a web app. Because all you have to do is tell Claude what you want your app to do.
Here is the app I wrote: Versify.
I don’t claim that it’s very polished yet, but it’s good enough for me to actually use it. The idea was to think of a wavefront moving through the poem. You’re just typing the poem. If you can’t remember the next word, then after a short delay, you get a one letter prompt. Effectively you’re learning by just typing the poem over and over, but you are never allowed to go wrong, so you don’t learn the wrong thing. You don’t form wrong memories.
It’s all very simple, but it works! At least it works for me. I’d love to know if it works for you. I learned along the way that you do better when you build the system. So, for example, you’ll learn faster if you make your own flash cards, as opposed to just grabbing someone else’s. So while what I built works great for me, it might not be so great for you. But the good news is, now you can build your own just as easily as I built mine.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 