Ed Cooke, CEO and co-founder of Memrise, has an unusual background for an entrepreneur. Forget business school or years as a consultant, Cooke spent most of his 20s competing in memory championships, winning competitions by performing heroic mental feats like memorizing the order of 16 decks of playing cards in under an hour.

　　Memrise的创始人兼首席执行官埃德·库克(Ed Cooke)是一个有着不寻常背景的企业家。除去在商业学校上学和当咨询师的年月，库克几乎花了20年参加记忆力锦标赛，以展现英勇的脑力特技在竞赛中赢得胜利，比如在一个小时之内记住16副扑克牌的顺序。

　　This experience might be well often the beaten path for most business leaders, but it's actually perfect preparation for Cooke's current role. Memrise, if you're not already familiar with it, is an amazing tool to help people learn anything from science facts to a foreign language more quickly using fun associations to make new words or ideas stick (I've used it personally and absolutely endorse it for memorizing new vocabulary especially).

　　对于大多数商业领袖来说，这种经历太老套了，但是对于库克现在的角色来说确实是个再好不过的准备。Memrise网站，如果你对它还不了解的话，是一个非常神奇的工具，它能帮助人们运用有趣关联来展现新词或者观念导图的方法来学习从科学现象到外语等领域的知识。(我曾经亲自用过，特别赞同用这个工具来记忆单词)。

　　The company's approach is science backed -- Cooke's co-founder is neuroscientist Greg Detre -- and draws on the latest research into learning and memory as well as Cooke's unusual expertise. The company is even currently running a test to discover which memorization techniques work the best of all. So when Cooke got in touch recently offering to share tips with Inc.com readers, I told him to send them on over. In his own words, here's what Cooke suggests if you want to sharpen your own memory:

　　公司所采用的方法是有科学依据的——库克的共同创始人是神经系统科学家格雷格·霍格(Greg Detre)——并且将最新的研究还有库克不寻常的专家建议加入到了学习和记忆中去。公司现在正在运行一个测试来检测哪一个记忆方法最为有效。因此当库克得知要与Inc.com上的读者分享记忆贴士的时候，我告诉他将分享都发送过来。用他的话来说，如果你想迅速提高记忆力，以下就是库克的建议：

　　1. Location is key

　　1. 位置是关键

　　Quite a common experience is for context to mess with memory in quite a severe way. For instance, you're in the kitchen, and you think "I must get my raincoat from the bedroom" and you head upstairs. Once there, you can't remember what you came for. You return downstairs, and immediately remember. You head upstairs, and again can't remember what you were looking for. I'm a memory champion, and I've been known to do three loops of such nonsense. The trick is to imagine what you're looking for in the location you're headed to. That way the new context will contain the memory of what you were looking for.

　　在某种情景下记忆力严重混乱是一个非常普遍的体验。比如，你在厨房，想着“我要到卧室里拿雨衣”，然后你上了楼。可以一到那儿，你就记不起来你为什么上来了。你转头下了楼梯，突然之间你又记起来了。你又上楼，接着你又记不起来你到底要找什么了。虽然我是个记忆冠军，我也曾体验过这种白痴似的三次循环。办法就是你得想象你到你要去的那个位置到底找什么。如此一来，新的情景中就会包含你在寻找何物的记忆。

　　2. Train your brain

　　2.训练你的大脑

　　To keep the memory sharp, the same thing's required that will keep the mind sharp generally: lots of stimulation, keeping mentally active, learning new things. Whether it's doing the daily cross-word, conversing on difficult subjects, learning a language, or simply doing an interesting manual task, keeping active is at the heart of mental health, and the sine qua non of keeping on top of memory as you age.

　　保持记忆力的敏捷，同保持思维的敏锐所要求具备的东西是一样的：频繁的刺激，保持思维活跃，学习新事物。不论是做每日的字谜游戏，讨论困难的议题，学习外语，或是仅仅是去做一项有趣的手工，保持活跃是思维健康的核心，也是保持你所属年纪最佳记忆力的必要条件。

　　3. Play mind games

　　3. 玩思维游戏

　　Every kind of memory is different, so there's no general test for memory. But there are many specific games that can be played. For instance: Have someone write out a list of 20 words, give yourself a minute and then try to reproduce them in order. 14 is a great result. Have someone do the same for a list of 20 numbers. Do the same thing with a collection of 10 flowers and their names. Or faces and their names. Each exercise will specifically test your memory (at the moment) for these things. The more you practice any such task, the better you'll get at it.

　　每种记忆都不同，所以其实并没有什么通用的记忆力测试。但是又很多具体的游戏可以玩一玩。比如：写一个有20个词语的清单， 给自己一分钟，然后尝试着将他们按照原顺序再现出来。能写对14个就是非常好的结果了。让每一个人也同样做一个有20个数字的清单。或收集10种花和花名。或是记忆人脸和他们的名字。每一个训练都会专门检测你对(有时候)这些事物的记忆力。这种游戏你最玩得多，那你收获的也越多。

　　4. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

　　4. 重复，重复，重复!

　　If you need to remember something, repeat it, test yourself on it, review it regularly. One great habit is that of "recollection". At the end of the day, reflect on all the things you did. That single repetition will be enough for memories not to slip through the gaps, and can give a general boost to your mental clarity.

　　如果你需要记下某事，就重复，检测你自己是否记得，定期回顾。“回忆”是一个很重要的习惯。一天结束之后，回想一下你所做的所有事。仅仅重复进能够助你无缺漏的记忆，提升你的思维清晰度。

　　5. Tell a story

　　5. 讲故事

　　We're creatures of narrative, and our memories are especially pleased by anything that takes the form of a story. Turn shopping lists, intentions, even single facts into narratives big and small and you'll remember them much better. As a rule of thumb, we remember anything we pay attention to. How to pay attention? The answer is always to find what is interesting in what you want to remember. If it's a story, experience its meaning and enjoy it. If it's a conversation, try to immerse yourself in its meaning. If it's a fact, try to work out what would be interesting about it.

　　我们是叙事型生物，如果事物是以故事的形式来展现的，那么我们的记忆也会十分清晰。将购物清单，愿望，甚至是单独的事件编成一个故事，你就能将它们清晰地记下来。一般来说，我们会记住我们所关注的事物。怎样关注呢?答案就是要找到你想记住的事物中最有趣的部分是什么。 如果是一个故事，那就体会其中的意义，享受其中。如果是一个对话，尝试去理解其中的意思。如果是一个客观事实，试着找出其中最有趣的是什么。

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（编辑：何莹莹）