I Memorized 1000 Digits Of Pi, Here Is What I Learned

Technically, I memorized more than 1000 digits of pi, 1002 to be exact (2 whole extra numbers, wow😃). But isn’t it amazing that a human mind can remember more than 1000 digits? Now if someone asks me what is the most ridiculous thing I ever learned, I guess I have a pretty good answer.

Imagine the reactions to that answer. There are so many I could think of, like:

“Why would you waste your time memorizing 1000 digits of pi”, or how about “Wow that is amazing, but why would you waste memorizing 1000 digits of pi ” or… actually I can’t think of a response that doesn’t have “why waste the time”, so here is the answer.

Because I wanted to see how far I could push number memorization techniques.

But things don’t always go to plan. As you can see by the title, I thought 100 might not be that impressive. So of all of the available options, like making it 2 times longer for 200 or trying 314 digits (get it, because pi = 3.14) I chose to add another 0 making it 1000 digits. Here is the plan I came up with.

Project (if you can call it that): Memorize 1000 digits of pi.
Time to finish: 20 days (that comes to 50 digits a day).
Memorization strategy: major system
Revision: 15 minutes after memorizing the 50 digits for that day, and then repeating with all memorised digits up until now, just before going to bed (for example: on day 4, before going to bed I would have 4*50=200 digits to revise).

I wanted to spend just a little bit of time each day, so I chose 20 days. The memorization strategy I used is the major system, where you turn numbers into sounds and make words with those sounds. Words and pictures are easier to remember than numbers, so this method comes in pretty handy when there are 1000 of them.

I revised 15 minutes after memorizing because you get better results if you wait a bit. You remember more if you revise right after memorizing, but that is only try for a short period of time. Since I need to remember every number I memorized, that way wouldn’t cut it. And at last, before going to bed I revised every digit that I memorized up until that day (which took 30 minutes on the last day).

So, since I memorized all 1000 digits, it must have been a success, right?

Well, if you look at it that way, sure, it was a success. From every other perspective not so much. First of all, it took me 22 days to memorize all of the digits, so I slacked off for 2 days. Take into account the 3 days that it took to not make a mistake and you get a total of 25 days.

Next is the memorization strategy. While I followed it pretty closely, sometimes I just couldn’t make words with the sounds I got. So from time to time, I would use other methods or even try to remember numbers without any method which defeats the purpose of this… let’s just call it a project at this point.

But the worst mistakes I made were when it came to revision. Here is a short list of some (not all of them, because the list would be too long):

• Not waiting for the full 15 minutes to pass before revising, because I was in a hurry
• Not waiting any time at all before revising, because I don’t have enough time
• Going somewhere when I had to wait 15 minutes and then coming back after an hour, because I was too bored
• Not revising before going to bed because I was too tired
• Not revising all of the digits I memorized before going to bed because that would take too long and I had to go to sleep because I had to wake up early to feed my poor little chickens

And many, many more. Now take a look at the list above. What do you see? If you look at it with rose-colored glasses, you might see legitimate reasons for everything that happened. That’s actually not a bad way to look at things, after all, isn’t it better to be positive?

Well, a little optimism hasn’t hurt anyone, right?

If you want to look at it that way go ahead. But to me, those things up there look like a bunch of excuses. And really bad ones at that. Was I in that much of a hurry? Did I not have enough time? And what do you mean I was too bored? Of course I was, who would not be bored trying to memorize 1000 digits of pi?

Yet despite everything that happened, I was still able to memorize 1000 digits of pi.

So what have I learned through everything that happened?

First, let me say that this might be the most stupid thing I tried to learn. Although, If you ask someone else they might not think the same. I learned a lot of stupid things, but in my mind, there was always a good enough reason to do so.

That was the case this time as well. I wanted to test if I can remember a long number with the help of the major system (and the memory palace, but that is for another time). However, there was no reason to memorize 1000 digits of pi. It could have been just 100, like how I first wanted it. Even a bit more up to 500 is reasonable by my standards.

But trying to memorize 1000 goes beyond anything I have memorized, and it officially deserves the title of the most stupid thing I attempted. Having said all of that, you can still learn a lot from this project so let me share some thoughts.

First, don’t try to stick too hard to your original goal. As you can see, I tried to memorize every digit in 20 days. On the 21st day, I was going to perfectly recite every digit. But that didn’t happen. I was lazy for two days and didn’t learn any digits, which made the total time 22 days. Moreover, I couldn’t remember all of the digits without a mistake for two days. On the third day (25th day altogether) I could finally achieve my goal.

Second, don’t try to be perfect. Despite all of the mistakes, I continued to learn and, in the end, memorized all 1000 digits. I could have stopped after the first day I skipped but I didn’t. I just thought, “Well it happens”, and continued. So many projects die because people try to be too perfect.

It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, the important thing is that you learn from it.

Third, you can learn a lot with just a little bit of effort every day. When someone wants to memorize 1000 digits of pi, they would probably try to do it as fast as they can. But you can do it slowly, by memorizing a few digits every single day. The time I spent on memorizing and revising was a measly 15 minutes a day. Obviously, the more digits I memorized the longer the revision was. After 1000 digits it took me around 30 minutes, which still isn’t that much.

Here is a lesson for students: It’s better to study every single day for a little bit of time than to study as much as you can the day before the exam.

And one for working adults: If you complain that you don’t have enough time, make space in your day for just 15 minutes and dedicate that to learning, you will be amazed by the results.

And for the last one, the most contraventional lesson: if you don’t understand something try to memorize it. This might not be the best advice, but if you think about it, in certain situations it can be useful. What if you are learning a material that you know you won’t ever need again, except for your next test?

The best way to learn something and remember it for the long term is to understand it. But what if you don’t need it for the long term? If you learn the proper way to memorize, you can cut the time you study unnecessary material (ok, maybe necessary for that one test you have).

If you are going to study this way, first make sure the material you are studying isn’t useless. I won’t take the blame for you if that happens (but feel free to complain to me, if it makes you feel better).

* * * * *

If for some god-forsaken reason, you want to try to memorize 1000 digits here is some advice to help you:

1. Don’t try to. Pick a smaller number of digits to memorize.
2. Read advice number 1 again. But if you still want to do 1000 digits, I can’t stop you.
3. Use the major system. You can learn how to use it here.
4. Group digits into groups of 3 to make 3-digit numbers. That would look something like 3. 141 592 653 589 793 238 462 and so on.
5. Don’t try to do it in one day. Sleeping is the best way to remember what you learned through the day. The more days you have, the more time you sleep, making it easier to remember what you memorized.

This project started as an experiment, to see how many numbers I could remember with the memorization techniques. The results are fascinating to me. Maybe the results you get will be fascinating to you too.