Just as a tangent: what you posed is an example of what the magic community refers to as a problem (what the spectator sees). Magicians then try to come up with a method that satisfies all the constraints specified in the problem.
Slightly more annoying though is that I seem to have forgotten to add a website I found last time I researched "mind reading" to my bookmark collection at pinboard.
The classic recurrence is if you're choosing K elements out of N, it either has the first element (in which case you choose K-1 elements out of the remaining N-1) or it doesn't (in which case you choose K elements out of the remaining N-1), so:
N choose K = (N-1 choose K-1) + (N-1 choose K).
Also, if you sum (N choose K) for all values of K you get 2^N.
> The way he writes makes even interesting topics feel deadly boring.
This sounds like a great endorsement to me. Another complaint I had about Zinsser's book was that he was giving you advice on how to "spice up" your writing, but IIRC (it's been some years), it was all about standard journalistic tricks to construct a narrative, have distinct characters and personalize the story. Obviously that sort of thing is more engaging to read, but I feel like it often distorts the "take-away" message of most scientific and technical writing, given that most science is incremental improvements on existing technology carried out by international collaborations and competitions, not major breakthroughs carried out by lone supermen.
> it was all about standard journalistic tricks to construct a narrative, have distinct characters and personalize the story. Obviously that sort of thing is more engaging to read
That sort of writing doesn't engage me at all. Too many articles begin with something "it was a foggy afternoon as Peter was waiting in line to buy ice cream", taking 5 paragraphs to first touch on the subject mentioned in the title, instead of just coming out with "Scientists recently confirmed that yum yum molecules can generate distinctive taste sensations depending on the amount and color temperature of the light they have been exposed to in the first few hours. This odd discovery began when scientist guy was hoping to grab some cones at his favourite ice cream Parlour in $city, etc. blah blah".
As you can tell, I'm not a writer. But I know the kind of writing I won't waste my time on, and the internet is full of.
There are techniques with better payoff and retention. Check the memory systems advocated by David Roth or Harry Lorayne, or the locus method (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci)
Seconding this recommendation -- this book was a really fun (and fast!) read and was really eye-opening about how real memory tricks work and started to get me thinking about the utility of having vast amounts of information memorized.
I don't have any studies, but check the wikipedia page for examples of Memory Championship winners using the method to, for example, memorize a deck of shuffled cards or a random sequence of digits. I bet Moonwalking with Einstein would have some references in the scientific literature.
The issue with the methods is that you have to use them actively. As the author's mentor says in the book: most of the memory champions have horrible memory in normal situations, they were just desperate to change that, so they pursued mnemonic techniques. You might have an elaborate system to remember hundreds of playing cards in a loci palace (which takes months and lots of repetition to develop!!) and still frequently lose your key or forget names.
You can develop/discover and consciously apply mnemonic techniques for each situation (eg remembering names at a party by associating the name with prominent features of the face or funny analogies) but if you don't use them they'll be of little help.
Bill Clinton (or was it JFK??) is said to have all his life kept a notebook with him and scribbled down any personal facts revealed in a situation - name, alma mater, etc - and was then able to recall them when meeting the same person years later. He must have had an impressive system and much dedication - but also must have been a bit awkward to talk to when everything you say is recorded (apparently a good listener though).
