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Some comments from Nack

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Monday, 18 February 2013, at 8:16 p.m.

In Response To: Memorizing reference positions (Timothy Chow)

I emailed Nack for his thoughts about memorizing SOWPODS. He began with a few caveats.

1. Memorizing the entire wordlist is not the most effective use of your time if you want to become a top Scrabble player.

2. We all know a lot of words even without special study so the comparison with backgammon may not be apt.

3. "Knowing" a list of words is a fuzzy concept. Recall is not the same as recognition, and there are some words which seem like they ought to be in the list but aren't, so you may find yourself having to memorize some words like that that are not on the list.

Having said that, he felt confident that someone who specifically set it as a goal could probably memorize 99+% of SOWPODS with enough time and effort, and without necessarily being a savant.

Messages In This Thread

• Memorizing reference positions
  Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 3:00 a.m.
  • Memorizing reference positions
    Seth -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 4:14 a.m.
  • Memorizing reference positions
    christian munk-christensen -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 9:02 a.m.
    • Memorizing reference positions
      Bob Koca -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 2:03 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        lucky -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 2:18 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        christian munk-christensen -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 3:52 p.m.
        • Memorizing reference positions
          Bob Koca -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 12:00 a.m.
    • Memorizing reference positions
      Bob Koca -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 2:20 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        christian munk-christensen -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 3:45 p.m.
    • Memorizing reference positions
      Stick -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 7:04 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        christian munk-christensen -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 10:04 p.m.
        • Memorizing reference positions
          Stick -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 3:19 p.m.
          • Example 2
            Chuck Bower -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 6:05 p.m.
          • Another example
            Timothy Chow -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 7:29 p.m.
        • Memorizing reference positions
          Timothy Chow -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 7:31 p.m.
    • Memorizing reference positions
      Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 11:02 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        christian munk-christensen -- Sunday, 17 February 2013, at 9:01 a.m.
  • Memorizing reference positions
    Bob Koca -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 2:10 p.m.
  • Memorizing reference positions
    6stones -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 6:49 p.m.
  • Memorizing reference positions
    Chuck Bower -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 7:52 p.m.
    • Memorizing reference positions
      Matt Cohn-Geier -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 8:47 p.m.
      • Memorizing reference positions
        Chuck Bower -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 9:05 p.m.
        • Memorizing reference positions
          Matt Cohn-Geier -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 9:44 p.m.
        • Memorizing reference positions
          Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 16 February 2013, at 11:47 p.m.
  • Some comments from Nack
    Timothy Chow -- Monday, 18 February 2013, at 8:16 p.m.