I have found that the difficulty lies more in the interpretation and application of the codes than simply remembering what they say. The index tells you where the specific section is, so let the book keep track of it.
Could you give me an example of difficulty interpreting the code? I've looked at it and my problem is I don't understand the terminology yet, but I assumed that once I understood the concepts and lingo that reading the manual would be clear cut..
And I'm guessing that most of the difficulty of applying the code would be figuring out the most optimal design that accounts for cost (including projected labor cost), is up to code, and fits.. right? Is there anything else?
The type of memory I'm talking about here is one like you would have if you were asked a question or presented with a problem and you had memorized relevant information or the answer itself sometime previously. For example, we all have a great amount of learned skills that are not at the forefront of our attention all at once, but once called upon, the memory is instant. For example when you come to a red light and wish to make a right turn - a set of instructions runs through your brain from memory, such as:
Stop at the thick white line>
look both ways for obstructions such as cars coming or people crossing the street>
make sure there isn't a 'No right turn on red' sign>
if all above is true, decide to turn right on red unless:
an emergency vehicle with lights is coming from either direction>
view is obstructed and cannot safely foresee incoming traffic>
if above conditions are met, wait for green light..
most of these instructions never cross our mind until we need to use them, especially the rare situational cases, but it's like a chain reaction to a trigger. the trigger is the need to turn right on red, which generates past memorized behavior or instructions pertaining to turning right on red.
text memorization works exactly the same way once you convert all concepts/constructs/words/definitions in a text to vivid mental images that convey specific meanings to you, then learn to repeat the identical vivid image later to reproduce the chain reaction (this is perfected by doing it all the time).
human memory naturally does this in the 3d physical world, just as it happens in a human when navigating traffic, and so conceptual information is just a matter of visualizing it vividly enough and similarly enough to trigger the brain to reproduce a pattern it has already generated before during the first visual effort (memorization).
most people use a combination of their senses which is not as effective as visual in almost all areas. most people use sub-vocalization, for example repeating a phrase or string of numbers over and over until it becomes a song-pattern, which the first sound of the 'song' or annoying melody triggers the rest of it. still, this usually also incorporates the mental visualization of at least part of the memorized password, phone number, or phrase.
In ancient times storytellers could recite extremely long stories, because they played like movies in their heads, with strong visual thoughts, and not reciting things like a robot with no understanding of what they were memorizing.
That is why it's easy to memorize something like this:
The fox was on fire, and jumped into the pool.
(And repeat this an hour later from memory)
Than this (an hour later):
101 341 145 11 7010, 011 00122 9322 843236
One string creates a movie in your head, one doesn't.
If you think about a fox an hour later, then you will probably remember he jumped into the pool, if you visualized the fox the same way as you did the first time.
If you visualize or sound out '101', the first number in the memory sequence, the rest of it doesn't come to you because you don't have a good mental construct for the number '101' like you do for fox.
So what all this means is that the memorization I'm talking about isn't memorizing the words or definitions of things like a robot taperecorder, but memorizing the concepts that the words/definitions represent. So that if you were presented with designing a fire suppression system for a storage room, every bit of memorized information related to your saved mental image of a 'storage room' would come flooding to your mind - not rehearsed verses.
