ART of the CONSULTING DETECTIVE @theartoftheconsultingdetective - Tumblr Blog

BLOG UPDATE

Hey all. During my e x t e n s i v e hiatus the understanding of deductionism I slowly learned over years of research and practice steeped into something new. It’s time to restart this project with what I know now.

For multiple reasons I will be moving to a new blog called Footprints & Tea Stains. One reason being it’s easier to start fresh and teach Holmesian deduction without the old posts complicating things. The other reason is…my name isn’t Michael. Probably obvious to many. You can call me Cade Alyssa Maggie, or just C.M.

I look forward to seeing you all over there. It’ll be really nice to discuss and teach deduction from ground zero and I’m excited to share my cohesive map of the craft in a reproducible model.

footprints-and-tea-stains

A New Deductionist Paradigm

Sherlock Holmes and his successors are contentious points of discussion among fans seeking more than fiction. Mysteries provide thought provoking entertainment and a feeling of reassurance for nearly all who consume the genre; however, for a few it is not enough to simply consume the media presented. This uncontent viewer needs to become the superhero (or fabled detective). Unlike other kinds of fiction — as if to put gasoline on the proverbial fire — these superpowers seem tangible. Holmes may be fictional but surely his prowess can be learned. Whether it’s due to the “follow along format” of mystery or a personality trait of the viewer, there exists a cult following restlessly honing their craft of logic and deduction.

Many of these fans — which we will call “Deductionists’” — have taught themselves formal logic from a pastiche of well documented media analysis, criminology and forensic information available online, mentalist television performers, and an ever growing pool of arbitrary facts called a knowledge base. The unfortunate side effect of this inevitable approach is the deductionist gathers and processes new information through the lens of a writer, therefore producing something adjacent to fiction. On top of this complexity — which is an equally long and chaotic experience for most new deductionists — disagreements within the community creates divisions along the axis of “stage performances” versus “real deduction” separating further into Mentalists and Holmesians; which in all honesty is not always a helpful distinction. This can be uniquely difficult to sort through as a new member of the community.

However, the purpose of this blog is not to document the complexities of self driven education; it is to demystify and simplify the entire process. Deductionists' of the internet age memorize situations and series of circumstances as if drilling events in a martial art. Unfortunately they do not understand the core principles of the art they drill for, therefore learning entire swaths of information that may have been avoided altogether. The deductionist asks themselves "What does the discoloration of the fingernail mean?" but do not ask the more important and topical question "What is deduction?".

I present a new deductionist paradigm. A full knowledge base on deduction organized into one map without the situational complexities. This blog is a re-packaging of all the information I have taught myself over the past years. I will post everything I know about Holmesian deduction in the form of written lectures as if you were attending a university. After each lecture I will answer topical in a singular post. There are a few more overview posts I need to get out of the way (which I highly suggest you do not skip) and then we will go directly into the meat of deduction, beginning with formal logic.

-C.M.

I have a question about Mind Palace. I looked around your blog and the internet in general but a couldn't find, so I decided to ask. I started building, I got confortable and relaxed and focused, but for some reason, instead of being able to create a space, I was stuck in front of a door. An actual big, wooden double door. After a bit I found a key? And i was able to open it? I hope this doesn't sound fake, but I was wondering if its normal. (sorry for the english, not my first language) -T.

Try making a new palace or using a location from real life. Really get to know this location so that you can walk through it and use the space like you would if it were real. This should help.

I'm not sure if you're still on this site or not, but when I use my mind palace, a lot of times I can't see in first person. I always imagine myself walking instead of seeing what I would see if I were walking. do you have any suggestions?

You need to ground yourself. When you move around in your memory palace imagine counting your fingers, feeling the ground as you step, reading text. Really see how much taller the walls and roof or trees and buildings are in comparison to you, force yourself to look up. Ground yourself in the reality. For my memory palace I have a few rules I must follow to maintain the reality. One such rule is no teleporting. I do have portals but they don’t move and also follow strict rules.

Dear MC, may I know if there's future direction/continuation for this blog? Many thanks :D

I intend to move my content to a blog off of Tumblr. I will also be moving to YouTube. I enjoy writing about deduction, philosophy, and memory palaces; however, Tumblr is too small. As I’ve developed my deductive prowess I have outgrown this small blog. I want to make larger projects with more people. Teach to a larger audience. I will update you guys about the new blog and YouTube channel as they go live.

If this blog is still active then I would like to ask something. How did you get started with deduction and the mind palace method? Are there any sites that you would recommend?

When I began deduction I didn’t have access to the YouTube channels and blogs we have now, I had to teach myself. Luckily a few others began teaching themselves and making deduction blogs around the same time. So we grouped together to learn more than we could on our own. So I suggest you find a group of people who want to learn. This in combination with the resources made by all the people who had to teach themselves and now made articles and videos, you’ll be in good shape.

As for memory palaces there are a lot of books but I suggest just looking up the method of loci, the major system, Ben Pridmore’s binary system, and the PAO. Maybe get the book “How to Develop a Perfect Memory” by Dominic O’Brien. Mastering these will move you up through basics to intermediate.

Is dealing with S.S. difficult ?

Who?

Strange asks

I’m ignoring strange asks. I know that seems like a crazy concept, but I’m doing it. If you desired to torment me through my Tumblr, I apologize but you will simply have to find another way. What determines “strange”? If your ask has almost no context, refers to people that you know I don’t know, or is just weird.

Asks I will NOT be ignoring:

Questions about deduction and memory palaces

Questions about me (the ones that aren’t strange)

Stuff that this blog exists for

-M.C.

are there any books you’d recommend for learning any type of skillset? or hobby type stuff? (such as chess)

"Norwegian wood chopping, stacking, and drying wood the Scandinavian way" by Lars Mytting. I find this book particularly useful for my hobbies.

Does being high help someone become more immersed in their mind palace

Not unless a palace was designed to do so. Being high makes it particularly difficult to focus on and decode mnemonic images (though it might be great for generating such images). I have a theory that Sherlock’s drug induced dream palace in The Abominable Bride is to some extent possible. But it would require a huge amount of work and likely a large amount of railroading, so no free roam palace world.

I myself have created working loops of cars and pedestrians in cities I’ve spent some time in. But that ability might be lost if I were high because of the concentration needed. - M.C.

Hello! I would like to ask you for some tips regarding the Memory Palace technique. How could i use it for learning languages? It will take me a lot of time to store every term that i might need in future conversations but i can group them. Do you have a better suggestion though? Also, what will you suggest for grammar? Especially for exceptions since languages like French have quite a lot of them. Thank you for your time! ^^

To get fluent there will need to be quite a bit of practice. It just can't be avoided. However the memory palace makes that practice much easier because instead of trying to memorize the words and rules as you practice, you're simply trying to turn them into a default setting.

So to turn something to the default setting in your brain you have to write the code. Obviously memorable images, but also images that have the highest likelihood to decode properly with the original intended message. For this reason I suggest storing grammar and vocabulary in different palaces. If you have a rule about grammar encoded using a scene about an apple tree in the same location as the vocab word for apple or tree, it may become confusing what the scene was supposed to decode into.

As for grammar rules I would simply do this: To learn Hungarian I turned the strange and varied grammar rules into scenes to help remind me in a format that I could replace the words and create a working sentence.

"John saw an apple tree" is a totally different sentence then "An apple tree is what John saw". In Hungarian the subject is always the first noun and the rest of the paragraph refers to that item or group. This simple distinction can make simple but effective scenes to place at each of your loci. For Hungarian I would add in something in the scene that loops back around to point at the first noun to reinforce contextualization.

I hope that was helpful. I'm very sorry for taking so long. I won't make up any excuses for it. I hope this is useful and if you have more questions please let me know. - M.C.

Who's the most difficult person you've ever worked with?

That’s private information. However, seeing as you were likely aware of this I would argue you are the most difficult person I’ve ever worked with.

awhile ago you posted this lovely poem called The Cat by Michael Calladus and i loved it! i was wondering if you had any other favorite poems/quotes/mottos?

Yes, you will be able to get more of these things once I complete my YouTube channel. I’ll be teaching intermediate deduction but with a narrative twist, so poetry and quotes will certainly be a staple.

You’ve described the A Game. When can we expect an article?

Yes, I’m in the process of moving my blog, as well as the blogs of other deductionist writers, to a multi-author blog with it’s own domain. Once new blogs are settled I will continue everything as it should be.

Is there a simple (or complicated) way to figure out someone's phone or computer password? And how different would it be between someone you know and someone you do not?

I don't know, I tend not to hack people. I have on occasion guessed wifi passwords but I'm not particularly good at it.

Is there an Adler and Watson for you

No. I'm not Sherlock Holmes, I've solved different cases and met different people.

You can’t see it

Cool.

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