What is a PAO system?

A PAO system is a fixed set of images you use to turn playing cards or numbers into scenes. Every card - or every two-digit number from 00 to 99 - gets three meanings — a Person, an Action and an Object — so three in a row become one sentence you can picture.

PersonWho is in the sceneA face you can see instantly — a celebrity, a friend, a character. No strangers, no abstractions.2♦ → Einstein
ActionWhat they are doingA verb with movement. Physical beats emotional: riding, throwing, melting, kicking.5♠ → driving a unicycle
ObjectWhat it happens toA thing you could point to. Concrete, and ideally on a strange scale.J♥ → a black hole

Three cards, one picture

Read the cards in the order they were dealt. The first card gives you its Person, the second its Action, the third its Object. Ignore the other two meanings of each card — position decides which one you use.

Because the same card means something different in each slot, order is baked into the image. Swap two cards and the scene changes, which is how you catch mistakes on recall.

A full deck is 52 cards, so 18 scenes covers it — the last one runs short. You store each scene at one stop along your palace route.

What is a memory palace? →How to memorize a deck of cards →
Person2♦Einstein
Action5♠driving a unicycle
ObjectJ♥into a black hole
↓
Einstein driving a unicycle into a black holethe sillier the picture, the harder it is to forget
Deal the same three cards in a different order and you get a different sentence: "Newton driving a unicycle into a black hole."

Two kinds of system

playing cards52 cardsOne Person, Action and Object per card. Three cards make a scene, so 18 scenes hold a full deck.2♦ 5♠ J♥ → Einstein · driving a unicycle · into a black holeHints: Hybrid (the rank gives a sound, each suit is a theme you pick), Major (suit sound + rank sound) or Dominic (rank letter + suit letter as initials).
numbers00 to 99One Person, Action and Object per two-digit number. Three numbers make a scene, so every scene holds six digits.31 41 59 → Person of 31 · Action of 41 · Object of 59Hints: Major (each digit is a consonant sound) or Dominic (each digit is a letter, the pair is a person's initials).
How the Major system turns numbers into words →

Four rules that keep a system usable

One card, three fixed meanings

Assign the Person, Action and Object once and never change them. Hesitating over which image belongs to a card costs more time than a weak image does.

Let a code suggest the image

Sounds and initials help: the Major system turns 21 into N + T (Nate), the Dominic system turns 15 into A.E. (Albert Einstein). The PAO Builder shows a hint for every card and number - use it or ignore it.

Keep the three roles distinct

If a card’s Person and Object are both "a chef," the sentence blurs. Aim for images that could never be mistaken for each other.

Drill in triples, not singles

You are not memorizing 52 cards or 100 numbers. You are memorizing how any three of them read together, which is the only form you meet in a run.

Build yours, then drill it

A system only works when the images are yours. Use the PAO Builder to assign a Person, Action and Object to every card or number and save it to your account — then drill a shuffled deck or a string of digits and time yourself.

Build a PAO System
Drill numbers →