I dont understand why some people still go by brute force memorization when there are better methods. Those that our brain naturally uses. You won't see memory

I dont understand why some people still go by brute force memorization when there are better methods. Those that our brain naturally uses. You won't see memory champions using Anki for competitions as their main memorization tool that's for sure. I've studied a few languages, and by far the easiest, fastest and most long-term proof way to memorize words is by free association. It takes some initial effort to be able to create these associations, but when done, it's done. There are some words I now basically can't forget, because the association is just too strong. Example: Waarschuwing = dutch word for warning. With free association i did it like this. the "waar" part of the word immediately made me think of english word "war" schu, shoe wing, wing So i vividly imagined a flying shoe with a trompet warning about an upcoming war. Done. Unforgettable for me. The more ridiculous, emotional (funny, stupid, ...) and obvious the better. Some words are easier than others, and the ones that don't have a quick association jump out quickly are at a higher risk of being forgotten, but even then, they will stay way longer and without much less effort than with brute force, which is basically just creating memories out of nowhere, with no associations to anything on your brain. Our brain loves to relate things to others. Unrelated things = useless things. Everything that is useful has a relationship to something else. So when you try to memorize by a way that is not based on association, indeed, only brute force works, which is a way to tell your brain "welp i can't really tell you what's the usefulness of knowing this, but somehow it keeps coming back into consciousness, so i guess i need to keep it in here somewhere. A self sustaining island, a dot of knowledge with no connection to anything else i know or care about."