A Simple Introduction To Mnemonics
Table of Contents
A Simple Introduction
The essays I write are generally for more advanced mnemonists, people who already know their way around a memory palace, or who are at least patient enough to take a deeper dive into the subject even without all the background basics.
There are a lot of beginner books on the subject: popular classics like those of Harry Lorrayne, Tony Buzan, or Dominic O’Brien, who helped revive interests in mnemonics in the modern era, while more recent mnemonists have been releasing excellent books for general audiences like those of Lynne Kelley or memory champions like Nelson Dellis.
All the authors above are a great starting point if you’d like to dip your toes in the memory arts.
Basic memory training is very easy. It’s kid’s stuff that just requires practice.
Most of it can boil down into two simple steps:
Create a mental image that evokes what you want to remember.
Place that image using a mental recreation of something or somewhere tangible, like your house or a physical object.
That’s it.
That’s the whole basic art of mnemonics.
Mnemonics Are Just Heuristics
Let’s just say you want to remember the list of roman emperors, then you’d imagine a vivid scene for each Roman emperor, and you’d place that scene somewhere in your memory of a place you know. Julius Caesar could go in your fridge, and Marcus Aurelius in your closet. You get the idea.
Of course there’s plenty of things we can do to make the mnemonic process easier or more powerful.
Mnemonics are just heuristics, mental short cuts and tricks that help us solve the specific problem of finding the memories we want to remember.
Making memories is natural and easy. It happens implicitly without effort, which is why making memories is fun while memorizing isn’t. Memorizing is trying to grab control of a natural process, which is very difficult and inefficient.
Memorizing is Like Playing QWOP
There’s a classic video game called QWOP where the player has to manually control the limbs of a track runner.
Memorizing is a bit like playing QWOP, where you try to manage the unconscious process of making memories consciously.
It’s difficult and unnecesary.
Mnemonics isn’t really about “memorizing”. Instead, it’s about using your imagination to sort and organize the memories we naturally create while we live our lives.
In mnemonics, we use our imagination to form mental associations that evoke memories, and then we mentally order these associations in a way that makes them easy to find.
That’s basically the art of memory.
Room For Optimization
There’s lots of room for customization and optimization, but all you need to get started is to decide what you want to remember, paint a picture in your mind that evokes it, and store that painting in a mental representation of somewhere you’ve been.
I know this newsletter can often do deep dives into the nitty gritty of why mnemonics works and how the process can be improved, but for beginners, you just need to master the two steps I covered at the beginning this piece: imagine something that reminds you of what you want to remember, and store that image in a mental version of somewhere you’ve been.
Then experiment with what kind of associations work best for you.
That’s all it takes to get started.