You're Already Using Mnemonics
Mnemonics, at it’s core, is nothing more than the act of making, arranging, and interpreting symbols.
That’s it.
We naturally assign meaning to symbols, and these symbols then carry that meaning through time and space.
If you know how to read a traffic sign, you know how to use mnemonics.
The art of memory brings the past into the present via symbols.
These symbols can be internally generated, as in the imagery mnemonists might create for their memory palaces, or they can be externalized, as in a lukasa board or a street sign.
Internally and externally generated mnemonics both rely on symbols that have meanings assigned to them. This meaning-making process is instinctive, even automatic.
Humans are mnemonic animals.
We are mnemonic animals.
Our capacity to bring the past into the present through symbols is at the heart of the human experience.
We are time travellers, except we use symbols instead of phone booths or Deloreans.
When most mnemonists talk about the art of memory, they’re usually referring to heuristics that structure symbols in ways that make them easy to recall.
In other words, the mnemonic arts are just a set of metacognitive skills that structure the more basic cognitive skills of creating and interpreting symbols.
These basic skills are something everyone naturally possesses.
The mnemonic arts bring intentionality to an implicit process.
It’s not “learning mnemonics” so much as it is learning how to intentionally use your natural symbol making skills. You’re simply bringing an explicit awareness to something that you already do naturally.
Most people don’t need to learn complicated mnemonic structures, but everyone can benefit from having a better grip on their natural faculties.
Mnemonics are pervasive. They’re everywhere you look. The traffic sign on the street, the inside joke you shared with a friend, the acronyms on a building — these are types of mnemonics.
The Pims newsletter aims to reframe how mnemonics are viewed.
Instead of being an obscure, niche practice, I want to shine a light on how they’re a common part of everyday life that we all engage in without much thought.
You don’t need to learn mnemonics because you already use them.
You should, however, learn how to use them intentionally, instead of relying on habit and custom.