ExpertDabbler

The 460V hyper enthu kuttipriya tagged me for mnemonics. I seriously want to see the person who gave her this idea for tagging.

I hope she is not naïve enough to think I would’ve employed mnemonics at school. The first and last one I used in school was VIBGYOR. Even that I didn’t quite like the sound of it - VIBGYOR when you call it loud sounds like some one related to MGR..

It’s an entirely different world at work. There is absolutely no need for mnemonics – you just bloody google it. You can even afford to get the spelling wrong for the stuff you search.

However, there is another technique to remember stuff - by weird visuals and associations. Obviously this is not my original idea. Someone (I think it was Harry Lorraine) had written about this earlier.

Our mind always associates one stuff with the other. Remember how it works in a typical classroom? You will be in organic chemistry class looking at the structure of benzene (C6H6). Suddenly it will strike you that the teacher looks like Trisha at an angle – hormonal chemistry at work here. The ever inquisitive mind will in parallel run a search for the latest movies of Trisha. Kuruvi will flash in no time. See how we associate and traverse from benzene to chemistry teacher to Trisha to Kuruvi?? The adventure seeking part of your brain might even induce you to watch that movie in theater. Now you have associated with disaster as well.

The traditional linear note taking method is to draw the structure of benzene (six sided figure) and continue to dream about Trisha (or the teacher whoever was better). Instead if only you can imagine six Trishas standing at an angle mimicking benzene shape, do you think you would ever forget the shape of benzene in your life?

One other example – try visualizing this.
Kamal with the word PHYSICAL in his back is chained to a desktop which runs reams of 010101001 DATA which again is linked to NETWORK of computers which is chained to a Metropolitan TRANSPORT Corp bus which is chained to a judge sitting with the word SESSIONS court on his forehead who is seeing a web INTERFACE form in a linux APPLICATION.

It might sound like Dasavadharam trailer when reading but feel free to come up with your own weird utterly illogical image associations. In the above example, all the words in upper case are essentially layer names in OSI reference model – a topic in computer networks. It’s important that you make your own bizarre sequence. The weirder the better. You are less likely to forget this image sequence than reading through your own linear notes six months later.

The disadvantages of this system – coming up with unusual images and associations in sync. with the subject content takes time. Nevertheless, its worth trying because life is all about Trishas err… associations.

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