Hi all,
For the past two months I’ve been diving into @TheHumanTim’s TIM System, and after a lot of thought I’ve finally decided to commit to building a full 2,704-image master system.
It’s a little intimidating, but honestly, it’s a blast so far. I gave myself a small head start by reusing a few hundred Major System images I’d built years ago, so I’ve “only” got about 2,300 more to create.
What excites me most is the simplicity of just reading a deck of cards as pure images and running them through a journey, instead of constantly juggling multiple elements the way PAO systems demand.
I’ve tackled plenty of heavy learning before—through college, then later while earning my Bachelor’s and Master’s—so I’m ready to grind this out and see it through. Wish me luck!
And a huge thanks to @TheHumanTim, both for designing the system and for all the help over DM.
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I’m definitely gonna be checking every now and then for updates. If US championships ever bring back speed cards as an event, I’ll likely switch from pao to what you’re trying to do. Good luck.
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Hey Wesley,
So nice to see you on the forum buddy!
Thanks for stopping by.
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Update - Oct. 4th 2025:
After two sleepless nights I’ve got 450 images down so far.
2254 to go!
I don’t expect to be able to keep up with that pace, but at the moment I’m sort of forcing my brain to look at the phonetics and spit out the first thing that comes out of my mind. If this thing is tangible/ perceptable I keep it and look for the most memorable image for it, if it’s abstract I’m trying to instantly construct a visual for it. I think that’s the way to do with such huge system.
Another insight that I had is even if the image I come up with is not sticky or memorable, I can still note it and later on, via the principles of fundamental neuroscience, overlearn the hell out of it, and force my brain to like it via spaced repetition, visualization and exaggeration.
I also kind of feel like I’m cheating as I’m bilingual person and plenty of the phonetics matched to direct objects or cartoons/people in my mother’s tongue - Bulgarian.
Of course there are some very difficult phonetics, but again it’s a journey and a massive brain stretch!
I will keep you posted guys!
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Update – Oct 5th, 2025:
500 images down — 2,204 to go!
Neuroscience shows that the brain gets bored with long, repetitive, and tedious tasks. So to keep mine engaged, I’ve started gamifying the system-building process.
I set up 27 checkpoints in my sketchbook — each one representing 100 images. Every time I hit another hundred, I check off a box. That simple visual cue tricks my brain into focusing on small wins instead of obsessing over the massive total of 2,704 images.
It’s working insanely well. Breaking it down like this makes the whole project feel achievable, and my brain actually wants to chase the next checkpoint.
Update – Oct 7th, 2025:
Nearly 600 images in! Only 2104 or so images to go!
I’m dedicating every single free minute of my day to building images and guess what? My brain loves the stretch. Even with the tricky phonetics, in a minute or so, I manage to come up with a word/ phrase that would bring up an image in my mind.
I’m expecting to hit a plateau in being able to generate images fast but I will make sure to push HARD until (or if) I reach that moment.
Until then… I will see you on my next post!
dang dude. your commitment is insane. i hope this pays off. i would love to learn from your experience if i ever make the switch.
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Thanks Wesley!
The whole process has become sort of addictive to me. 
Now having a few hundred images, I see the whole point of the restrictions being made to the major system by @TheHumanTim. Even without practicing the images I have so far, I tried grabbing a random pair of cards and when I read the phonetics, my brain fills in the gaps automatically and reaches the image. WITHOUT any practice!
This was ridiculous experience and I was pleasantly surprised! I didn’t believe that without any drilling I would be able to efficiently translate phonetics, I haven’t even studied yet, into images.
I love how the whole system is set-up and hence my passion for it. 
@TheHumanTim
Hey Tim,
Thanks for clarifying, buddy!
You really went all out designing TIM — you’re the guy who did the heavy lifting, so it’s on me now to get to work building my images, haha!
Seriously though, I’m a huge fan of your work here on Art of Memory.
Since English isn’t my first language, I’ve never really connected with CVC (Ben-style) systems — syllables just don’t click for me the same way. The Shadow system didn’t quite do it either; the phonetics felt too complex.
But your system nailed it for me. The phonetics are clear and consistent, the logic is simple and solid — exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Keep up the great work, man!
— Rado
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Update No. 3 – Oct 7th, 2025
700 images down — 2004 to go! (That number’s almost my birth year, lol.)
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d ever manage to come up with 700 unique mnemonic elements.
The pace is still insane. I keep waiting for the slowdown — for that moment when the ideas dry up — but it hasn’t happened yet.
It’s a wild, brain-melting ride, and I’m damn curious to see how far this momentum goes.
I’ll keep you all posted.
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i’ve never seen anyone like you bro. you’re taking to this sport so easily. so excited to see where you go with this.
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Thanks, Wesley.
You’ve been an incredible support — I really appreciate it.
Update – Oct 9th, 2025
I PROUDLY ANNOUNCE!..
I know what you’re all thinking right now — “Rado finally finished the system after pulling an all-nighter!”
NOPE.
The momentum’s dead. I barely cranked out 10 decent, memorable images. That puts me at roughly 830 images in.
This is where the real grind begins. I’m still aiming for memorable, not random or forced. I don’t want to shove arbitrary images into my brain just to learn them artificially later. I want to rely on real, natural mental connections.
And yeah — it’s getting tougher. Frustration’s creeping in. So it’s time to pause, grab a coffee, chug a cold glass of water, and probably crash for a bit.
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I was wondering how long you’d be able to keep the pace up, haha. Honestly that feels pretty close to the amount of “easy” entries that come really naturally and now that low hanging fruit has been pretty picked over.
My advice is to not spend too much time fixated on the hard ones. Have you gone through the entire list yet? Because as tempting as it is to work on them section by section, when you reach this point, you have to just skip over the problem ones and come back to them later. Keep going down the list and filling in anything that jumps out at you. Then you have to get creative. As awesome as it would be to have every entry be able to be instinctively read, the truth is that you will have to deal with a lot that require creativity in either the words or the images you pick.
The build phase is probably going to take a couple months. Faster than that would be impressive but don’t rush it. 25 or so filled per day would be a pretty fast pace as you hit this phase with challenging phonetics. You were flying waaaay above normal pacing with the easy ones so it can seem jarring when you slow down to a more typical pace. Don’t get discouraged. Accept that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
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Yeah, I know this is where things stand now.
I was pretty delusional thinking I’d have the system ready by November. Silly me 
My pace was good since I already have a full 3-digit system filled out — just never actually learned it. But I hit a wall with finding good TIM images. The 3-digit setup follows the traditional major system, where I’ve got more freedom with sounds. A lot of entries there start with free sounds or clusters.
For example: in the system, 22 is “oNioN,” but TIM forces me to use “NuN” because of its stricter sound rules.
So yeah, no more low-hanging fruit left. Still, I really enjoyed this phase of the process.
I also started a parallel 2-block TIM sub-sheet after reading Lance’s (@LociInTheSky) “State of Affairs” post. His concept was meant for a different system, but it fits nicely for handling 2-block edge cases — especially in VIS where a bunch of black-firsts get jammed together in a deck.
I also liked @katiek way of tracking odd loci during VIS — that’s a neat touch.
I’ll keep the 2-block TIM idea on standby for now.
P.S. The beautiful thing about building such a large system is that one learns a lot about their brain and way of thinking.
Best,
Rado
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Update – Oct 12th, 2025
Crossed the 1000 images mark!
1700 to go!
Picking up the pace again after I hit my all-time low a few days ago.
I’m forced at this point to create literal words that mean nothing.
I started digging up bulgarian celebrities, dictionaries, urban/ slang resources and yes, knowing a second language for building such system is a plus!
Examples:
7 
6 
- N-K-J - NiKeJi (никежи - bulgarian rapper that wears heavy black make-up and long clothes)
8 A - N-F-T - NeFT (нефт/ black petrol - thick black liquid)
It’s a marathon and not a sprint but hope to get the system over the line by the end of this year.
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