Bruno’s entire Memory Wheel is built on one core idea: our brains are much better at remembering information when it is attached to locations in space than when we simply try to memorize it by repetition. From this single principle, he developed an entire system of memory.
When I first tried to understand Bruno’s Memory Wheel, I found it difficult to follow his exact method. Creating the mental images and organizing them the way he described felt too complicated. Instead of forcing myself to use his complete system, I simplified it using analogical reasoning.
I started by building what I call an MVP Mental Model (Minimum Viable Mental Model). Rather than beginning with Bruno’s full Memory Wheel, I focused only on the underlying principle: using spatial memory to organize information. Whatever I built, I tried to keep consistent with Bruno’s core theory, even if the implementation was much simpler.
The first problem I wanted to solve was remembering the names of websites that I only visited occasionally to publish articles. I kept forgetting names like Medium, Buy Me a Coffee, and Patreon.
To solve this, I imagined a college hallway. One classroom was labeled “Articles.” This classroom became my simplified version of Bruno’s memory palace.
Inside the room, I imagined:
-
An empty fish tank representing Medium.
-
A parrot sitting on the edge of the fish tank, pulling on the red tag of a floating coffee cup, representing Patreon.
-
A cup of coffee floating on the surface of the fish tank with a red tag that said “Buy Me,” representing Buy Me a Coffee.
The important part was that every object interacted with the others instead of existing as isolated images. This made the scene much easier to remember.
I applied the same technique to memorize the names of more than seven authors and business coaches. Although this was only a very small application of the brain’s spatial memory system, it proved that the idea worked.
The goal was never to build a perfect memory system. The goal was simply to test whether exploiting spatial memory could outperform ordinary memorization for certain types of information. In my experience, it did.
However, I also discovered some limitations. For example, when I tried to memorize the name Dan Kennedy by associating it with the image of dancing, I could remember the image but sometimes failed to reconstruct the complete name from it. The association wasn’t always specific enough.
At this stage, I realized I was actually using two memory systems together:
-
Traditional repetition (cramming).
-
A simplified spatial memory system inspired by Bruno.
For example, to memorize the following names:
-
Jimmy Mitchell
-
Ben Heath
-
Samuel Darby
-
Joe Kaplan
-
Cam England
-
Dan Kennedy
I created one connected scene:
A gym (Jimmy Mitchell) contains Ben 10 (Ben Heath), who is fighting a salamander (Samuel Darby). A joker (Joe Kaplan) is taking pictures with a camera (Cam England) while someone is dancing (Dan Kennedy).
The key idea is that each image is chosen because it sounds similar to the first syllable of the person’s name. For example:
-
Jimmy → Gym
-
Ben → Ben 10
-
Samuel → Salamander
-
Joe → Joker
-
Cam → Camera
-
Dan → Dancing
In other words, I convert the first syllable into a vivid visual object and then connect all of those objects into a single interactive scene. This gives my brain both a phonetic cue (the sound) and a spatial cue (the location and interaction of the objects).
This approach is still far from perfect. It relies partly on traditional memorization and partly on spatial visualization. However, as a minimum viable version of Bruno’s idea, it demonstrated that spatial organization can significantly improve recall without requiring the full complexity of Bruno’s original Memory Wheel.