why mnemonic isn’t so popular? like doesn’t ppl need memorization now a days?
There are two reasons that stand out to me.
First, it’s not a common topic in schools, especially in the West. Many books written on improving memory point to the same frustration: kids are asked to memorize definitions and equations, but never taught actual techniques for doing so. But certain countries (especially Mongolia) do prioritize memory techniques in their education systems, and are known for dominating memory championships.
Second, there is a gap between knowing/having a skill and being able to advertise it well. We all feel like memory is essential, and would be horrified to lose it when it matters most. Moreover, lots of people are awed at seeing others memorize decks of cards. However, converting a need or talent into a public interest that draws millions of people is another story entirely. It’s like the distinction between the technical/academic researcher/engineer and the salesman/businessman. It’s one thing to know about the importance of a certain topic, and another thing to actually bring it to public consciousness.
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People see mnemonics as:
- A party trick.
- A hard skill to master.
- An unnecessary skill to master.
Like, yes, being able to memorize a phone number in a minute or less is fun and kinda cool, but personally I haven’t needed to write a phone number from memory in more than a decade.
Most people can understand how to memorize numbers or lists with mnemonics, but most also struggle to understand how one would use them to memorize more complex things like definitions (even I am in this camp myself, I never try to memorize complex things, if I do I usually just memorize key words), and they prefer to just use rote or drill flashcards, which are the things that have actually worked for them.
Lastly, yeah, mnemonics aren’t really an essential skill. The big majority of people go through life and succeed without ever learning or implementing a true mnemonic system, every one they have ever known has likely never used one either, so they don’t see the value on learning it.
It also doesn’t help that the biggest names in mnemonics aren’t really people who have used them to learn “important” things. Important is subjective, but you don’t have examples of famous mnemonists that use them to ace their way through law school, hard science, medicine, etc., 99% of them spend their time memorizing things that aren’t all that useful, most of the time heavily geared towards mnemonic competitions. Obviously exceptions exist, like, Alex Mullen went through medical school using memory palaces, but cases like his are not exactly widely known, so it’s not what one would easily find. So people might look for mnemonic in help with their studies and they’ll only find people memorizing random strings of numbers, names, playing cards, etc., then one of them will give them advice on how to memorize things for their studies but almost always their advice isn’t really something they have extensively tested, because they themselves aren’t studying anything, so viewers end up feeling that mnemonics are only useful as party tricks.
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I think people in general aren’t too keen on learning new things once they’ve “arrived” in life (whether with mnemonics or not).
And also the things that are put forward aren’t exactly interesting for many people. I mean I don’t have any interest in memory championships and learning the decimals of pi seems excruciatingly boring to me. Great for you if you like this, it’s not like my hobbies are all fascinating to everybody, but I suspect it appeals to a minority.
Even learning phone numbers and people’s names… I can see how it’s useful but it’s not really a NEED. I do it too, but as an aside, on its own it’s not motivating enough to learn a new system just for this.
If I hadn’t met people who did other things with memory techniques (now memory techniques helping study history, science and literature THAT is interesting) I don’t think I would find it very motivating either.