I'm sorry for the brief hiatus—been in the lab crafting a new product that merges LLM might with human insight. With a bit of luck, I am eyeing next week to unveil the waitlist!

Have you ever marveled at how some folks can recall entire lists of groceries, or effortlessly remember the names of everyone at a party they went to last week, or which year a particular movie was released? It's not just raw brainpower at play here—it's about using the right tricks. One such trick, or let's call it a technique, is 'chunking', my focus for today’s edition.

So, what is chunking?

Simply put, it is the process of grouping different information into more manageable or meaningful bits (chunks) in your brain so it is easier to remember. This technique taps into our brains for order and symmetry, making it easier to process, remember, and retrieve information.

Imagine your brain as a vast library. Without a system, finding a specific book (or memory) could take forever. Chunking is akin to organizing this library into sections, rows, and subjects—it's about creating a system that makes finding and retrieving information a breeze. When you chunk information, you're essentially giving your brain a map to swiftly locate what it needs.

What is a good example of chunking?

The way we memorize phone numbers and credit card numbers (well, some of us chunk it). Grocery shopping as we organize it into produce, dairy, and snacks (Alexa does this well).

Think of chunking as a strategy for organizing information into manageable units or groups, making it easier to process and remember. Mnemonics, which we’ll get to in a few seconds, are specific memory aids or techniques within that strategy, designed to facilitate the recall of the information you've chunked.

So, in a way, chunking is about the what—what you group—and mnemonics are about the how—how you remember those groups. Mnemonics often rely on chunking as a foundational step but add creative associations (like visual images, rhymes, or stories) to enhance memory retention.

Mnemonics are memory aids that help us remember information through association, visualization, or organization.

Types of mnemonics:

Name

Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Soup

Did that ring a bell?

It’s a popular example of name mnemonics where the first letter of each word in a list is used to make a name of a person or thing. Dear King Philip… is used to remember the taxonomic classification system in biology—Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.