Alex Mullen On Mnemonic Speed, Mandarin And Medical Terminology http://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/alex-mullen/ Can This Incredible Memory Champion Teach You How To Memorize 52 Playing Cards In 17 Seconds, Ace Med School And Get The Upper Hand On Learning A Language? Have you ever wondered how the world’s top performers manage to pull off their tremendous feats? I’ll bet you have. I’ll bet you’ve even felt jealous, and all the more so when it comes to memory champions. But as Alex Mullen reveals in this exclusive Magnetic Memory Method interview, you can build your memory skills to epic levels with a shockingly small budget of time. For an hour a day or less, Alex demonstrates that you can learn to memorize a deck of cards in 17 seconds. You can win a Guinness World Record for memorizing the most digits in under an hour - Alex clocks in at 3029! And the best part is that you use the powers of memory you develop to sail through your studies. As a John Hopkins University grad with degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Alex is living proof that you really can squeeze it all in and have an excellent memory too. Currently a medical student at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Alex is not only a World Memory Champion. He currently holds the record for scoring the most points since the competitions began 24 years ago. So what are you waiting for? Tune into this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. Download the audio and transcript to your desktop and follow through on the suggestions in this action-packed session with one of the world’s greatest living mnemonists. Episode Transcript Anthony: Alex, it is really great to have you on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, and actually a real honor because you have achieved so much and really at a young age. Maybe tell people what age you are here in 2016 and a little bit about your first memory of being interested in memory. Alex: Sure, well let me say first of all, I am happy to be here. It's nice to be talking you. I got interested in memory back in March 2013. That was sort of the first time, at least that I can think of, that I was introduced to the techniques. At that point, I think I was either a sophomore or junior in college. Up to that point, I had done things like using acronyms and some basic mnemonic stuff, but I really didn't know about Memory Palaces. I didn't know about any visual mnemonics, anything more advanced than that. How To Get Your Foot In The Door With Mnemonics My first exposure was this TED talk by Joshua Foer called Feats of Memory Anyone Can Do. It was a short TED talk but that just really got me hooked. I was blown away about what he talked about in that talk. I ended up reading his book. He had this TED talk and then he wrote this book, a pretty famous one called Moonwalking with Einstein where he goes into his journey as memory athlete, learning the techniques, competing at the USA Memory Championship. That was really what got me interested.     I tell you, in terms of what was going on in my own life, like I mentioned, I was a student at the time and I probably, and it's hard to remember ironically, but I'm pretty sure I probably felt like I was struggling with my own memory in school. Not really feeling like I was learning in the most efficient way, forgetting things all the time. Seeing these techniques, obviously as many people do, it struck me as something that I could use to improve my academic life. That was really the original motivator for me using memory techniques. I didn't really think about competitions. I didn't really think about memorizing numbers and cards. I really just wanted to use it for school, and that was my initial sort of entry into the world. Then, once I read his book I got interested, and I figured why not make a system for numbers, make a system for cards, and then at least even if I don't compete, I can use those to practice techniques and get comfortable with them. That's what I did. I ended up reading a few more books: Dominic O'Brien's Quantum Memory Power, Ron White's Memory in a Month. I got through those and just made my systems. I started making a PAO system for numbers, a PAO system for cards. Then I just kind of started practicing and doing the events at the competitions and then trained for about a year. My first competition was the 2014 USA Memory Championship. The Minimalist Guide To the PAO (Person Action Object) System And Beyond Anthony: There is so much to talk about with what you just said but maybe if we just jump into the bolts and the mechanics and so forth. When you're talking about systems and PAO, what are you referring to? I think one thing that is supper important in what you're saying is you're talking about creating systems. A lot of people look for a system in someone else's mnemonic strategy, but you're talking about creating your own. Why is that important? What do you mean by system? What does it mean to create your own? Alex: Right, well, when I say I created a PAO system, I was just looking to, as most memory athletes do, create a system that translates numbers or cards into a predetermined image. PAO stands for "person, action, object," and that means, for instance, for numbers you take every 2-digit number and associate it with a person, an action and an object. When you memorize numbers, you take like say 6 digits at a time, you look at the first 2 digits and you would say who is the person associated with those 2 digits. You move to the second 2 digits and you would say what is the action associated with those 2 digits. Then finally the object for the last 2 digits and then you would string them into this story of this person doing this action or an object. Then that would represent a 6-digit string. That's not something I invented. That's a technique that was around since something like the 2000s or something like that of people the using in competitions. When I say I created my own system, I didn't invent the system. What I did do is choose which people, which actions, which objects I was going to use in my systems. That's something every memory athlete or person who wants to use systems to memorize numbers or cards or whatever has to make themselves, because they need those associations to be personal and strong for them. Like I said, I didn't I didn't invent the system but I had to make these images, and I had to choose things that will be personally strong for me. Just talking about systems in general I think is a pretty interesting thing. One thing I do think that I've sort of learned, through memory sports, competitions, etc., is that systems can be somewhat complicated to begin with. Then, once you put enough work into them, they really sort of pay off in the end. asdf I've since moved on from the PAO system. Now I use a 3-digit system to memorize numbers where every 3 digits becomes some sort of image. If you think about that, having to think of an image for every single 3-digit combination, that's a thousand images, you know that sounds really complicated. I would not advise that many people to do that unless they want to compete, but it's something that, with enough practice, works really, really well for me. I think it's an interesting lesson that if you put in enough work up front, it can really sort of payoff down the line even if it seems complicated up front. Anthony:  Yes, I think that's an important distinction that there is a lot of self-creation even if you're adopting preexisting models or whatnot. What I wonder is, I mean this is certainly the case for me, I have certain characters that are relatively fixed for cards, for example, but there are times when actually I need to switch between two symbols that I have for the same card. So I use major method for cards. In other words, the queen of clubs can be either a chain or it can be like the queen of clubs literally with a chain, or it can be Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies because of all his double chins, or it can be, you know there's a couple other variations. Are you really fixed, or do you have some wiggle room in case it just doesn't work a particular thing that you've created for three digits or cards or whatever the case may be? How To Reduce Luke Skywalker To The Basics And Remember Anything Alex: That's a good question. I'd say it's relatively fixed. I don't think I personally really do anything that similar to what you said where you have kind of two separate actual things. I mean the furthest I would go I think is, let me think of an example, for me 570 is Luke Skywalker from Star Wars obviously. Like for him for instance, that pops up you know sometimes I might picture Luke Skywalker using his blue lightsaber and you know doing something with it. If it works better, occasionally I'll just use the lightsaber itself, and he won't even be part of it. I do make sort of adjustments in the moment like that just depending on how it fits into the story, but it's not quite what you're talking about I think. That said though, when I am using memory techniques/Memory Palaces for learning things in school, I'm a medical student right now, and I will sort of have sometimes occasionally, I try not to do this too much, but I have two different images for certain things. Like sometimes, I am trying to think of an example, sometimes I'll represent like a white blood cell, this is kind of a weird example, but a white blood cell could be Luke Skywalker actually, and then sometimes depending on just, I guess it's sort of hard to explain, but sometimes if it's a little better I'll use Stephen Colbert, and he also would represent a white blood cell, but I do kind of use one or the other sometimes just depending on what which fits better to the story. ? Anthony: What interests you in medicine and what brought you to that particular field as opposed to any other course of study? Alex:  I've been interested in medicine for a long time since high school really. Part of the reason was pretty simple. I just like science. I was kind of a science nerd. I like the kind of problem solving aspect of it. I didn't like the fact that it was sort of more practical and you could sort of directly influence people rather than being like an inventor. How do people use what you invent but not really having that personal connection. I mean, yeah, those main things were sort of what got me interested, and then when I was in college, you know I did some shadowing. I followed some doctors around. I did some other