mnovum

steps to build a mental index

  • images store in long term memory with remarkable efficiency

  • decode the image into information

  • practice decoding long-term image memories into long-term information memories

  • use memories as networked information and make meaning with carefully integrated glossaries

  • mentally index 26 orientation models and keep them organized in your head much like you'd organize tools in a workshop

orientation models

It doesn’t take a semester to learn to ride a bike—or a month of theory to understand balance. Many of us find our balance in a single, inspired session. Physical skills can be learned quickly because the feedback is vivid and the right response becomes intuitive.

Academic learning doesn’t have to be different. Physical skills reveal why: we learn by building models we can run in our minds. Much of what we call understanding is precisely this—the ability to mentally simulate how something works.

Orientation models turn academic subjects into mental simulations. They are engineered to transform information into knowledge that feels as vivid as something held in your hands. Each one gives you a coarse but complete picture of a topic—compact enough to reconstruct from memory, yet rich enough to think with.

2026/27 orientation models