mnovum

the purpose of education is to refine our capacity to be surprised

that capacity is a function of experience and memory

learning cannot leave memories to chance

memories ought to be designed

steps to build a mental index

  • images store in long term memory with remarkable efficiency

  • decode the image into information

  • practice decoding mental images

  • connect mental images through dynamic reading

  • index multiple subject domains

orientation models

It doesn’t take a semester to learn to ride a bike, nor does it take 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 provide the clue: 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. They are compact enough to reconstruct from memory, yet rich enough to dramatically increase your capacity to be surprised about the topic.

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