Thanks for the memories

When I was in university, fellow students would often come to my door and ask: “Dave, could you help me with my Algebra?” “Dave, could you teach me Calculus?” “Dave, how do I solve these Organic Chemistry problems?”My answer would always be the same. “I’m Steve. I’m Dave’s brother.”But I would never send them away without giving them a tip on how to study. Rather than focusing on one problem, or even one subject, I wanted to impart to them an over-arching approach to knowledge acquisition and recall—to learn how to learn.If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach him how to fish, he’ll say, “What the Hell? I thought we were going out to eat!”Through my academic career, I have poured over hundreds of textbooks and syllabi. On top of that, there were thousands of hours of lectures and labs that I had to skip, in order to sleep in, or watch The Flintstones. So, I had to develop a system to organize all that knowledge and keep it poised for easy recall until 30 seconds after the final exam, when my brain’s hard drive would be wiped clean.The most important tool (after old tests) in my armamentarium for absorbing and regurgitating information was the “mnemonic,” which is Greek for absorbing and regurgitating information.These memory aids were often clues or prompts. Frequently, they were jokes—usually chauvinistic, filthy and hilarious. But most commonly, they were acronyms refitted to represent an easily recalled phrase that was chauvinistic, filthy and hilarious; or at least meant something personally.Medical school was replete with mnemonics. They ranged from the pedestrian, “M is the key,” to help one picture the course of the median nerve. To the obscure, “Look for the Scotty dog,” to orient one to the X-ray anatomy of a vertebrae (I never saw that Scotty dog). To the puerile, “Oh, Oh, Oh, Take Tulips And Fill A Girl’s Vase, Ahh, Heaven”—to recall the twelve cranial nerves (please note, this mnemonic has been revised for the enlightened reader of 2025).I still remember some personal mnemonics such as “Look Out, Carrie Told Rachel Smiths Aren’t Respectable,” but I can no longer recall what they stood for.One might reasonably argue that in our age of computers, and personal devices it’s no longer efficient to remember anything. In fact, as Artificial Intelligence becomes more pervasive, it may no longer be necessary to think at all. But beyond the analog storage and access of knowledge, without memorization, some aspect of our humanity is lost. Memory converts experience into identity. I once committed to heart the statistics of every player in the NHL from 1967 to 1979. Now, I couldn’t name the starting five for my favourite team (the Toronto Maple Leafs). I still remember all my childhood friends’ home phone numbers. But I can barely recall my own cell number. I used to have a map of every street in Toronto etched into my cortex. Now, I can’t find my way to the kitchen without Waze. As Saul Bellow wrote, “Memory is Life.” Without it, we would live in a perpetual Now, without any context. We could never compare our experience with the past. We could never anticipate the future. We would be stuck floating in a Jell-O like, timeless present, no longer having access to the psychic raw material that produces depression and anxiety. OK, that might not be so bad, but at the very least, one of us is going to have to remember where the off switch is for Skynet.So, when we are digging out of the ruins of the Cyborg War, it would be useful to have an over-arching mnemonic to help us re-organize our corpus of knowledge. This is the acronym I taught the seekers at my door. Cleverly, it is M.N.E.M.O.N.I.C.“M” stands for: Mnemonic. It reminds us to use a memory aid.“N” is for: Never. Never miss an opportunity to review the material.“E” means: Every. Every chance you get, study for the exam.“M” represents: Memorize. Memorize the textbook and the old tests.“O” reminds us of: Only. There are Only three days until the exam.“N” stands for: Nice. Nice try. Go back to your room and study some more.“I” means: Isn’t. Isn’t the exam tomorrow? Better study some more.“C” is for: Can. Can you recall the material now?t was my duty, my honour, and my pleasure to grant this powerful fool-proof learning method to the supplicants who had come to our door. Once I had taught it, they would nod and smile with appreciation. And then they would ask, “So, when do you think Dave might be back?”Dr. Stephen Starr is a family physician in Victoria who does rural locums. More of his writing can be found at his Substack.

Thanks for the memories

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