Johannes Mallow (born June 7, 1981 Brandenburg an der Havel) is a German memory sportsman. He is a two-time winner of the World Memory Championships, in 2012 and in the 2018 IAM event [a Non-Champion in 2018 World events, when scores of the World Memory Sports Council (WMSC), the original memory sports governing body organizing World Championships, taken into account].[1][2] He studied successfully Communication Technology at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg and finalized his PhD thesis in 2016 at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He also works as a mind coach and scientific author.

Victories

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World records

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Memory system

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He currently uses the Method of loci. Many memory sportsmen use this method. His particular instance of the method uses 1,000 images with corresponding numbers, so that each combination of 3 digits corresponds to a unique image.[6]

The brain is lazy, so we have to trick it. That's where routines and mindfulness come in.

There are certain techniques we can learn to use our memory in a way that makes it easier for us to remember things. One approach is to convert everything we want to learn into pictures and then link them to stories. If I want to remember a row of numbers, I assign a picture to each number from 0-9, with 5 being a farmer, for example, and 8 a loaf of bread. Of course, this method brings best results when the number series is a little longer.

Just to give you an example, I have the numbers 5, 8, 6, 7, and that’s not so easy to remember. But if I tell you a story about a farmer who harvests bread from a field, takes it to a butcher, and then the butcher makes potatoes out of it, it will stick better. It's a silly story, but because it’s exciting, funny or maybe even sad, you will remember it better than a series of abstract numbers.

Stories touch us emotionally, which is why we remember them better. This is because our ancestors already worked with pictures and stories over five thousand years ago. Writing and numbers, on the other hand, only date back a few thousand years, which is why our memory cannot handle them so well. So, if we want to remember information better, we have to try to transform it, and package it in an exciting, funny or visual way.

— Johannes Mallow, Interview by Lena von Holt, Are We Europe

https://www.areweeurope.com/stories/johannes-mallow-fshd

References

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  1. ^ "World Memory Championship 2018 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  2. ^ a b "World Memory Championships 2018 (Combined)". web.archive.org. 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  3. ^ "World Memory Championship 2018 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  4. ^ 2016 XMT Results
  5. ^ RESULTS OF MEMORIAD - 2012
  6. ^ "The Beautiful Mind of Johannes Mallow". Are We Europe. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
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