Tony Buzan (1942–2019)

Mind Map Mastery is written in a tone of breathless enthusiasm, which is only reasonable, since Buzan spent half a century promoting his idea. I'm a big fan of non-linear information organization*, enough so that I would up entirely reorienting my career around the idea of using social network analysis and graphs to understand research collaborations.

Mind maps are subtly different from other chart-like forms of presentation. A mind map starts with a central concept image, with curvy show more radiating branches going out in all direction. The first level of branches are thick and curvy, but subsequent levels trace graceful arcs. A proper mind map uses lots of colors, single word labels along the branches, and small drawings. Notably, a Mind Map is distinct from a spider chart, the more conventional graph with straight spindly lines connecting bubbles with words in them, and something I use a lot.

This book has some tables of exercises to help build your mind mapping skills. I'm skeptical of the absolute benefits in terms of memory, creativity, and organization that Buzan promises with his tool, and this brief book definitely isn't worth the $12 Amazon is charging for it (I got it for $3), but it's an idea that's interesting enough to make me track down some markers.

*Actually, the best form of data is bulk columnar, but every day Excel exists we stray further from God's Divine Light. show less

Despite being an avid user of mind maps for over a decade, upon rereading the mind map book, I realised I've been underutilising mind maps. I've been using mind maps for two main reasons:
1. The first is to mind map books I read and thus learn and retain what I learn.
2. The second way I've been using them is for the outdoors, the output of what I've learned, whether that is outlining articles or books or talks.
But there are far more useful ways of using mind maps beyond those two reasons:
- show more You can use them for decision making.
- You can use them for long-term and short-term planning.
- You can use them to create a way to remember and collect ideas on any given topic so that you can always see at a glance what you know about any given topic.
Really, it is extraordinary how useful and ubiquitous mind maps can be in your life if you truly start to use them. show less

Mind maps are a useful tool, and this book explains them clearly. Unfortunately reading this book reminded me of 70s Marvel comics where every sentence ended in an exclamation mark - the tone is annoyingly hyperbolic.

So five stars for mind maps, but I am rating the book so it only gets three.

The could be a great book. Unfortunately it isn’t - it’s only good. It’s has good ideas and covers the leading memory systems. The problem is that the quality of the print is awful. It is riddled with typos and poor type setting. There are also inconsistencies with the word lists. And frankly some of the word choices as mnemonics seem quite poor - possibly chosen by an underlying who put the book together rather than by a master of memory. The other thing the book omits is discussion show more of a training or practice regime to put some of the ideas into practice. A shame, the first book by Tony Buzan which has (moderately) disappointed me. show less