Interview with Darius Namdaran (Founder: ivvi)

In this wide-ranging conversation, Liam Hughes (Biggerplate) speaks with Darius Namdaran about his lifelong journey with mind mapping—from failing law school to launching a pioneering voice-to-map tool, ivvi. They discuss learning challenges, visual thinking, and how AI might be transforming mind mapping forever. [00:01:00] – Origins of Darius’ Mind Mapping Journey From crashing at law school to discovering mind mapping and completing his degree—how a visual method changed his learning. [00:03:50] – Understanding Dyslexia and Visual Learning Darius reflects on how his undiagnosed dyslexia shaped his learning preferences and made mind mapping indispensable. [00:05:25] – Flash Maps: Memory Techniques with Mind Mapping How Darius distilled entire academic years into fast redrawable maps—a technique he now teaches students with dyslexia. [00:06:55] – Transition from Law to Teaching Abandoning a legal career to pursue teaching and how mind mapping became a practical planning tool in the classroom. [00:10:00] – The Importance of Spatial Thinking Discussion on how spatial positioning of topics in maps impacts understanding more than just visual color or structure. [00:11:30] – Dual Coding and Working Memory A dive into cognitive psychology—how verbal and visual-spatial processing work together in effective learning. [00:15:00] – Mind Mapping Awareness: Confusion, Branding & Legacy of Buzan How trademark limitations and Buzan's strong branding may have hindered widespread understanding of the technique. [00:22:00] – The Udemy Course & Teaching His Daughter Darius created his first course after helping his daughter re-learn mind mapping correctly after a confusing experience at school. [00:24:00] – Bullet Mapping and Structured Creativvity Explains “bullet maps” and his method of mapping from the “outside-in” for people who struggle with linear structure. [00:26:00] – Note, Edit, and Memory Maps: A Mind Mapping Progression Darius lays out his 3-stage model for building increasingly refined mind maps based on purpose. [00:29:00] – Coaching with Mind Mapping for Neurodiverse Thinkers How mapping unlocks thinking for people with ADHD and dyslexia—plus critique of existing software limitations. [00:33:00] – Birth of ivvi: The Voice-to-Mind Map Tool Frustrated by lack of progress, Darius starts ivvi to build a tool that understands spoken word and turns it into mind maps. [00:36:00] – How ivvi Works: Voice-to-Visual in Real Time Live demo of ivvi capturing, transcribing, and turning dialogue into mind map structure and notes—plus syncing with transcript. [00:41:00] – Flare vs Focus Thinking & Dual Coding in ivvi Bridging linear and non-linear thinking in software, ivvi adds images and icons to support different processing styles. [00:44:30] – Quote Button and “Finding the Gold” in a Map Plans for user-generated highlights and quote integration to help learners curate meaningful content from a lecture. [00:49:00] – Why Mind Mapping Is Still About Process, Not Output Mapping is a thinking process—not something that should be skipped by pressing “generate.” [00:54:00] – AI’s Role in Reshaping Mind Mapping Interfaces Comparing AI-enhanced mind mapping to electric brushes—AI won’t just replicate, it will reshape the interface itself. [01:00:00] – ivvi as Curation Assistant: From Information to Insight Mapping as curation and compression—summarizing vast text or speech into keywords, quotes, and structure. [01:07:00] – What’s Next for ivvi? Future Roadmap Importing PDFs, slideshows, podcasts, and handwritten maps—plus automatic image generation and even photo scanning.