Learning: Moonwalking with Einstein – by Joshua Foer
What difference would it make to your life if you could remember every book, number and face you ever saw? What about if you knew the solution instantly to chess board or sporting field challenges? I’m intrigued by these questions so I picked up Moonwalking with Einstein at WHSmith on an impulse on the trip home from our first away game at Bradford.
After reading Mind Power last year on a similar whim and books like the Talent Code and Outliers and seeing AIS guru Rick Shuttlesworth talking about skill acquisition, I’m starting to get a broader understanding about how to learn and why some people become great at what they do, while others remain average.
The story of Joshua Foer caught my attention because he took the challenge of becoming american memory champion with no previous experience. Both the memory skills and winning a national competition starting from zero intrigued me. Foer’s philosophical look at the role of memory throughout history and the way that it’s changing in the 21st century were also intriguing.
Josh Foer – Author of Moonwalking with Einstein
In the world of coaching it seems that memory is everything. Joshua explains that elite chess players like elite soccer players seem to have the instinctual ability to sum up situations and know the solution, without even really knowing why they know! After solving thousands or even millions of similar problems we can become so good at recognising things that are impossible to recognise according to our understanding of the conscious mind. Foer’s search takes him as far as finding chess players who can play 50+ games of chess blindfolded simultaneously!
If this doesn’t start to make you think you may be missing out on some of your potential brainpower then nothing will!!
On his journey from reporter to becoming US memory champion Joshua discovers that the art of memory was once much more than a side-show learned by tricksters and card counters! In ancient Greece and even ancient Egypt the power of memory was everything. Consider that the passing down of many sacred texts was only possible through memorisation from generation to generation before writing was invented!
Reading this made me reconsider my experience with ancient memory through my contact with indigenous Australian’s who have one of the longest continuous cultures (40 000-50 000 years according to many experts). They used songlines or dreaming tracks to pass on key information that was both life and death and the heart of their culture. The thing that many people haven’t understood, me included, is that physical landmarks are the memory palaces for many of their stories.
If you take away the landmark (or build over it) you take away ancient knowledge and wealth.
I’d heard of the idea of memory palaces but I’d never actually known how to use them until Moonwalking with Einstein. Basically you’re more likely to be able to recall things if you associate them with a place you’ve been, and an action that’s taking place there than if you simply try to recall random facts. The example in the book was a to do list with the items placed around the house he lived in as a child.
The method is very effective and the key to having a freakish memory.
Next is card counting, by creating images of famous people performing rude or memorable actions for each card Joshua could remember the sequence of a full deck of cards in under 2 minutes. He also explains basic level system for turning number sequences into words and then random words into stories!
0
S
1
T/D
2
N
3
M
4
R
5
L
6
Sh/Ch
7
G/K
So 0633 could be S SH M M which becomes a SaSH MiMe or a Sash used by Mine Charlie Chapman walking the catwalk as miss universe – the limit for creating memories is how imaginative/ memorable you can become with the images you choose and then becoming very familiar with those images!
The record for successful memorisation of binary 0 and 1 digits in 1 hour was at the time of writing of the book 3,705! 01000100101101010110 etc!
Interestingly Joshua decides to take on the philosophical question of whether we even need memory in the “information age” and if memory relates to creativity. Quoting Tony Buzan:
“The Art and science of memory is about developing the capacity to quickly create images that link disparate ideas. Creativity is the ability to form similar connections between disparate images and to create something new and hurl it into the future so it becomes a poem, or a building, or a dance, or a novel.”
On the impact of memory on real learning and education Joshua questions whether facts are learning or simply being able to repeat information mindlessly.
“…you can’t have understanding without facts. And crucially, the more you know, the easier it is to know more. Memory is like a spider web that catches new information. The more it catches, the bigger it grows. And the bigger it grows, more it catches… There is a feedback loop ..”
Overall the book is probably going to convince you that you can remember a lot more things than you think. If you can be bothered to learn the techniques. After all his adventures Joshua Foer decides that memory sports aren’t for him but I’m sure the experience was a life changing. He was able to write a top-selling book and learn how to use his brain better!!!
I think the rabbit hole of memory techniques is one that some of my role models like Paul Chek, Rudolf Steiner and Charles Poliquin have been down! If you’re interested in getting to real memory techniques you should check out http://mnemotechnics.org/my-memory-books-reading-list-34.html for some resources.
If you’re interested in a light-hearted read and a look into the world of Memory sports and memory history then Moonwalking with Einstein is worth a look. To go straight for the memory jugular check out the links.
Moonwalking with Einstein from Amazon.com
I’ve always been intrigued by the way mind and body work. If you know about my life over the last few years you’ll know that I’ve taken on challenges like learning Spanish, French, playing some guitar and living and learning amongst indigenous communities in Mexico and Australia. I didn’t always get what I wanted and I’m still pretty ordinary on the guitar but I love taking on new challenges. The biggest limit to learning new things and getting what you want out of life is our mental limitations.
This book like many others I’ve read recently challenges us to expand our limits, learn new stuff and take on the challenges that stand over us.
As Michael Jonson said, “There is a saying amongst some athletes that after you have stared long enough into the dragon’s eyes, there is nothing left to do but slay the dragon.”
Made with Bullet