Moonwalking with Einstein

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Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Moonwalking with einstein.jpg
Author Joshua Foer
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Memory
Mnemonics
Genre Nonfiction
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication date
3 March 2011
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
audiobook
ebook
Pages320
ISBN 978-1-59420-229-2
LC Class BF385 .F64 2011

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything is a nonfiction book by Joshua Foer, first published in 2011. [1] Moonwalking with Einstein debuted at number 3 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for 8 weeks. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

Foer describes his book as participatory journalism in the world of competitive memorization and attempts to delineate the capacity of the human mind. He sets out to investigate the underpinnings of those with enhanced memory, soon finding himself at the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship. He covers the scientific basis of memory creation and historical attitudes towards memory, including its negative reputation in the Western educational system, a perception which Foer is largely opposed to. He explores common mnemonic tools for improving memory: the techniques of Roman rhetoricians and the tannaim ("reciters") of Judea, the Major System and the PAO System for memorizing numbers and cards, and Mind Mapping, a note-taking technique developed by Tony Buzan. These methods are all a form of the method of loci, in which data is stored in a sequence of memorable images that can be translated back into their original form. He espouses deliberate practice as the path to expertise, and declares psychological barriers as the largest obstacles to improved human performance.

The book describes the prodigious memory and 87-point IQ of Kim Peek, the inspiration for the 1988 movie Rain Man . [1]

Foer discusses how Daniel Tammet's index finger slides around on a table as he performs mental calculations in a documentary; mental multiplication experts and mnemonists that Foer speaks with imply that Tammet's claims, involving synesthetic morphing shapes and colors standing in for complex numerical feats, are questionable. World memory champion Ben Pridmore tells Foer that "[t]here are a lot of people in the world that can do those things." [1]

Foer notes that Tammet, competing under his previous legal name "Daniel Corney", won the gold medal at the World Memory Championships' "Names and Faces" event. Tammet had tested poorly in facial recognition under Simon Baron-Cohen's assessment of synesthetic abilities; Foer states that poor facial recognition ability is a suitable indicator of inborn "savant" status, as opposed to "savant-like tricks [developed] through methodical training". [1]

He also discovers self-promotional forum posts advertising "mind power and advanced memory skills" courses as well as psychic phone readings (the latter under the pseudonym "Daniel Andersson"). [1] In a cached version of "danieltammet.com", Foer finds Tammet relating details omitted from his autobiography Born on a Blue Day:

My own interest in memory and conversely memory sport was sparked by ... a children's book on broad memory concepts for better exam performance at the age of 15. The following year I passed my GCSEs with some of the year's best results and subsequently performed well at A-level, mastering French and German along the way with the help of these tried-and-tested techniques ... My obsession with the sport grew, and following months of strenuous training and hard work I climbed into the World's Top-5 rated memory sportsmen.

Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Foer interviews Tammet on several occasions over the course of several weeks, during which he confronts him with the forum posts. [1] Foer also tests Tammet:

I read back to him the descriptions he'd given me of 9,412 the last two times I'd seen him. They could hardly have been more different. I told him my theory, which I realized would be very difficult to prove: that he was using the same basic techniques as other mental athletes, and that he invented these far-out synesthetic descriptions of numbers to mask the fact that he had memorized a simple image to associate with each of the two-digit combinations from 00 to 99—one of the most basic techniques in the mnemonist's tool kit.

Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Foer, with the coaching of Ed Cooke, practises traditional memory techniques for a year, winning the 2006 USA Memory Championship and breaking the U.S. record in speed cards. He goes on to represent the US at the World Memory Championships in London, placing thirteenth and winning bronze in the "Names and Faces" event, but failing to become a Grand Master of Memory. [1]

Reception

Bill Gates has called the book "absolutely phenomenal". [3] Claire Lambrecht for Salon writes: "Foer talks with people from both spectrums of the memory divide—from Kim Peek to the guy dubbed "The Most Forgetful Man in the World"—and their conversations offer insight into the relevance of memory in a society increasingly dominated by smart phones, Google, and Wikipedia." [4] Alexandra Horowitz for the New York Times called the book "engaging", though she does take issue with how Foer "inexplicably" attacks Daniel Tammet. Ultimately, Horowitz concludes that "Foer is too engaging to put us off. His assemblage of personal mnemonic images is riotous. He makes suspenseful an event animated mostly by the participants' "dramatic temple massaging."" [5] Michiko Kakutani, in the New York Times, called the book "captivating". [6]

Peter Conrad in The Observer dismissed Foer's account as reality TV in book form, stating: "After performing the tricks required of him, he is ushered off into oblivion; by telling the story all over again five years later, he is hoping to prolong his meagre allocation of fame and persuade the world to remember his name. But I have too much on my mind, and now intend to exercise my prerogative as a thinker by forgetting him." [7] Elizabeth Loftus, writing in the Wall Street Journal , called the book "uplifting", saying that "It shows that with motivation, focus and a few clever tricks, our minds can do rather extraordinary things." [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mnemonic</span> Learning technique that aids remembering

A mnemonic device or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember.

The mnemonic peg system, invented by Henry Herdson, is a memory aid that works by creating mental associations between two concrete objects in a one-to-one fashion that will later be applied to to-be-remembered information. Typically this involves linking nouns to numbers and it is common practice to choose a noun that rhymes with the number it is associated with. These will be the pegs of the system. These associations have to be memorized one time and can be applied repeatedly to new information that needs to be memorized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Lorayne</span> American mnemonist, magician, and author (1926–2023)

Harry Lorayne was an American mnemonist, magician, and author who was called "The Yoda of Memory Training" and "The World's Foremost Memory-Training Specialist" by Time magazine. He was well known for his incredible memory demonstrations and appeared on numerous television shows including 24 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His book The Memory Book was a New York Times bestseller. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Method of loci</span> Memory techniques adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises

The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey method, memory spaces, or mind palace technique. This method is a mnemonic device adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises. Many memory contest champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Tammet</span> British writer and savant (born 1979)

Daniel Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. His books have been published in over 20 languages.

The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Some mnemonists also memorize texts such as long poems, speeches, or even entire books of fiction or non-fiction. The term is derived from the term mnemonic, which refers to a strategy to support remembering, but not all mnemonists report using mnemonics. Mnemonists may have superior innate ability to recall or remember, in addition to relying on techniques.

Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky, also known simply as 'Ш' ('Sh'), 'S.', or Luria's S, was a Soviet journalist and mnemonist active in the 1920s. He was the subject of Alexander Luria's case study The Mind of a Mnemonist (1968).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic O'Brien</span> British memory champion (born 1957)

Dominic O'Brien is a British mnemonist and an author of memory-related books. He is the eight time World Memory Champion and works as a trainer for Peak Performance Training.

The art of memory is any of a number of loosely associated mnemonic principles and techniques used to organize memory impressions, improve recall, and assist in the combination and 'invention' of ideas. An alternative term is "Ars Memorativa" which is also translated as "art of memory" although its more literal meaning is "Memorative Art". It is also referred to as mnemotechnics. It is an 'art' in the Aristotelian sense, which is to say a method or set of prescriptions that adds order and discipline to the pragmatic, natural activities of human beings. It has existed as a recognized group of principles and techniques since at least as early as the middle of the first millennium BCE, and was usually associated with training in rhetoric or logic, but variants of the art were employed in other contexts, particularly the religious and the magical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Foer</span> American freelance journalist; memory champion (born 1982)

Joshua Foer is a freelance journalist and author living in Brookline, Massachusetts, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 USA Memory Champion, which was described in his 2011 book, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. He spoke at the TED conference in February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Cooke (author)</span> British writer (born 1982)

Edward "Ed" Cooke is a British entrepreneur and author of Remember, Remember: Learn the Stuff You Thought You Never Could. He is also a Grand Master of Memory and the co-founder of Memrise, a freemium online educational platform that uses memory techniques to optimise learning. He grew up in Oxfordshire.

Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.

Eidetic memory is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only once and without using a mnemonic device.

Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formally developed since 1991 and features national and international championships. The primary worldwide organizational bodies are the IAM and WMSC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Dellis</span> Memory athlete

Nelson Charles Dellis is an American memory athlete and consultant. He is a five-time USA Memory Champion, holding the record for most wins of the national memory champion title. He is also one of the co-founders of Memory League. Nelson also runs Climb 4 Memory - a nonprofit which "aims to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer's disease research through mountain climbs around the world."

Chester Santos is a memory expert and motivational speaker best known for winning the USA Memory Championship. He has been profiled in numerous publications and media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Business Week, USA Today, Yahoo! News, Google News, Wired magazine, Reuters and Sports Illustrated. His interview with CNN was featured on the VH1 show “The Best Week Ever”.

The USA Memory Championship is an annual competition that took place every spring in New York City until 2016, and is currently held in Orlando, Florida, after an online qualifier. It was founded by Tony Dottino, President of Dottino Consulting Group, Inc., and Marshall Tarley in 1997. Designed to test the limits of the human brain, the USA Memory Championship is an organized competition in which Memory Athletes (MAs) attempt to memorize as much information as possible in events such as Names and Faces, Cards, Random Numbers, Images, and guest information at a fictional "Tea Party". Since 2018, there is also often an event called Long-Term Memory in which the MAs are given reams of data a month in advance about a wide variety of subjects such as the Periodic Table of the Elements, Space Shuttle missions, NFL Hall-of-Famers, etc. Participation is open to US citizens who are at least 12 years of age. The competition currently consists of 9 total events, 5 of which are online qualifying events, while the last four events are held at a live event to determine the champion.

External memory is memory that uses cues from the environment to aid remembrance of ideas and sensations. When a person uses something beside one's own internal memory tricks, traits, or talents to help them remember certain events, facts, or even things to do, they are using an external memory aid. External memory aids are used every day. A large part of these aids come from technology; people use their smartphones to remind them when they have meetings and Facebook reminds people of their friends' birthdays. These aids also include taking notes in class, carrying a grocery list to the supermarket, or jotting down dates on a planner. Even people, or prompters, can be used as external memory aids.

Yänjaa Wintersoul, sometimes known as simply Yanjaa, is a Mongolian–Swedish triple world record-breaking memory champion & Polyglot. She is one of only 22 international grandmasters of memory. She first rose to prominence in memory sports in 2014 by winning the team gold medal as well as first place in names and faces at the World Memory Championships 2014 in Haikou, China during her first year of memory training.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Foer, Joshua (2011). Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything . New York: Penguin Press. ISBN   978-1-59420-229-2.
  2. "Bestsellers: Hardcover nonfiction". The New York Times. 27 March 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  3. Gates, Bill (September 12, 2012). "Training your brain for recall" . Retrieved April 13, 2022.
  4. Lambrecht, Claire (6 March 2011). ""Moonwalking With Einstein": How to remember everything: Can memory actually be taught? Why do dirty images help? Joshua Foer explains how to stop forgetting". Interview with the author. Salon.com . Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  5. Horowitz, Alexandra (13 March 2011). "How to Memorize Everything". The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  6. Kakutani, Michiko (March 7, 2011). "Remember How Important It Is Not to Forget". The New York Times via NYTimes.com.
  7. Conrad, Peter (17 April 2011). "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer – review: Joshua Foer's account of his quest to become US memory champion is a dreary and pointless celebration of trivia". The Observer. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  8. Loftus, Elizabeth F. (March 5, 2011). "In the Memory Palace". Wall Street Journal via www.wsj.com.