Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer (PDF)

Description

“Highly entertaining.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker“Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” —The Boston GlobeThe blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memoryAn instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer’s yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top “mental athletes.” He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist’s trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author’s own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is one of those rare books that is not only a joy to read, but also immensely helpful. It can help all of us with something that is at once troublesome and worrisome: our memory. It does this with ease, not teaching us some grueling rote memory technique, but one that is easy, natural and intuitive. Yet Moonwalking with Einstein turns out to not be exclusively a how-to book on memory. So what is it?Well, yes, it is about memory and how to improve it, but it is at once a history of techniques, a description of what memory is and what can go wrong with it, and also a running narrative of how the author, a journalist himself with no special memory skills, becomes one of the most proficient memory athletes in America.I’d learned a mnemonic device to aid memorization decades ago while in college, and found it to be helpful, but for some reason I’d abandoned the technique once I graduated. But Moonwalking with Einstein expands the mnemonic technique I learned back then by use of something of which I’d never heard: the “Memory Palace.” The Memory Palace exploits our inherent skill for remembering images and spatial locations, harnesses these two abilities we all posses in abundance, and relates them to the memorization of numbers, lists and assortments of other difficult to remember items. The amazing thing is that the Memory Palace not only makes memorization easy, it also makes it fun.What makes the book so interesting is that it is narrative non-fiction and reads like a novel. The author locks his conflict with his own memory early on, gives a sense of rising tension as he accumulates the forces to overcome its limitations, and resolves this internal conflict at the end when he participates in the US Memory Championship. I didn’t read it as urgently as I did today’s number one bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, but still, I couldn’t put it down.In Chapter Five, I scanned the “to-do” list of fifteen items on pages 92/3 that the author had to memorize in his initial attempt, and developed the technique for myself as I read about the author memorizing it. As my Memory Palace, I used an old home of a high school friend with which I was still familiar, constructing useful details as I went. When I had finished reading about the author memorizing the list (took me about five minutes), I had memorized it myself, and I found that the items were not only immediately memorable, but that the list of items and their sequence was still with me days later, and so imbedded in my memory that I’m sure I’ll ever forget it. All this, I accomplished effortlessly. This is a truly remarkable feat for me because I’m almost seventy years old and have chronic fatigue syndrome, which adversely affects all aspects of my memory.It has also given me hope that I might finally learn ancient Greek. I tried to learn it several years ago, but found building a vocabulary so difficult that I abandoned the project. Rote memory was just too much trouble. I am interested in all things Greek, and as it turns out, the Memory Palace technique was invented in the fifth century BC by Simonides following his narrow escape from the collapse of a building. This in itself is a story you’ll be interested in reading about. The author says that since the time of this ancient Greek, “the art of memory has been about creating architectural spaces in the imagination.” Having been to Greece twice, I have all the makings of a superb Greek Memory Palace. While traveling around Greece and the western coast of Turkey for ten weeks, I visited many cities and islands: Athens, Thebes, Delphi, Ithaca, Mykonos, Delos, Santorini, etc. I can’t count all the archaeological sites I visited. What I’m creating isn’t just any old Memory Palace but actually a Memory Country. Within each location, I can identify as many locations for storing words and meanings as I need. But not only that, I can also use characters from Greek mythology to create actions and images to reinforce the material, as the author suggests. All this constitutes my Greek Memory Palace: the location where I will store ancient Greek words and meanings as I learn the language, in accordance with the instructions learned in Moonwalking with Einstein. None of it was difficult. I picked it up as I read the book.The author describes how in the past people viewed their minds as something to perfect by loading it with all sorts of intellectual material. “People used to labor to furnish their minds. They invested in the acquisition of memories the same way we invest in the acquisition of things.” [page 134] Some even believed that “the art of memory was a secret key to unlocking the occult structure of the universe.” [page 151] This has given me an entirely new view of how to perceive my own mind and nourish it in the future.The author also discusses how we came to lose touch with our ability to remember with the invention of the printed word. The history of that estrangement and how inventions like Wikipedia and the Internet foster that estrangement is a very interesting story. The author makes the reader aware of what is happening to us and provides a way to project ourselves into the future without suffering so much of technology’s debilitating effects.Perhaps the reason this book is so successful is that the reader never loses sight of the practical use of the information the author is providing because the author is discovering it himself and actively making use of it in his quest to make it into the US Memory Championship.This is an important book. Everyone can benefit from reading it.David Sheppard

⭐After reading this book , I can say I want to improve my memory skills , that everybody can improve it , sometimes we believe we are not good memorizing info and the reall problem is we don’t know how to do it .

⭐The title of this book will not make any sense until you have read Chapter Five, “The Memory Palace,” which describes how mnemonists use the technique of imagined loci, places associated with vivid images, to help them remember such unmemorable things as random number strings, cards in a deck, and people’s names. The subtitle is what advertizes the subject of this book. (When authors, or probably more accurately, publishers, use an obscure phrase or reference for a book title, shouldn’t they at least make the more explanatory subtitle more prominent on the cover?)Joshua Foer is a young journalist writing stories for online magazines like Slate, when he gets assigned to cover the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship in Manhattan. There he meets a number of top-ranked mnemonists, sort of mental athletes who specialize in unbelievable memory feats, like Ed Cooke, a grand master from England. Since he was not a U.S. citizen, Cooke attended the competition as a sort of spring training; his scores would not be counted.Thus, begins the author’s yearlong (actually several years long, because it led to the writing of this book) journey into the world of memory extremes. As he delves into the intricacies of memory and how the human brain works, Foer finds himself getting gradually pulled into the intoxication of memory competition. He meets more competitors, many in their twenties like him and living at home with their parents because their involvement in memory competitions makes it impossible to hold down steady jobs. (They travel the world to memory competitions in distant places, spending vast amounts of time in training and looking for income to support their peripatetic lives.) A few have found ways to make lots of money, like the 67-year-old British memory guru, Tony Buzan, who has established memory competitions in more than a dozen countries. But one idea all these competitors impress on Foer is that anyone, with proper training and dedication, can become a memory champion. So Foer takes up the challenge and agrees, with the help of Ed Cooke as coach, to train for the next U.S. Memory Championship.This book is partly a record of Foer’s year of struggles to prepare himself for the competition and partly an overview of the history of mnemonics or memory training and partly a look at the science of how memory functions in both the normal and the abnormal human brain. The abnormal or injured human brain is exemplified in the story of EP, a man who suffered through the assault of the virus, herpes simplex, and was left with debilitating amnesia. EP’s brain cannot form any new memories and cannot recall any old memories from after 1950. Foer visits EP at home and finds that “each time [EP] greets his wife, it’s as though he hasn’t seen her in twenty years.”At the other end of the extreme are the memory savants, like Kim Peek, made famous by the movie Rain Man with actor Dustin Hoffman. Peek was born with macrocephaly and was kept on sedatives for the first fourteen years of his life. When he was taken off drugs, he soon started to show an interest in books and with memorizing their contents. His memory skills are now almost legendary, but so are his disabilities. He has memorized all of the works of Shakespeare. Once, while attending a live performance of Twelfth Night, he noticed that an actor had transposed two lines of the play. Peek threw such a raucous fit, that the play had to be stopped while he was escorted from the theatre. Subsequently, he was no longer allowed to attend such live performances. But he has an IQ of only 87! Such are a few of the mysteries of memory and the human brain that Foer uncovers in his year of training.While doing his research, Foer, always under Cooke’s guidance, continues to improve—to such an extent that he begins to believe that he might be a serious challenger for the U.S. Championship. (It should be noted that, because he lives across the “pond,” most of Cooke’s coaching is done long range, by phone and email. But he contacts Foer several times a week to monitor and guide his trainee’s preparation.) Foer keeps the suspense going throughout the book as the day of competition draws closer. (This review will not reveal the outcome of this contest.) In this way he keeps the book moving along even as he delves ever deeper into the history and science of memory.I did find Chapter Six, “How to Memorize a Poem,” to be a disappointment. What drew me to this book in the first place is my little hobby of memorizing poems. At this point I have about 15 poems in my memory bank. I got them in there by brute force: reciting, reciting, reciting the lines of each poem over and over again, until I had them by rote, word for word, in whatever back channel of the brain holds those things that you just never seem to forget, that you can recall effortlessly, like some prayer or song taught to you as a child. I don’t know an easier or faster way to get a poem in my memory and was hoping to get some ideas from this book. But this chapter does not really tell you how to memorize a poem although it does give some approaches for dealing with abstract words, like “duty” or “honor,” and so-called structure terms like “and” and “from.” So this chapter does not live up to the promise of its title. Maybe that’s because there is no fast and easy way to memorize poetry. Even for the champion mnemonists who appear in this book, the poetry event is the most dreaded of all. In fact, we find that—perhaps under pressure of some fearsome mnemonist lobby—the poetry event was eventually eliminated from international competition. How sad! Why else would you want to develop a championship-level memory but to be able to recall in an instant a powerful thought beautifully written? OK. My bias is hereby confessed.

⭐An easy to read book by a 20 something American. Reads like a long magazine article.Could easily be about 30% shorter. Lots of additional some might say filler about the history of memory techniques Romans and Ancient Greeks used. Also stories about chicken sexers.I’m glad I got it for 99p.

⭐Firstly, Joshua has written a very entertaining story on an unusual subject and the book is well worth a read on that basis alone. Also whilst it’s true that it’s not a book on memory techniques and it’s not intended to be, you do pick up a lot of information on these techniques which is a good primer to read some other more technique oriented books on them if you so wish. However Joshua also gives insight into the history of memory techniques and how they’re used in memory championships which is really interesting.

⭐I bought this book after a recommendation, it’s not my usual genre but i’m so glad I decided to give it a go. My memory is wobbly at best and I really struggle to retain information, I thought it may be interesting to read a bit more into this and well this book has taught me a lot. The author doesn’t just talk about how memory ‘works’ as such but also goes into the history of it and ties in many other topics to help us understand various concepts. It follows his journey as he learns more about the world of memory champions and is not just informative but also very funny.I’m hoping that I will be able to take away some of my learnings from this and actually apply them to every day life so I can finally start remembering a little bit more!

⭐I really enjoyed this book, devouring it in just a few sittings.Ostensibly, it tells the story of how the author, covering the US memory championships, takes up the challenge to enter them himself and compete the following year.But along the way the book is an overview of what we know, or think we know, about the way the brain works and how we remember (or fail to remember) stuff. Several common methods of memorisation are outlined – but note this isn’t a “how to” book – as is the concept and use of memorisation itself. In a world where we don’t have to remember anything – phone numbers, historical facts, the background to current events – because it’s all there on devices we carry around, do we need to remember things at all?The book will appeal if you like a good yarn, or your interested in psychology or education. It is entertaining, informative and at times pretty funny, and the end is quite emotional.One of the people the author spends a lot of time with is Ed Cooke, who has since written the book “Remember, Remember…” which I bought and started straight after this. Within half an hour I could remember the names of all the Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Is that useful? No. But it’s impressive (although I’m having trouble convincing friends and colleagues). More importantly, the method itself is very useful and I’ve employed it for other things since.

⭐Josh Foer takes the reader through the euphoria and sheer hardwork it takes to be a ‘mental athlete’ competing National and World Championships.There are enough tips to help one develop the techniques to memory improvement. Josh has also carefully researched the history of human memory and details the science involved.

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