The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory An 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.
great writing and genuinely informative. it makes the point that concerted effort is the most important thing and the rest is techniques that anyone is capable of.
I saw Josh's Ted Talk on the subject years ago and loved it, so I finally got around to reading the book. As others have noted, this is NOT a how-to book and it is NOT an in depth study of how memory works. It's instead the story of how Josh became a memory champion and the things he learned along the way. That said, I enjoyed the story; and the things he learned were fascinating.
I thought I'd already rated this book, but it looks like I hadn't or else it was a different edition. I loved this book. It was fascinating and opened my eyes to how the brain works with memories. Great story driven content. Definitely recommended reading.
A well-told story that reveals both the promises and over-promises of the potential of human memory.
Quick read (~ 3 hours for me) that included not too much I hadn't heard before. But the story telling is fun and reading about the training parts was nice. Now I'm even more sure that memorizing in that way just isn't for me.
I picked this up fairly randomly via Audible but was fascinated within the first chapter. The author, a journalist, covers the U.S. memory competition and becomes interested in how the "memory athletes" actually do their amazing feats of memory, since studies have found that the people who win these events are neither smarter not more successful in their careers than anybody else.. This line of questioning leads him into the world of professional memory competition and along the way he examines the history of memory (including the history of reading and writing, and the history of how we learn anything at all) and why we find some things (like geographic spaces) so much easier to remember than others (like numbers) and the mental tricks that memory athletes use to convert hard to remember things into easy to remember things.
This is not a self help book, it is not intended …
I picked this up fairly randomly via Audible but was fascinated within the first chapter. The author, a journalist, covers the U.S. memory competition and becomes interested in how the "memory athletes" actually do their amazing feats of memory, since studies have found that the people who win these events are neither smarter not more successful in their careers than anybody else.. This line of questioning leads him into the world of professional memory competition and along the way he examines the history of memory (including the history of reading and writing, and the history of how we learn anything at all) and why we find some things (like geographic spaces) so much easier to remember than others (like numbers) and the mental tricks that memory athletes use to convert hard to remember things into easy to remember things.
This is not a self help book, it is not intended to teach you all the memory tricks the author investigated, although you'll definitely pick up a few ideas and tricks along the way. It's really a story of the author's exploration of the past and present story of how we remember things, and his year long challenge to improve his own memory. Besides being a really interesting story, this raises a lot of other interesting questions such as how much do we NEED to remember now we have iPhones and external storage? Should the nature of education be changing in line with the continually reducing need to remember anything? It's a thoughtful book that really makes you think about memory, how our own minds work, and what memory really means to us.
Highly recommended for anyone with a bad memory, a good memory, or the slightest interest in how our minds and memories actually work.
I was actually kind of dreading reading this, though it seems like my kind of thing. I guess I was expecting something dry and self-helpy. Yeah, that's right, I said 'self-helpy'.
Foer has a good voice and his experience is interesting enough. What makes this an interesting read for me, though, is his research into the brain, the history of memory, and the education system.
Most fun reading of 2011 -- Thanks to Joe for the recommendation
What to memorize now? Starting with the grocery list tonight.
An excellent non-fiction read! A great story intertwined with history, theory, science, and philosophy.
I had learned the major system in my youth after reading Furst's work and used it to memorize multiple decks of cards as well as the first 5,000 digits of pi. Now that I know the POA system exists, perhaps I'll have to improve upon the compression in it and dip my toe back in to the world of memory improvement?
I'm terrifically shocked to realize that in 1990, I was practiced enough that I could have rivaled the US memory champ of 2006! Sadly I haven't practiced in years, so I'd have some significant ground to make up to get back there. Hmmm....
