Title: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review:
Who doesn’t want photographic memory? I wish I could remember the contents of every book I read and every test I studied for. I would never have to take notes or re-read anything. Thus, I was very interested in reading a book that could improve my memory. I guess I must not have read the synopsis of this book, because I was surprised that it was more of an autobiography about Foer’s one-year journey to becoming a U.S. Memory Champion than a how-to on remembering everything.
Foer does go over the memory palace and the PAO (person-action-object) system, but I wish he spent more time either exploring these techniques and/or other systems in depth. Despite that complaint, I rated this book low mainly because I hate his writing style. I know I don’t have an extensive vocabulary, but I shouldn’t have to look up at least one word every page. (Please raise your hand if you knew “proboscis” refers to the trunk of an elephant.) I also didn’t like how he constantly bashed the other memory competitors by criticizing their hygiene, physical appearance, etc.
If you are interested in learning about memory championships, reading some exposé on Daniel Tammet, or being shocked by how vulgar and weird some of the mental images people come up with to memorize a deck of cards, then this is the book for you.
Notable Quotes:
- “It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human.”
- “Memory is like a spiderweb that catches new information. The more it catches, the bigger it grows. And the bigger it grows, the more it catches.”
- “Life seems to speed up as we get older because life gets less memorable as we get older.”
- “When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.”
- “There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.”