Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein is a refreshing study on dynamics of mind, largely through the lens of the World Memory Champions. Joshua Foer, a freelance journalist, the author, sets a new standard in depth research by getting into the skin of his focus group. He labels it as 'participatory journalism', but definitely he goes many steps ahead! As part of the research, he participated in and won USA Memory Championship in 2006! His work is incisive, informative, unbiased yet entertaining. In my view, the book is comparable to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers.
The book takes off from Simoid of Ceos' feat of remembering each of his audience's exact position after the place was destroyed. This sets the tone for exciting journey into the little known world of wonders of the working of our brain and also of the World Memory Champions. On the way, we get introduced to Tony Buzan of Mindmap fame, briefly in the first chapter. More about Buzan awaits in the later chapters.
Joshua Foer takes us through Memory Palace technique for remembering words. The technique, in my view is an extension of Mindmapping in real world! Largely, both these techniques are derivatives of Method of Loci, introduced by European scholars, centuries ago. The roads, places, etc in real world act as framework for connecting disparate words. Whereas in Mindmaps, a single anchor element tentacles into various related ideas.
Overall, the trick lies in 'chunking' the information to achieve great memory feats. Wherever chunking is not possible, the Magic Palace technique provides the scaffolding of paths, routes and places to hold the disparate chunks of information together. The champion practitioners leverage earlier memories to bolster new memories. Joshua Foer takes a stance of memory and thinking are complementary to expand out knowledge and wisdom base. Incidentally, today ie. 24 January, 2013, there is news about experiments suggesting that it's harder to erase earlier memories than building new memories. If we look at the people having high memory; they try to connect new information to already existing memories. Probably, that's the way to go; in spite of natural hurdles. Memorizing poems is little more challenging; but it is overcome by referring the specific words to (usually) rhyming mnemonic tools.
For memorizing the numbers, the trick is in substituting numerals with syllables to make mental images of the words thus formed. The same applies for decks of playing card memorization too. The champions break new grounds almost every year with new techniques. These champions are largely on indefinite summer holidays from doctoral studies!
There is clearly a correlation between utility of the need for memorization capability and access to external memory. There is a huge external memory accessible, especially through internet now. The utility of memory is reducing. According to Joshua, the utility of memory started reducing soon after Guttenberg's invention of printing press. The utility of memory/memorizing dropped down dramatically after indexes and references started appearing in the books. A 16th century scholar noticed forgetting the contents of the books he read and came out with a solution by writing his comments on the book. It's a re-assuring fact, not only for Joshua but for lot many of us. That's one of the reasons I write the blog, probably many others do it too. Joshua also introduces us to Lifelog venture, which is to create personal external memories on the net as we live the moments!
After taking us through the exciting journey, Joshua talks about the futility of such memory feats. He compares them rightly to the display of peacock's feathers, which are impressive but of no utility!
At the same time, he doesn't deny the importance of memory. Though the thrust of present day education is on thinking, thinking has to be on a basic knowledge base. An expanded knowledge base provides richer texture, granularity and knowledge base for deep thinking. Better memory with good techniques also provides fuel for lateral thinking too. Largely creativity abetting knowledge, and in turn knowledge helping creativity. This interplay leads to a virtuous cycle of creativity. Though, Joshua Foer doesn't approve or like Tony Buzan's 'excessive' promotion' of his Mindmap, the students practicing Mindmap techniques for notes taking have shown improvement by upto 10% over others. I think the benefits are more in terms of creativity and inter-relationship of objects/issues. Tony Buzan features in a later chapter, he seems to have amassed massive fortune out of the books and training progrmmes to the extent of whopping US$300Mn! And according to Tony Buzan's chauffeur most of his books are 'the same meat, different gravy'. ;)
After covering the mnemonic experts Joshua also takes us to the world of 'savants', the 'natural mind champions'. He studies Daniel Tamett and the real-life Rain Man 'Kim Peek'. Kim Peek seems to be more amazing than the portrayal by Dustin Hoffman. Joshua shares his 'embarrassing moments' with the real-life Rain Man too. Kim Peak reads a page at the rate of a page within 10 seconds and reads both the pages simultaneously, each eye reading individual page! More amazing is the fact that, the pages read are etched in his memory forever! Joshua tries to theorize that the 'savant' abilities of the brain lead to better understanding of brain. He almost conveys that we are endowed with photographic memories and there should be a way to access these memories at will.
As there is a clear relationship between memory and other mental feats and synesthetics 'Tell Tale Brain's author, Dr. V S Ramachandran's study of Daniel Tammett also is featured. Interestingly, Joshua Foer almost doesn't believe in the naturalness of the capabilities of Daniel Tammett. As I see it, in a way Joshua Foer contrasts Kim Peek & Daniel Tammett to offer in-depth understanding of 'savant' phenomenon. Since the techniques assessed are new and not yet robust, there may be a chance of error. More interesting are the mental calculation feats of the savants. Joshua suggests that, on internet many techniques abound.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Bill Gates found this book to be one of the most exciting books he read recently and wrote a review in his blog. Please visit the link, if interested. http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Books/Personal/Moonwalking-with-Einstein
By the way, if you are wondering about the title, as I did. The secret is revealed in one of the last few pages, in a true suspense thriller racy fiction comparable to David Brown's Robert Langdon adventures. This non-fiction is a truly unputdownable page turner!
The greatest thing about the book and the author is kept at the end. His decision after winning the US Memory Championship makes bigger impact on the readers.
In summary, The book is intellectually satisfying and refreshing. Go ahead and read it!
