Notes on Moonwalking with Einstein

When I heard the Dean of UCLA Anderson mention Moonwalking with Einstein, I was caught off guard. The title was definitely unusual, and I had no idea what it was about. I knew it was about memory and psychology, and I figured it was worth a shot.

I was definitely in for a treat. The book follows the story of the author, who was a journalist in his twenties and got randomly into the "memory training circuit" and decided to give the techniques a shot by trying to see how well he could improve his memory. He ended up doing quite well: winning the US Memory Championship and making a lot of deep friendships with Mental Athletes (MAs) around the world.

The book was a really fun read, and I definitely learned a lot about memory and the history of memory techniques. In addition, I loved the philosophical discussions about the role of memory and how important it is to develop and cherish it for our human nature. It's also inspired me to look into a lot of the primary sources mentioned within it and to perhaps try to train myself similar to how the author did. The only question is when I can find the time to do that....

Below are my main notes on the text. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology, memory, and general displays of awesomeness and freakish nature.

Ch. 1: The smartest man is hard to find

• US memory championship
  
• Brains harder to quantify than braun
  
• Ben Pridmore was reining memory champion
  
• Experience is sum of one's memories
  
• Wisdom is sum of one's experience
  
• Better memory => better person
  
• Pridmore said it's just technique that anyone can learn
  
• Mental Athletes (MAs)
  
• Use the "Memory Palace" technique developed by the Romans
  
• Tony Buzan marketed mind techniques
  
• Simonides developed "method of loci"
  
• Food intake affects brain
  
• Memorizing as a mental workout
  
• "Brain gyms" software
  
• At first, memory was stored inside and considered important; now it's in books and computers and seen as less important
  

Ch. 2: The man who remembered too much

• The Mind of the Mnemonist book
  
• Study of people with abnormal memory skills
  
• Normal people: the "curve of forgetting"
  
• Picture recognition test: memory for images excellent among all
  
• Photographic memory is a myth
  
• Study Subject in study had automatic synesthesia
  
• Memory is pattern of connections between neurons
  
• Memory not searchable; just accessible by cues
  
• Study Subject's memories were stored and organized linearly
  
• Install memory images along a real street
  
• Study Subject was crippled by inability to forget
  
• London taxi drivers have intense memory and test requirements
  
• Cabbies' brains changed and reorganized to adapt to job; "neural plasticity"
  
• Superior Memory book
  
• Brains of MAs had same IQ and same structure as control subjects in fMRI; difference was that different parts of brain used when memorizing (using visual and spatial navigation parts of brain)
  
• Consciously converting data into images placed on mental roadmap
  
• "KL7" club: Knights of Learning
  
• Manufactured synesthesia
  
• Turn names into visual joke on name/sound
  

Ch. 3: The expert expert

• Got a coach named Ed
  
• Learned about chicken sexing industry: determining gender of chickens is a bit deal; technique requires intuition to quickly and accurately work
  
• K. Erickson developed "skilled memory theory"
  
• Tested experts
  
• Tested author for baseline memory skills and followed him as he trained to see if his memory could improve
  
• Erickson studied experts. Found it takes 10,000 hours of training to become expert that can process enormous information in sophisticated ways and get past "magic 7" number (short-term memory limit).
  
• Chunk in order to remember more
  
• Use associations in long-term memory to see world differently
  

Ch. 4: The most forgetful man in the world

• Story of severe documented case of amnesia
  
• Monotony compresses time; novelty expands it
  
• Creating new memories stretches psychological time
  
• That's why it's so important to travel, do interesting work
  
• Life speeds up when becomes less memorable as we grow up
  
• Hippocampus converts short-term to long-term memory
  
• Unconscious
  
• Declarative/explicit vs. non-declarative/implicit/unconscious memories
  
• Unconscious memories don't require hippocampus
  
• Semantic/concept memories vs. episodic memory in time and space
  
• Ribeau's Law: memories not static; they change as we age and with events
  
• Sleep consolidates memories
  
• Infantile amnesia: brains maturing quickly, neocortex developing in first 3 years, lacks language and schemas
  

Ch. 5: The memory palace

• Elaborative coding
  
• Brains aren't adapted to current information age
  
• Simonides invented art of memory
  
• Rhetorica ad Herenium book
  
• Natural memory: hardware
  
• Artificial memory: software
  
• Method of loci
  
• Memory palace
  
• Populate intimately familiar place with images
  
• Start with house you grew up in and arrange items along a path
  
• Add multiple senses to each image you put down
  
• Add inappropriate images so it's funny and lewd
  

Ch. 6: How to memorize a poem

• Walk around and rediscover old places and know them very thoroughly
  
• Need 12 memory palaces to begin; grow to hundreds
  
• Memory training about growing as a person; learning old texts gives us guidance
  
• Memory training was huge in old civilizations
  
• Americans greatly behind Europeans on memory training
  
• For memorizing poems, put image of each topic not each word (due to efficiency and stability)
  
• "Topic" comes from Greek word for "place"
  
• That's the root of the phrase "in the first place"
  
• Brains better at remembering meaning than verbatim text
  
• Homer's works were a collection of oral bards' memories
  
• Cliches are memorable, repeated, visualized phrases; critical for memorability
  
• Jingles hard to knock out of head
  
• Song is the ultimate structuring device for language
  
• For abstract words, imagine similar sounding word
  
• Break word into syllables and find images that start with same letter
  
• Men's technique for poem memorization: just images
  
• Women's technique for poem memorization: understand how poem feels, associate parts of poem with emotions
  
• Break lines into beats with different emotions (Method Acting technique)
  
• Quirky subculture of memory only in Oxford competition (small group)
  
• Golden age of memory died
  

Ch. 7: The end of remembering

• Before writing was invented, everything had to be preserved in memory
  
• Now, we remember very little because of calendar, GPS, photo albums, speed dial, etc.
  
• 1/3 of Brits can't remember their home phone number or more than 2 friends' birthdays
  
• History of writing: printing press, word spacing, table of contents, indexes in books
  
• Training memory classically was to build index of all we have read
  
• External memory: online and electronically
  
• Even more futuristic: Microsoft Lifelog
  

Ch. 8: The okay plateau

• Memorize random stuff around you
  
• "Major System" to remember numbers
  
• "Person Action Object" system (PAO) for longer numbers: converts numbers to images
  
• Online Brain Club forum
  
• 52 cards mapped to PAO images of 3 so it's just 18 groups of images to memorize
  
• Expertise improvement: speed-typing plateau
  
• Run on autopilot at some point: "okay plateau"
  
• Top achievers keep out of the okay plateau and do deliberate practice 
  
• Technique, goal oriented, constant feedback
• Have to practice failing
  
• Put yourself in mind of someone better and see difference between you and them
  
• Start going at pace quicker than can go by 10-20%, make mistakes, but improve
  
• Barriers and records constantly get broken because psychological, not physical
  
• Memory like a musical instrument; can learn and improve
  
• Set up spreadsheet to track practice sessions, metrics, progress, graph everything
  
• Enforces mindfulness and attention when trying to memorize names or details
  

Ch. 9: The talented ten

• Is all this a form of mental peacocking or useful?
  
• There's a private school in the Bronx that teaches based on memory techniques; it is much better performing than other schools
  
• In education, rote memorization got replaced with experiential learning
  
• Tony Buzan was Inspired by the Major System by a prof in his college
  
• Wanted an "operator's manual" for how to run his brain
  
• Realized education has the wrong definition of smart
  
• Invented "mindmapping" notetaking technique
  
• Said invention is a product of inventorying and indexing
  
• Use your head book
  

Ch. 10: The rainman in all of us

• People do 20% worse in memory competition than in practice
  
• Met Daniel, who was called the "Rain Man" (big memory and language capabilities)
  
• Rain Man film
  
• "Savantism" disease
  
• Single skill vs. general talent
• Savants often accompanied with disability
  
• Born on a blue day book
  
• Effortless memory of his; no technique
  
• Met with Daniel
  
• Found him to be actually ordinary
  
• Synesthesia disorder
  
• Asberger syndrome: high-functioning autism
  
• Resources: World Wide Brain Club, Memory Circuit Stat Server
• Kim Peek another savant
  
• Damage in left brain common
  
• When left brain damaged, right brain opens up hidden inner skills in all people
  
• TMS technology can zap left brain and turn on savant skills in people
  
• Author was skeptical Daniel might not be a savant, maybe just trained mnemonist
  
• In 19th century, savant was great term
  
• But now became freak condition
  

Ch. 11: US memory championship

• For practice, wore ear muffs and horse blinders/painted safety goggles to keep concentrated
  
• Relax one week before
  
• Got new record in speed cards by doing 3 cards at a time
  
• Won memory championship
  

Epilogue

• People later just wanted to see him do tricks
  
• Went to World Memory Championship; finished 13th place
• Offered KL7 membership; had to drink 2 beers, memorize 49 digits, kiss strange woman's knee 3 times to be inducted
• Got retested in Florida by expert researcher
  
• Improved memory skills but still kept misplacing car keys
  
• Working memory still was limited
  
• Software upgraded but hardware still the same
  
• Practice makes perfect, but must be deliberate practice
  
• Key is time and commitment
  
• Learned to be more mindful of world around him
  
• Hard to find occasion to use old techniques
  
• How we perceive world is based on how we remember
  
• Memories are the seeds of our values
  
• Memory training is about nurturing our humanity
  
• Experiment was over; says he's done competing