"'It's all about technique and understanding how the memory works,' he told the reporter, 'Anyone could do it, really.'"
- Moonwalking with Einstein, page 7
"Regular practice simply isn’t enough. To improve, we must watch ourselves fail, and learn from our mistakes."- Moonwalking with Einstein, page 171
This applies not only to memory but to any skill with a measurable sense of “better”. At a certain stage in his training, Foer realizes that his scores have flatlined—he’s not getting better. He contacts K. Anders Ericsson, the psychology professor who is studying his progress, and is told that he has hit the OK Plateau.
There are three stages to a learning a skill. In the first stage, the “cognitive stage”, the skill is performed consciously and manually. This is when the brain is developing new strategies to do it more effectively. At this stage, there is improvement in fits and starts because the brain is monitoring performance and removing errors. The “associative stage” is then when the brain stops strategizing and just becomes more efficient. Finally, you reach the “autonomous stage” where the behaviours become automatic and the improvement stops. This is called the OK Plateau, and it used to be considered the upper limit of a person’s ability. Now we know that it’s possible to improve far above it.
Autonomous performance is very important—having a conversation while driving a car would be impossible if speech and driving were not performed automatically, for example. However, when trying to improve a skill, it’s vital to continually make the process more challenging so that your brain can’t slack off. This is called Deliberate Practice, and is covered more detail in Talent Is Overrated.
"For your first memory palace, I’d like you to use the house you grew up in. [...] When it comes time to recall the list, all you will need to do is retrace the steps we’re about to take in your imagination."- Moonwalking with Einstein, page 98
Do you ever find yourself at a loss because you have something to remember (a list, a phrase, a name, etc.) and no writing utensils or gadgets with which to record it? Before the invention of writing or electronics, people used to keep palaces devoted to memory. Not physical palaces, but mental ones. It turns out that the human mind, while able to forget words almost instantly, is profoundly good at remembering images. However, while imagining a giant carrot, some greasy bacon, and a bottle of blood-red ketchup will make it easier to recall your grocery list, it is very easy to omit an item, especially as the list gets longer. This approach also doesn’t work if the items need to be in a certain order.
The Memory Palace, also known as the Method of Loci, fixes these issues and more. Here’s how it works:
1. Think of a place you know well… a childhood home, perhaps, or where you live now.
2. Imagine walking up to that place, and putting the first object to remember right on the front porch.
3. Then, step inside, and turn to your left. What do you see? Put the second object on, in, or near that.
4. Repeat with your entire list, traversing as much of the house as necessary. Depending on what you’re trying to remember you might need multiple palaces.
One important tip: visually stimulating things are much easier to remember, as I alluded to earlier by putting adjectives in front of the groceries I mentioned. Go even further. Imagine that your entire armchair is covered in bacon. Imagine a grotesque fake-murder scene with empty ketchup bottles everywhere. Violent or sexual imagery can work very well for this. Absurd things too, as long as they’re relevant. Boring objects? Make them animate and talkative.
This technique, as described above, should be enough to allow you to remember thoughts that pop into your head during a conversation or lecture, or as you’re about to fall asleep. I would advise taking a bit of time to mentally prepare the place: revisit it, clean it up, and open the windows so you have a nice view of everything. Make sure you know the path you’re taking through the building. Ultimately, you can learn more about this, and use it to memorize everything from poems and speeches to digits of pi.
"The advantage of the Major System is that it’s straightforward, and you can begin using it right out of the box."- Moonwalking with Einstein, page 98
The Memory Palace is great, sure, but how would you actually memorize the digits of pi? It’s hard to imagine a really vivid 7389 laying in your bed. The major system allows you to convert numbers into sounds and thus words, thereby making them memorable. Each number keys to a certain kind of consonant, and vowels and some other sounds are unassigned. 1 is T or D. 2 is N. In the case of 7389, 7 is K/G/Q, 3 is M, 8 is F/V and 9 is P/B. Therefore 7389 could be represented as GuM-FiB, and you could imagine a child insisting to you that he isn’t chewing gum while clearly chewing it.
The Major System is based not around letters but sounds, so “enough” and “knife” would both code for 28. “Knife” would probably be easier to remember visually though. You may also notice that no matter what letter you choose, each number corresponds to essentially the same position for your mouth. If you want to go deeper, the Major System wikipedia article is a great place to start. The code is outlined below:
0 Z/S
1 T/D
2 N
3 M
4 R
5 L
6 ng/j/zh/
7 K/Gu/Q
8 F/V
9 P/B
Memory, and indeed most intellectual skill, is not fixed. Anyone, by using the right techniques and practising, can expand their mnemonic capacity beyond what many people would even think possible—an excellent party trick, or simple a useful tool to remember phone and credit card numbers. Practise even more, and you might even be able to compete against others at national or world championships.
Moonwalking with Einstein is not so much a self-help book as an exploration of memory, so I would recommend it to anyone looking to find out more about how the memory works. For specific training advice, I would look elsewhere.
Joshua Foer was born in Washington, DC in 1982 and lives in New Haven, CT. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Esquire, Slate, Outside, the New York Times, and other publications.
