Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

by Joshua Foer

Overview

The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory

“Highly entertaining.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” —The Boston Globe

An instant bestseller that has now 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101475973
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/03/2011
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	129,361
File size:	461 KB

About the Author

Joshua Foer was born in Washington, DC in 1982 and lives in New Haven, CT with his wife Dinah. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, Esquire, Slate, Outside, the New York Times, and other publications. He is the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura, an online guide to the world’s wonders and curiosities. He is also the co-founder of the architectural design competition, Sukkah City. Moonwalking with Einstein is his first book.

Read an Excerpt

This is a triple-disc distillation of the limited-edition ten-CD Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings box set. The material was taken from the Grateful Dead's run of eight shows over four nights (February 27 through March 2, 1969) at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. These were the same concerts that yielded most of the definitive Live/Dead (1969). By the spring of 1969, the ever-evolving personnel had grown to include Mickey Hart (percussion) -- whose contributions began in September of 1967 -- and six months later, Tom Constanten (keyboards). They joined co-founders Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (vocals/organ/harmonica), Bill Kreutzmann (percussion), Phil Lesh (bass/vocals), and Bob Weir (guitar/vocals). Collectively they created an incendiary ensemble embracing {|R&B|} with the same passion and sense of intrepid experimentation as they did their own unique imprint of sonic psychedelia. And nowhere is that seemingly odd amalgam as evident as it is here. According to {|Dennis McNally|}'s liner essay, {|Live/Dead|} was "the first live 16-track album ever made." Three and a half decades later those tapes were revisited and revitalized by longtime {|Grateful Dead|} producer {|Jeffrey Norman|}. He has done a yeoman's effort, drawing out the warmth and subtle interplay occurring deep within not only the lengthy acidic {|"That's It for the Other One"|} suite, but the exhaustively jammed covers of {|"Good Morning Little School Girl,"|} {|"Turn on Your Lovelight,"|} and {|"Morning Dew"|} as well. Somewhat darker yet no less intense is the edgy update of {|blues|} staple {|"King Bee"|} and the sanctified {|"Death Don't Have No Mercy."|} The latter was one of several {|Rev. Gary Davis|} compositions that {|the Dead|} worked into their repertoire over the years. Although it hadn't even been released at the time, {|Aoxomoxoa|} (1969) produced a sizable number of selections here. Notable among them are {|"Doin' That Rag,"|} {|"Cosmic Charlie,"|} {|"Saint Stephen,"|} and {|"Dupree's Diamond Blues"|} -- a tune twisted out of the traditional {|ballad|} {|"Betty & Dupree."|} Another title that surfaced on {|Aoxomoxoa|} was the stylish, acoustic-based {|"Mountains of the Moon."|} The combo took full advantage of the song's meditative ending to segue into the lysergic-influenced exploratory anthem {|"Dark Star."|} As alluded to above, the audio remastering is virtually perfect. One major caveat can be heard during the nearly half-hour instrumental {|"Jam"|} on disc three. According to {|Norman|}, the master tape ran out and "the only thing we had as a patch was a cassette...mix from the show. So when I edit in the cassette piece...the end result is like a big ol' audio band-aid." While that isn't the sole place that similar problems had to be addressed, it is the most noticeable. That said, the drastic change in sound quality is a small price to pay in order to hear the performance in its entirety. ~ Lindsay Planer

Table of Contents

One The Smartest Man is Hard to Find 3

Two The Man Who Remembered Too Much

Three The Expert Expert 49

Four The Most Forgetful Man in the World 69

Five The Memory Palace 89

Eight The Ok Plateau 163

Nine The Talented Tenth 187

Ten The Little Rain Man in All Of US 211

Eleven The USA Memory Championship 237

Epilogue 259

Acknowledgments 273

Notes 275

Bibliography 289

Index 299

What People are Saying About This

Dan Ariely

“Moonwalking With Einstein isn’t just a splendid overview of an essential aspect of our humanity—our memory; it is also a witty and engaging account of how Foer went from being a guy with an average memory to winning the U.S. Memory Championship.” –Dan Ariely, author of The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home and Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Stefan Fatsis

“Joshua Foer proves what few of us are willing to get our heads around: there’s more room in our brains that we ever imagined. MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN isn’t a how-to guide to remembering a name or where you put your keys. It’s a riveting exploration of humankind’s centuries-old obsession with memory, and one man’s improbable quest to master his own.”--(Stefan Fatsis, author of WORD FREAK and A FEW SECONDS OF PANIC)

Mary Roach

This is a triple-disc distillation of the limited-edition ten-CD Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings box set. The material was taken from the Grateful Dead's run of eight shows over four nights (February 27 through March 2, 1969) at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. These were the same concerts that yielded most of the definitive Live/Dead (1969). By the spring of 1969, the ever-evolving personnel had grown to include Mickey Hart (percussion) -- whose contributions began in September of 1967 -- and six months later, Tom Constanten (keyboards). They joined co-founders Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (vocals/organ/harmonica), Bill Kreutzmann (percussion), Phil Lesh (bass/vocals), and Bob Weir (guitar/vocals). Collectively they created an incendiary ensemble embracing R&B with the same passion and sense of intrepid experimentation as they did their own unique imprint of sonic psychedelia. And nowhere is that seemingly odd amalgam as evident as it is here. According to {|Dennis McNally|}'s liner essay, {|Live/Dead|} was "the first live 16-track album ever made." Three and a half decades later those tapes were revisited and revitalized by longtime {|Grateful Dead|} producer {|Jeffrey Norman|}. He has done a yeoman's effort, drawing out the warmth and subtle interplay occurring deep within not only the lengthy acidic {|"That's It for the Other One"|} suite, but the exhaustively jammed covers of {|"Good Morning Little School Girl,"|} {|"Turn on Your Lovelight,"|} and {|"Morning Dew"|} as well. Somewhat darker yet no less intense is the edgy update of {|blues|} staple {|"King Bee"|} and the sanctified {|"Death Don't Have No Mercy."|} The latter was one of several {|Rev. Gary Davis|} compositions that {|the Dead|} worked into their repertoire over the years. Although it hadn't even been released at the time, {|Aoxomoxoa|} (1969) produced a sizable number of selections here. Notable among them are {|"Doin' That Rag,"|} {|"Cosmic Charlie,"|} {|"Saint Stephen,"|} and {|"Dupree's Diamond Blues"|} -- a tune twisted out of the traditional {|ballad|} {|"Betty & Dupree."|} Another title that surfaced on {|Aoxomoxoa|} was the stylish, acoustic-based {|"Mountains of the Moon."|} The combo took full advantage of the song's meditative ending to segue into the lysergic-influenced exploratory anthem {|"Dark Star."|} As alluded to above, the audio remastering is virtually perfect. One major caveat can be heard during the nearly half-hour instrumental {|"Jam"|} on disc three. According to {|Norman|}, the master tape ran out and "the only thing we had as a patch was a cassette...mix from the show. So when I edit in the cassette piece...the end result is like a big ol' audio band-aid." While that isn't the sole place that similar problems had to be addressed, it is the most noticeable. That said, the drastic change in sound quality is a small price to pay in order to hear the performance in its entirety. ~ Lindsay Planer

From the Publisher

"Absolutely phenomenal... Part of the beauty of this book is that it makes clear how memory and understanding are not two different things. Building up the ability to reason and the ability to retain information go hand in hand... The book reminds us that we all start off with pretty much the same tools for the most part, and we can be intentional about strengthening them, or not."
—Bill Gates

Jonah Lehrer

“In this marvelous book, Joshua Foer invents a new genre of non-fiction. This is a work of science journalism wrapped around an adventure story, a bildungsroman fused to a vivid investigation of human memory. If you want to understand how we remember, and how we can all learn to remember better, then read this book.” –Jonah Lehrer, contributing editor, Wired; author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist

Interviews

An Interview with Joshua Foer author of MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything To be published by The Penguin Press on March 7, 2011

• First, can you explain the title of you book, MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN?

The title refers to a memory device I used in the US Memory Championship—specifically it's a mnemonic that helped me memorize a deck of playing cards. Moonwalking with Einstein works as a mnemonic because it's such a goofy image. Things that are weird or colorful are the most memorable. If you try to picture Albert Einstein sliding backwards across a dance floor wearing penny loafers and a diamond glove, that's pretty much unforgettable.

• What are the U.S. Memory Championships? How did you become involved?

The U.S. Memory Championship is a rather bizarre contest held each spring in New York City, in which people get together to see who can remember the most names of strangers, the most lines of poetry, the most random digits. I went to the event as a science journalist, to cover what I assumed would be the Super Bowl of savants. But when I talked to the competitors, they told me something really interesting. They weren't savants. And they didn't have photographic memories. Rather, they'd trained their memories using ancient techniques. They said anyone could do it. I was skeptical. Frankly, I didn't believe them. I said, well, if anyone can do it, could you teach me? A guy named Ed Cooke, who has one of the best trained memories in the world, took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew about memory techniques. A year later I came back to the contest, this time to try and compete, as a sort of exercise in participatory journalism. I was curious simply to see how well I'd do, but I ended up winning the contest. That really wasn't supposed to happen.

• What was the most surprising thing you found out about yourself competing in the Memory Championships?

In the process of studying these techniques, I learned something remarkable: that there's far more potential in our minds than we often give them credit for. I'm not just talking about the fact that it's possible to memorize lots of information using memory techniques. I'm talking about a lesson that is more general, and in a way much bigger: that it's possible, with training and hard work, to teach oneself to do something that might seem really difficult.

• Can you explain the “OK Plateau”?

The OK Plateau is that place we all get to where we just stop getting better at something. Take typing, for example. You might type and type and type all day long, but once you reach a certain level, you just never get appreciably faster at it. That's because it's become automatic. You've moved it to the back of your mind's filing cabinet. If you want to become a faster typer, it's possible, of course. But you've got to bring the task back under your conscious control. You've got to push yourself past where you're comfortable. You have to watch yourself fail and learn from your mistakes. That's the way to get better at anything. And it's how I improved my memory.

• What do you mean by saying there an “art” to memory?

The “art of memory” refers to a set of techniques that were invented in ancient Greece. These are the same techniques that Cicero used to memorize his speeches, and that medieval scholars used to memorize entire books. The “art” is in creating imagery in your mind that is so unusual, so colorful, so unlike anything you've ever seen before that it's unlikely to be forgotten. That's why mnemonists like to say that their skills are as much about creativity as memory.

• How do you think technology has affected how and what we remember?

Once upon a time people invested in their memories, they cultivated them. They studiously furnished their minds. They remembered. Today, of course, we've got books, and computers and smart phones to hold our memories for us. We've outsourced our memories to external devices. The result is that we no longer trust our memories. We see every small forgotten thing as evidence that they're failing us altogether. We've forgotten how to remember.

• What is the connection between memory and our sense of time?

As we get older, life seems to fly by faster and faster. That's because we structure our experience of time around memories. We remember events in relation to other events. But as we get older, and our experiences become less unique, our memories can blend together. If yesterday's lunch is indistinguishable from the one you ate the day before, it'll end up being forgotten. That's why it's so hard to remember meals. In the same way, if you're not doing things that are unique and different and memorable, this year can come to resemble the last, and end up being just as forgettable as yesterday's lunch. That's why it's so important to pack your life with interesting experiences that make your life memorable, and provide a texture to the passage of time.

• How is your memory now?

Ironically, not much better than when I started this whole journey. The techniques I learned, and used in the memory contest, are great for remembering structured information like shopping lists or phone numbers, but they don't improve any sort of underlying, generalizable memory ability. Unfortunately, I still misplace my car keys.

Editorial Reviews

This is a triple-disc distillation of the limited-edition ten-CD Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings box set. The material was taken from the {|Grateful Dead|}'s run of eight shows over four nights (February 27 through March 2, 1969) at {|the Fillmore West|} in San Francisco. These were the same concerts that yielded most of the definitive {|Live/Dead|} (1969). By the spring of 1969, the ever-evolving personnel had grown to include {|Mickey Hart|} (percussion) -- whose contributions began in September of 1967 -- and six months later, {|Tom Constanten|} (keyboards). They joined co-founders {|Jerry Garcia|} (guitar/vocals), {|Ron "Pigpen" McKernan|} (vocals/organ/harmonica), {|Bill Kreutzmann|} (percussion), {|Phil Lesh|} (bass/vocals), and {|Bob Weir|} (guitar/vocals). Collectively they created an incendiary ensemble embracing {|R&B|} with the same passion and sense of intrepid experimentation as they did their own unique imprint of sonic psychedelia. And nowhere is that seemingly odd amalgam as evident as it is here. According to {|Dennis McNally|}'s liner essay, {|Live/Dead|} was "the first live 16-track album ever made." Three and a half decades later those tapes were revisited and revitalized by longtime {|Grateful Dead|} producer {|Jeffrey Norman|}. He has done a yeoman's effort, drawing out the warmth and subtle interplay occurring deep within not only the lengthy acidic {|"That's It for the Other One"|} suite, but the exhaustively jammed covers of {|"Good Morning Little School Girl,"|} {|"Turn on Your Lovelight,"|} and {|"Morning Dew"|} as well. Somewhat darker yet no less intense is the edgy update of {|blues|} staple {|"King Bee"|} and the sanctified {|"Death Don't Have No Mercy."|} The latter was one of several {|Rev. Gary Davis|} compositions that {|the Dead|} worked into their repertoire over the years. Although it hadn't even been released at the time, {|Aoxomoxoa|} (1969) produced a sizable number of selections here. Notable among them are {|"Doin' That Rag,"|} {|"Cosmic Charlie,"|} {|"Saint Stephen,"|} and {|"Dupree's Diamond Blues"|} -- a tune twisted out of the traditional {|ballad|} {|"Betty & Dupree."|} Another title that surfaced on {|Aoxomoxoa|} was the stylish, acoustic-based {|"Mountains of the Moon."|} The combo took full advantage of the song's meditative ending to segue into the lysergic-influenced exploratory anthem {|"Dark Star."|} As alluded to above, the audio remastering is virtually perfect. One major caveat can be heard during the nearly half-hour instrumental {|"Jam"|} on disc three. According to {|Norman|}, the master tape ran out and "the only thing we had as a patch was a cassette...mix from the show. So when I edit in the cassette piece...the end result is like a big ol' audio band-aid." While that isn't the sole place that similar problems had to be addressed, it is the most noticeable. That said, the drastic change in sound quality is a small price to pay in order to hear the performance in its entirety. ~ Lindsay Planer

Alexandra Horowitz

In his captivating new book, Moonwalking With Einstein, the young journalist Joshua Foer tackles the subject of memory the way George Plimpton tackled pro football and boxing…Mr. Foer writes in these pages with fresh enthusiasm. His narrative is smart and funny and, like the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks, it's informed by a humanism that enables its author to place the mysteries of the brain within a larger philosophical and cultural context.
—The New York Times

Michiko Kakutani

This is a triple-disc distillation of the limited-edition ten-CD Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings box set. The material was taken from the Grateful Dead's run of eight shows over four nights (February 27 through March 2, 1969) at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. These were the same concerts that yielded most of the definitive Live/Dead (1969). By the spring of 1969, the ever-evolving personnel had grown to include {|Mickey Hart|} (percussion) -- whose contributions began in September of 1967 -- and six months later, {|Tom Constanten|} (keyboards). They joined co-founders {|Jerry Garcia|} (guitar/vocals), {|Ron "Pigpen" McKernan|} (vocals/organ/harmonica), {|Bill Kreutzmann|} (percussion), {|Phil Lesh|} (bass/vocals), and {|Bob Weir|} (guitar/vocals). Collectively they created an incendiary ensemble embracing {|R&B|} with the same passion and sense of intrepid experimentation as they did their own unique imprint of sonic psychedelia. And nowhere is that seemingly odd amalgam as evident as it is here. According to {|Dennis McNally|}'s liner essay, {|Live/Dead|} was "the first live 16-track album ever made." Three and a half decades later those tapes were revisited and revitalized by longtime {|Grateful Dead|} producer {|Jeffrey Norman|}. He has done a yeoman's effort, drawing out the warmth and subtle interplay occurring deep within not only the lengthy acidic {|"That's It for the Other One"|} suite, but the exhaustively jammed covers of {|"Good Morning Little School Girl,"|} {|"Turn on Your Lovelight,"|} and {|"Morning Dew"|} as well. Somewhat darker yet no less intense is the edgy update of {|blues|} staple {|"King Bee"|} and the sanctified {|"Death Don't Have No Mercy."|} The latter was one of several {|Rev. Gary Davis|} compositions that {|the Dead|} worked into their repertoire over the years. Although it hadn't even been released at the time, {|Aoxomoxoa|} (1969) produced a sizable number of selections here. Notable among them are {|"Doin' That Rag,"|} {|"Cosmic Charlie,"|} {|"Saint Stephen,"|} and {|"Dupree's Diamond Blues"|} -- a tune twisted out of the traditional {|ballad|} {|"Betty & Dupree."|} Another title that surfaced on {|Aoxomoxoa|} was the stylish, acoustic-based {|"Mountains of the Moon."|} The combo took full advantage of the song's meditative ending to segue into the lysergic-influenced exploratory anthem {|"Dark Star."|} As alluded to above, the audio remastering is virtually perfect. One major caveat can be heard during the nearly half-hour instrumental {|"Jam"|} on disc three. According to {|Norman|}, the master tape ran out and "the only thing we had as a patch was a cassette...mix from the show. So when I edit in the cassette piece...the end result is like a big ol' audio band-aid." While that isn't the sole place that similar problems had to be addressed, it is the most noticeable. That said, the drastic change in sound quality is a small price to pay in order to hear the performance in its entirety. ~ Lindsay Planer

From the Publisher

Once we memorized things—spellings, dates, the Periodical Table, poetry, and so on. Now technology remembers for us. While attending the U.S. Memory Championships, Joshua Foer is told that anyone can improve his or her memory, so he decides to throw himself into a participatory journalistic exercise. He spends the next year being coached by “mental athletes,” wearing blacked-out goggles and headphones while learning how to memorize a grocery list or a shuffled deck of cards in less than two minutes by attaching bizarre and lewd images to each item. Narrator Mike Chamberlain’s enthusiastic and engaging tone, with its occasional gee-whiz note, is a perfect match for Foer. Chamberlain doesn’t execute accents particularly well, but his genuineness and appreciation for Foer’s quirky task more than make up for these minor flaws with an entertaining experience. A.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

Once we memorized things—spellings, dates, the Periodical Table, poetry, and so on. Now technology remembers for us. While attending the U.S. Memory Championships, Joshua Foer is told that anyone can improve his or her memory, so he decides to throw himself into a participatory journalistic exercise. He spends the next year being coached by “mental athletes,” wearing blacked-out goggles and headphones while learning how to memorize a grocery list or a shuffled deck of cards in less than two minutes by attaching bizarre and lewd images to each item. Narrator Mike Chamberlain’s enthusiastic and engaging tone, with its occasional gee-whiz note, is a perfect match for Foer. Chamberlain doesn’t execute accents particularly well, but his genuineness and appreciation for Foer’s quirky task more than make up for these minor flaws with an entertaining experience. A.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

In his first book, freelance journalist Foer recounts his adventures in preparing for the U.S. Memory Championship, investigating both the nature of memory and why the act of memorization still matters.

For much of human history, remembering was the key to retaining accumulated knowledge and wisdom. The invention of printing sparked the development of "externalized memory," which has been greatly accelerated by computers and the Internet. We need no longer remember everything, but rather know where to find it, relegating memory experts to a "quirky subculture" comprised of individuals able to remember a list of 1,000 numbers, the exact order of two decks of playing cards and other feats. Foer began to investigate this subculture and then joined it as he trained for a year to compete among other "mental athletes." Mental athletes are neither geniuses nor savants, but they have mastered the art of translating what the brain is not good at remembering—words and numbers—into what it is good at remembering—space and images. They employ the 2,500-year-old mnemonic device of constructing "memory palaces"—imaginary buildings with distinct images throughout these spaces. For example, an image of President Clinton smoking a cigar on the couch might be the number three. It becomes, of course, quite complex, but Foer emphasizes that memorization is neither a gift nor a trick; it is hard work developing "a degree of attention and mindfulness normally lacking." The author is as concerned with what memory means as he is with learning how to memorize. He offers fascinating and accessible explorations into the workings of the brain and tells the story of a man who could forget nothing and of another man who could only remember his most immediate thought. If "experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience," writes the author, what does it mean that "we've supplanted our own natural memory with a vast superstructure of technological crutches"?

An original, entertaining exploration about how and why we remember.

Kirkus Reviews