Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

by Joshua Foer

In other words, when it comes to chunking—and to our memory more broadly—what we already know determines what we’re able to learn.

In ways as obscure as sexing chickens and as profound as diagnosing an illness, who we are and what we do is fundamentally a function of what we remember.

Sigmund Freud first noted the curious fact that older memories are often remembered as if captured by a third person holding a camera, whereas more recent events tend to be remembered in the first person, as if through one’s own eyes.

Birthday

“The general idea with most memory techniques is to change whatever boring thing is being inputted into your memory into something that is so colorful, so exciting, and so different from anything you’ve seen before that you can’t possibly forget it,”

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.

But perhaps Daniel exemplifies an even more inspiring idea: that we all have remarkable capacities asleep inside of us. If only we bothered ourselves to awaken them.