Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

the World Memory Championship is less a test of memory than of creativity.

we’ve supplanted our own natural memory with a vast superstructure of technological crutches—from

Once upon a time, there was nothing to do with thoughts except remember them.

My experience had validated the old saw that practice makes perfect. But only if it’s the right kind of concentrated, self-conscious, deliberate practice. I’d learned firsthand that with focus, motivation, and, above all, time, the mind can be trained to do extraordinary things. This was a tremendously empowering discovery. It made me ask myself: W

When the point of reading is, as it was for Peter of Ravenna, remembering, you approach a text very differently than most of us do today.

Attention, of course, is a prerequisite to remembering.

A meaningful relationship between two people cannot sustain itself only in the present tense.

Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next—and disappear. That’s why it’s important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to e

All of our memories are, like S’s, bound together in a web of associations.

a great memory isn’t just a by-product of expertise; it is the essence of expertise.