Evolution Has Programmed Our Brains To Find

'moonwalking With Einstein' Refers To A Memory Device I Used When I Memorized A Deck Of Playing Cards At The U.s. Memory Championship. When I Competed In 2006, I Set A New U.s. Record By Memorizing A Deck Of Cards In One Minute And 40 Seconds. That Record Has Since Fallen.

Some Memorizers Arbitrarily Associate Each Playing Card With A Familiar Person Or Object, So That The King Of Clubs Is Represented By, Say, Tony Danza. The Grand Masters Associate Each Card With A Person, An Action, Or An Object So That Every Group Of Three Cards Can Be Converted Into A Sentence.

If You Want To Make Information Stick, It's Best To Learn It, Go Away From It For A While, Come Back To It Later, Leave It Behind Again, And Once Again Return To It - To Engage With It Deeply Across Time. Our Memories Naturally Degrade, But Each Time You Return To A Memory, You Reactivate Its Neural Network And Help To Lock It In.

Memory Training Is Not Just For The Sake Of Performing Party Tricks; It's About Nurturing Something Profoundly And Essentially Human.

Languages Are Something Of A Mess. They Evolve Over Centuries Through An Unplanned, Democratic Process That Leaves Them Teeming With Irregularities, Quirks, And Words Like 'knight.'