0:00:01.039,0:00:04.047
I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.

0:00:06.063,0:00:11.099
Imagine yourself standing[br]outside the front door of your home.

0:00:11.979,0:00:14.768
I'd like you to notice[br]the color of the door,

0:00:14.792,0:00:16.773
the material that it's made out of.

0:00:19.241,0:00:25.036
Now visualize a pack[br]of overweight nudists on bicycles.

0:00:25.060,0:00:26.491
(Laughter)

0:00:26.515,0:00:29.189
They are competing[br]in a naked bicycle race,

0:00:29.213,0:00:32.434
and they are headed straight[br]for your front door.

0:00:32.458,0:00:34.299
I need you to actually see this.

0:00:34.323,0:00:38.060
They are pedaling[br]really hard, they're sweaty,

0:00:38.084,0:00:40.380
they're bouncing around a lot.

0:00:41.259,0:00:44.431
And they crash straight[br]into the front door of your home.

0:00:45.518,0:00:48.747
Bicycles fly everywhere,[br]wheels roll past you,

0:00:48.771,0:00:51.389
spokes end up in awkward places.

0:00:52.566,0:00:56.875
Step over the threshold of your door[br]into your foyer, your hallway,

0:00:56.899,0:00:58.478
whatever's on the other side,

0:00:58.502,0:01:01.715
and appreciate the quality of the light.

0:01:02.254,0:01:07.360
The light is shining[br]down on Cookie Monster.

0:01:08.837,0:01:13.472
Cookie Monster is waving at you[br]from his perch on top of a tan horse.

0:01:13.496,0:01:15.280
It's a talking horse.

0:01:15.304,0:01:20.120
You can practically feel[br]his blue fur tickling your nose.

0:01:20.144,0:01:24.090
You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie[br]that he's about to shovel into his mouth.

0:01:24.114,0:01:25.716
Walk past him.

0:01:25.740,0:01:27.651
Walk past him into your living room.

0:01:28.238,0:01:31.317
In your living room,[br]in full imaginative broadband,

0:01:31.341,0:01:33.619
picture Britney Spears.

0:01:34.373,0:01:39.472
She is scantily clad, she's dancing[br]on your coffee table,

0:01:39.496,0:01:41.785
and she's singing[br]"Hit Me Baby One More Time."

0:01:42.361,0:01:44.707
And then, follow me into your kitchen.

0:01:45.091,0:01:49.361
In your kitchen, the floor has been[br]paved over with a yellow brick road,

0:01:49.385,0:01:54.768
and out of your oven are coming[br]towards you Dorothy, the Tin Man,

0:01:54.792,0:01:57.713
the Scarecrow and the Lion[br]from "The Wizard of Oz,"

0:01:57.737,0:01:59.976
hand-in-hand, skipping[br]straight towards you.

0:02:00.000,0:02:02.546
Okay. Open your eyes.

0:02:05.086,0:02:08.189
I want to tell you[br]about a very bizarre contest

0:02:08.213,0:02:10.851
that is held every spring[br]in New York City.

0:02:11.475,0:02:14.498
It's called the United States[br]Memory Championship.

0:02:14.522,0:02:17.236
And I had gone to cover[br]this contest a few years back

0:02:17.260,0:02:19.125
as a science journalist,

0:02:19.149,0:02:24.597
expecting, I guess, that this was going[br]to be like the Superbowl of savants.

0:02:25.388,0:02:28.632
This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies,

0:02:28.656,0:02:32.121
widely varying in both age[br]and hygienic upkeep.

0:02:32.869,0:02:35.126
(Laughter)

0:02:35.999,0:02:39.335
They were memorizing[br]hundreds of random numbers,

0:02:39.359,0:02:40.747
looking at them just once.

0:02:40.771,0:02:45.334
They were memorizing the names of dozens[br]and dozens and dozens of strangers.

0:02:45.969,0:02:48.818
They were memorizing[br]entire poems in just a few minutes.

0:02:49.151,0:02:51.380
They were competing[br]to see who could memorize

0:02:51.404,0:02:54.460
the order of a shuffled pack[br]of playing cards the fastest.

0:02:54.889,0:02:56.849
I was like, this is unbelievable.

0:02:56.873,0:02:59.825
These people must be freaks of nature.

0:03:00.404,0:03:03.294
And I started talking[br]to a few of the competitors.

0:03:03.318,0:03:06.658
This is a guy called Ed Cook,[br]who had come over from England,

0:03:06.682,0:03:08.896
where he had one[br]of the best-trained memories.

0:03:08.920,0:03:12.500
And I said to him,[br]"Ed, when did you realize

0:03:12.524,0:03:14.182
that you were a savant?"

0:03:14.810,0:03:17.296
And Ed was like, "I'm not a savant.

0:03:17.320,0:03:19.628
In fact, I have just an average memory.

0:03:19.652,0:03:22.661
Everybody who competes[br]in this contest will tell you

0:03:22.685,0:03:24.805
that they have just an average memory.

0:03:24.829,0:03:31.698
We've all trained ourselves to perform[br]these utterly miraculous feats of memory

0:03:31.722,0:03:33.689
using a set of ancient techniques,

0:03:33.713,0:03:36.511
techniques invented[br]2,500 years ago in Greece,

0:03:36.535,0:03:41.503
the same techniques that Cicero[br]had used to memorize his speeches,

0:03:41.527,0:03:45.300
that medieval scholars had used[br]to memorize entire books."

0:03:46.070,0:03:49.413
And I said, "Whoa. How come[br]I never heard of this before?"

0:03:50.205,0:03:52.641
And we were standing[br]outside the competition hall,

0:03:52.665,0:03:59.031
and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant,[br]but somewhat eccentric English guy,

0:03:59.055,0:04:03.522
says to me, "Josh, you're[br]an American journalist.

0:04:03.546,0:04:05.482
Do you know Britney Spears?"

0:04:06.023,0:04:10.112
I'm like, "What? No. Why?"

0:04:10.763,0:04:13.193
"Because I really want[br]to teach Britney Spears

0:04:13.217,0:04:16.097
how to memorize the order[br]of a shuffled pack of playing cards

0:04:16.121,0:04:17.907
on U.S. national television.

0:04:17.931,0:04:21.010
It will prove to the world[br]that anybody can do this."

0:04:21.034,0:04:24.410
(Laughter)

0:04:26.263,0:04:29.716
I was like, "Well, I'm not Britney Spears,

0:04:29.740,0:04:31.709
but maybe you could teach me.

0:04:32.455,0:04:34.716
I mean, you've got to start[br]somewhere, right?"

0:04:34.740,0:04:38.351
And that was the beginning[br]of a very strange journey for me.

0:04:38.745,0:04:41.689
I ended up spending[br]the better part of the next year

0:04:41.713,0:04:43.507
not only training my memory,

0:04:43.531,0:04:45.467
but also investigating it,

0:04:45.491,0:04:47.475
trying to understand how it works,

0:04:47.499,0:04:49.478
why it sometimes doesn't work,

0:04:49.502,0:04:52.152
and what its potential might be.

0:04:52.176,0:04:54.369
And I met a host[br]of really interesting people.

0:04:54.393,0:04:56.263
This is a guy called E.P.

0:04:56.287,0:04:58.559
He's an amnesic who had, very possibly,

0:04:58.583,0:05:01.268
the worst memory in the world.

0:05:01.292,0:05:03.061
His memory was so bad,

0:05:03.085,0:05:06.006
that he didn't even remember[br]he had a memory problem,

0:05:06.030,0:05:07.564
which is amazing.

0:05:07.588,0:05:09.542
And he was this incredibly tragic figure,

0:05:09.566,0:05:15.078
but he was a window into the extent[br]to which our memories make us who we are.

0:05:16.046,0:05:18.673
At the other end[br]of the spectrum, I met this guy.

0:05:18.697,0:05:22.324
This is Kim Peek, he was the basis[br]for Dustin Hoffman's character

0:05:22.348,0:05:23.625
in the movie "Rain Man."

0:05:24.022,0:05:28.188
We spent an afternoon together[br]in the Salt Lake City Public Library

0:05:28.212,0:05:30.343
memorizing phone books,

0:05:30.367,0:05:32.946
which was scintillating.

0:05:32.970,0:05:35.703
(Laughter)

0:05:35.727,0:05:39.885
And I went back and I read[br]a whole host of memory treatises,

0:05:39.909,0:05:44.297
treatises written 2,000-plus[br]years ago in Latin,

0:05:44.321,0:05:46.995
in antiquity, and then later,[br]in the Middle Ages.

0:05:47.456,0:05:50.170
And I learned a whole bunch[br]of really interesting stuff.

0:05:50.670,0:05:53.216
One of the really interesting[br]things that I learned

0:05:53.240,0:05:55.490
is that once upon a time,

0:05:55.514,0:06:01.782
this idea of having a trained,[br]disciplined, cultivated memory

0:06:01.806,0:06:06.401
was not nearly so alien[br]as it would seem to us to be today.

0:06:06.782,0:06:11.047
Once upon a time,[br]people invested in their memories,

0:06:11.071,0:06:15.295
in laboriously furnishing their minds.

0:06:16.716,0:06:18.195
Over the last few millenia,

0:06:18.219,0:06:20.941
we've invented a series of technologies --

0:06:20.965,0:06:23.351
from the alphabet, to the scroll,

0:06:23.375,0:06:25.670
to the codex, the printing[br]press, photography,

0:06:25.694,0:06:27.961
the computer, the smartphone --

0:06:27.985,0:06:30.516
that have made it progressively[br]easier and easier

0:06:30.540,0:06:33.346
for us to externalize our memories,

0:06:33.370,0:06:38.690
for us to essentially outsource[br]this fundamental human capacity.

0:06:39.737,0:06:42.992
These technologies have made[br]our modern world possible,

0:06:43.016,0:06:44.453
but they've also changed us.

0:06:45.047,0:06:46.734
They've changed us culturally,

0:06:46.758,0:06:49.892
and I would argue that they've[br]changed us cognitively.

0:06:49.916,0:06:52.622
Having little need to remember anymore,

0:06:52.646,0:06:54.861
it sometimes seems[br]like we've forgotten how.

0:06:55.734,0:06:58.289
One of the last places on Earth[br]where you still find

0:06:58.313,0:07:03.706
people passionate about this idea of[br]a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory,

0:07:03.730,0:07:06.353
is at this totally singular[br]memory contest.

0:07:06.377,0:07:08.021
It's actually not that singular,

0:07:08.045,0:07:10.066
there are contests held[br]all over the world.

0:07:10.090,0:07:13.891
And I was fascinated,[br]I wanted to know how do these guys do it.

0:07:15.004,0:07:19.035
A few years back a group of researchers[br]at University College London

0:07:19.059,0:07:21.785
brought a bunch of memory[br]champions into the lab.

0:07:21.809,0:07:23.065
They wanted to know:

0:07:23.089,0:07:26.024
Do these guys have brains[br]that are somehow structurally,

0:07:26.048,0:07:28.746
anatomically different[br]from the rest of ours?

0:07:29.246,0:07:31.166
The answer was no.

0:07:32.561,0:07:34.982
Are they smarter than the rest of us?

0:07:35.307,0:07:39.045
They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests,[br]and the answer was: not really.

0:07:39.069,0:07:42.291
There was, however, one really[br]interesting and telling difference

0:07:42.315,0:07:44.399
between the brains of the memory champions

0:07:44.423,0:07:47.185
and the control subjects[br]that they were comparing them to.

0:07:47.682,0:07:50.675
When they put these guys[br]in an fMRI machine,

0:07:50.699,0:07:54.036
scanned their brains[br]while they were memorizing numbers

0:07:54.060,0:07:56.693
and people's faces[br]and pictures of snowflakes,

0:07:56.717,0:08:01.573
they found that the memory champions were[br]lighting up different parts of the brain

0:08:01.597,0:08:02.882
than everyone else.

0:08:03.288,0:08:06.549
Of note, they were using,[br]or they seemed to be using,

0:08:06.573,0:08:10.673
a part of the brain that's involved[br]in spatial memory and navigation.

0:08:11.530,0:08:12.689
Why?

0:08:12.713,0:08:16.368
And is there something[br]that the rest of us can learn from this?

0:08:17.847,0:08:24.546
The sport of competitive memorizing[br]is driven by a kind of arms race where,

0:08:24.570,0:08:29.629
every year, somebody comes up with a new[br]way to remember more stuff more quickly,

0:08:29.653,0:08:32.105
and then the rest of the field[br]has to play catch-up.

0:08:32.129,0:08:33.748
This is my friend Ben Pridmore,

0:08:33.772,0:08:35.914
three-time world memory champion.

0:08:35.938,0:08:41.096
On his desk in front of him[br]are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards

0:08:41.120,0:08:44.184
that he is about to try[br]to memorize in one hour,

0:08:44.208,0:08:48.263
using a technique that he invented[br]and he alone has mastered.

0:08:48.287,0:08:51.008
He used a similar technique

0:08:51.032,0:08:57.830
to memorize the precise order[br]of 4,140 random binary digits

0:08:57.854,0:08:59.905
in half an hour.

0:08:59.929,0:09:01.453
(Laughter)

0:09:01.477,0:09:02.692
Yeah.

0:09:03.573,0:09:06.399
And while there are a whole host of ways

0:09:06.423,0:09:10.434
of remembering stuff[br]in these competitions,

0:09:10.458,0:09:13.116
everything, all of the techniques[br]that are being used,

0:09:13.140,0:09:15.476
ultimately come down to a concept

0:09:15.500,0:09:18.833
that psychologists refer to[br]as "elaborative encoding."

0:09:19.317,0:09:21.805
And it's well-illustrated[br]by a nifty paradox

0:09:21.829,0:09:25.413
known as the Baker/baker paradox,[br]which goes like this:

0:09:25.437,0:09:28.309
If I tell two people[br]to remember the same word,

0:09:28.333,0:09:29.876
if I say to you,

0:09:29.900,0:09:33.503
"Remember that[br]there is a guy named Baker."

0:09:33.527,0:09:35.009
That's his name.

0:09:35.033,0:09:39.797
And I say to you, "Remember[br]that there is a guy who is a baker."

0:09:39.821,0:09:40.986
Okay?

0:09:41.454,0:09:44.636
And I come back to you[br]at some point later on,

0:09:44.660,0:09:48.355
and I say, "Do you remember that word[br]that I told you a while back?

0:09:48.379,0:09:50.251
Do you remember what it was?"

0:09:50.275,0:09:53.518
The person who was told his name is Baker

0:09:53.542,0:09:56.603
is less likely to remember the same word

0:09:56.627,0:09:59.905
than the person was told[br]his job is a baker.

0:10:00.238,0:10:03.325
Same word, different amount[br]of remembering; that's weird.

0:10:03.349,0:10:04.992
What's going on here?

0:10:05.016,0:10:10.010
Well, the name Baker[br]doesn't actually mean anything to you.

0:10:10.034,0:10:14.247
It is entirely untethered[br]from all of the other memories

0:10:14.271,0:10:15.762
floating around in your skull.

0:10:15.786,0:10:18.940
But the common noun "baker" --[br]we know bakers.

0:10:19.298,0:10:21.099
Bakers wear funny white hats.

0:10:21.123,0:10:22.726
Bakers have flour on their hands.

0:10:22.750,0:10:25.036
Bakers smell good[br]when they come home from work.

0:10:25.350,0:10:27.065
Maybe we even know a baker.

0:10:27.089,0:10:28.818
And when we first hear that word,

0:10:28.842,0:10:31.358
we start putting these[br]associational hooks into it,

0:10:31.382,0:10:34.897
that make it easier to fish it[br]back out at some later date.

0:10:35.841,0:10:40.328
The entire art of what is going on[br]in these memory contests,

0:10:40.352,0:10:44.164
and the entire art of remembering[br]stuff better in everyday life,

0:10:44.188,0:10:47.949
is figuring out ways[br]to transform capital B Bakers

0:10:47.973,0:10:49.838
into lower-case B bakers --

0:10:49.862,0:10:53.150
to take information[br]that is lacking in context,

0:10:53.174,0:10:55.230
in significance, in meaning,

0:10:55.254,0:10:56.780
and transform it in some way,

0:10:56.804,0:11:01.002
so that it becomes meaningful[br]in the light of all the other things

0:11:01.026,0:11:02.985
that you have in your mind.

0:11:04.620,0:11:07.863
One of the more elaborate[br]techniques for doing this

0:11:07.887,0:11:11.088
dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.

0:11:11.580,0:11:13.580
It came to be known as the memory palace.

0:11:13.968,0:11:16.179
The story behind its creation[br]goes like this:

0:11:17.427,0:11:21.834
There was a poet called Simonides,[br]who was attending a banquet.

0:11:21.858,0:11:23.922
He was actually the hired entertainment,

0:11:23.946,0:11:27.042
because back then, if you wanted[br]to throw a really slamming party,

0:11:27.066,0:11:29.674
you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.

0:11:30.237,0:11:35.672
And he stands up, delivers his poem[br]from memory, walks out the door,

0:11:35.696,0:11:37.800
and at the moment he does,

0:11:37.824,0:11:39.497
the banquet hall collapses.

0:11:40.895,0:11:42.809
Kills everybody inside.

0:11:43.753,0:11:45.675
It doesn't just kill everybody,

0:11:45.699,0:11:48.681
it mangles the bodies[br]beyond all recognition.

0:11:49.793,0:11:52.142
Nobody can say who was inside,

0:11:52.166,0:11:54.730
nobody can say where they were sitting.

0:11:54.754,0:11:56.969
The bodies can't be properly buried.

0:11:56.993,0:12:00.256
It's one tragedy compounding another.

0:12:01.613,0:12:03.516
Simonides, standing outside,

0:12:03.540,0:12:05.647
the sole survivor amid the wreckage,

0:12:05.671,0:12:10.064
closes his eyes and has this realization,

0:12:10.088,0:12:12.029
which is that in his mind's eye,

0:12:12.053,0:12:16.744
he can see where each of the guests[br]at the banquet had been sitting.

0:12:17.450,0:12:19.562
And he takes the relatives by the hand,

0:12:19.586,0:12:22.374
and guides them each[br]to their loved ones amid the wreckage.

0:12:23.998,0:12:26.996
What Simonides figured out at that moment,

0:12:27.020,0:12:30.219
is something that I think[br]we all kind of intuitively know,

0:12:30.243,0:12:35.370
which is that, as bad as we are[br]at remembering names and phone numbers,

0:12:35.394,0:12:38.393
and word-for-word instructions[br]from our colleagues,

0:12:38.417,0:12:42.780
we have really exceptional[br]visual and spatial memories.

0:12:43.860,0:12:47.583
If I asked you to recount[br]the first 10 words of the story

0:12:47.607,0:12:50.209
that I just told you about Simonides,

0:12:50.233,0:12:52.803
chances are you would have[br]a tough time with it.

0:12:52.827,0:12:57.246
But, I would wager[br]that if I asked you to recall

0:12:57.270,0:13:01.967
who is sitting on top[br]of a talking tan horse

0:13:01.991,0:13:04.007
in your foyer right now,

0:13:04.031,0:13:05.546
you would be able to see that.

0:13:06.498,0:13:08.674
The idea behind the memory palace

0:13:08.698,0:13:13.261
is to create this imagined edifice[br]in your mind's eye,

0:13:13.285,0:13:17.348
and populate it with images[br]of the things that you want to remember --

0:13:17.372,0:13:20.617
the crazier, weirder, more bizarre,

0:13:20.641,0:13:24.488
funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is,

0:13:24.512,0:13:27.155
the more unforgettable it's likely to be.

0:13:27.179,0:13:29.925
This is advice that goes[br]back 2,000-plus years

0:13:29.949,0:13:32.124
to the earliest Latin memory treatises.

0:13:32.506,0:13:33.727
So how does this work?

0:13:34.473,0:13:41.256
Let's say that you've been invited[br]to TED center stage to give a speech,

0:13:41.280,0:13:43.918
and you want to do it from memory,

0:13:43.942,0:13:48.526
and you want to do it the way[br]that Cicero would have done it,

0:13:48.550,0:13:52.065
if he had been invited[br]to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.

0:13:52.462,0:13:53.660
(Laughter)

0:13:53.684,0:13:55.455
What you might do

0:13:55.479,0:14:00.009
is picture yourself[br]at the front door of your house.

0:14:01.084,0:14:06.309
And you'd come up with some sort[br]of crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image,

0:14:06.333,0:14:09.101
to remind you that the first thing[br]you want to talk about

0:14:09.125,0:14:11.383
is this totally bizarre contest.

0:14:11.407,0:14:12.541
(Laughter)

0:14:12.565,0:14:14.530
And then you'd go inside your house,

0:14:14.554,0:14:19.269
and you would see an image[br]of Cookie Monster on top of Mister Ed.

0:14:19.293,0:14:20.538
And that would remind you

0:14:20.562,0:14:23.439
that you would want to then[br]introduce your friend Ed Cook.

0:14:23.933,0:14:26.376
And then you'd see[br]an image of Britney Spears

0:14:26.400,0:14:29.188
to remind you of this funny[br]anecdote you want to tell.

0:14:29.212,0:14:30.717
And you'd go into your kitchen,

0:14:30.741,0:14:33.073
and the fourth topic[br]you were going to talk about

0:14:33.097,0:14:35.643
was this strange journey[br]that you went on for a year,

0:14:35.667,0:14:38.976
and you'd have some friends[br]to help you remember that.

0:14:41.048,0:14:44.826
This is how Roman orators[br]memorized their speeches --

0:14:44.850,0:14:48.147
not word-for-word, which is just[br]going to screw you up,

0:14:48.171,0:14:50.234
but topic-for-topic.

0:14:50.877,0:14:53.162
In fact, the phrase "topic sentence" --

0:14:54.733,0:14:57.178
that comes from the Greek word "topos,"

0:14:57.202,0:14:58.559
which means "place."

0:14:58.583,0:15:02.770
That's a vestige of when people used[br]to think about oratory and rhetoric

0:15:02.794,0:15:04.684
in these sorts of spatial terms.

0:15:04.708,0:15:07.014
The phrase "in the first place,"

0:15:07.038,0:15:09.739
that's like "in the first place[br]of your memory palace."

0:15:10.611,0:15:12.333
I thought this was just fascinating,

0:15:12.357,0:15:13.890
and I got really into it.

0:15:13.914,0:15:16.672
And I went to a few more[br]of these memory contests,

0:15:16.696,0:15:19.411
and I had this notion[br]that I might write something longer

0:15:19.435,0:15:22.292
about this subculture[br]of competitive memorizers.

0:15:22.760,0:15:24.030
But there was a problem.

0:15:24.577,0:15:27.625
The problem was that a memory contest

0:15:27.649,0:15:30.881
is a pathologically boring event.

0:15:30.905,0:15:34.064
(Laughter)

0:15:34.088,0:15:38.057
Truly, it is like a bunch of people[br]sitting around taking the SATs --

0:15:38.633,0:15:40.340
I mean, the most dramatic it gets

0:15:40.364,0:15:42.673
is when somebody[br]starts massaging their temples.

0:15:42.697,0:15:45.244
And I'm a journalist,[br]I need something to write about.

0:15:45.268,0:15:48.696
I know that there's incredible stuff[br]happening in these people's minds,

0:15:48.720,0:15:50.465
but I don't have access to it.

0:15:50.489,0:15:53.640
And I realized, if I was going[br]to tell this story,

0:15:53.664,0:15:55.822
I needed to walk[br]in their shoes a little bit.

0:15:56.482,0:15:59.573
And so I started trying[br]to spend 15 or 20 minutes

0:15:59.597,0:16:02.335
every morning, before I sat[br]down with my New York Times,

0:16:02.359,0:16:04.509
just trying to remember something.

0:16:04.929,0:16:06.530
Maybe it was a poem,

0:16:06.554,0:16:10.262
maybe it was names from an old yearbook[br]that I bought at a flea market.

0:16:11.244,0:16:16.041
And I found that this was shockingly fun.

0:16:16.739,0:16:18.319
I never would have expected that.

0:16:18.652,0:16:21.875
It was fun because this is actually[br]not about training your memory.

0:16:21.899,0:16:24.895
What you're doing, is you're trying[br]to get better and better

0:16:24.919,0:16:26.951
at creating, at dreaming up,

0:16:26.975,0:16:30.361
these utterly ludicrous,[br]raunchy, hilarious,

0:16:30.385,0:16:33.462
and hopefully unforgettable[br]images in your mind's eye.

0:16:33.994,0:16:35.553
And I got pretty into it.

0:16:35.577,0:16:41.514
This is me wearing my standard[br]competitive memorizer's training kit.

0:16:41.538,0:16:42.751
(Laughter)

0:16:42.775,0:16:44.176
It's a pair of earmuffs

0:16:44.200,0:16:48.152
and a set of safety goggles[br]that have been masked over

0:16:48.176,0:16:50.258
except for two small pinholes,

0:16:50.282,0:16:55.470
because distraction is the competitive[br]memorizer's greatest enemy.

0:16:56.684,0:16:59.649
I ended up coming back[br]to that same contest

0:16:59.673,0:17:01.514
that I had covered a year earlier,

0:17:01.538,0:17:03.664
and I had this notion[br]that I might enter it,

0:17:03.688,0:17:06.989
sort of as an experiment[br]in participatory journalism.

0:17:07.537,0:17:10.655
It'd make, I thought, maybe[br]a nice epilogue to all my research.

0:17:11.105,0:17:14.494
Problem was, the experiment went haywire.

0:17:15.248,0:17:16.423
I won the contest --

0:17:16.447,0:17:17.551
(Laughter)

0:17:17.575,0:17:20.447
which really wasn't supposed to happen.

0:17:20.471,0:17:26.707
(Applause)

0:17:26.731,0:17:31.239
Now, it is nice to be able[br]to memorize speeches

0:17:31.263,0:17:35.362
and phone numbers and shopping lists,

0:17:35.386,0:17:37.465
but it's actually kind[br]of beside the point.

0:17:37.902,0:17:39.073
These are just tricks.

0:17:39.746,0:17:44.492
They work because they're based[br]on some pretty basic principles

0:17:44.516,0:17:46.268
about how our brains work.

0:17:46.803,0:17:50.220
And you don't have to be[br]building memory palaces

0:17:50.244,0:17:52.482
or memorizing packs of playing cards

0:17:52.506,0:17:56.883
to benefit from a little bit of insight[br]about how your mind works.

0:17:56.907,0:17:59.098
We often talk about people[br]with great memories

0:17:59.122,0:18:01.271
as though it were some sort[br]of an innate gift,

0:18:01.295,0:18:02.574
but that is not the case.

0:18:03.605,0:18:05.581
Great memories are learned.

0:18:06.835,0:18:10.103
At the most basic level,[br]we remember when we pay attention.

0:18:10.761,0:18:13.435
We remember when we are deeply engaged.

0:18:13.459,0:18:17.601
We remember when we are able to take[br]a piece of information and experience,

0:18:17.625,0:18:19.707
and figure out why it is meaningful to us,

0:18:19.731,0:18:22.145
why it is significant, why it's colorful,

0:18:22.169,0:18:26.133
when we're able to transform it[br]in some way that makes sense

0:18:26.157,0:18:29.497
in the light of all of the other[br]things floating around in our minds,

0:18:29.521,0:18:33.298
when we're able to transform[br]Bakers into bakers.

0:18:35.116,0:18:37.259
The memory palace,[br]these memory techniques --

0:18:37.283,0:18:38.695
they're just shortcuts.

0:18:38.719,0:18:41.279
In fact, they're not[br]even really shortcuts.

0:18:41.684,0:18:44.199
They work because they make you work.

0:18:45.017,0:18:48.259
They force a kind of depth of processing,

0:18:48.283,0:18:49.780
a kind of mindfulness,

0:18:49.804,0:18:53.684
that most of us don't normally[br]walk around exercising.

0:18:54.494,0:18:56.295
But there actually are no shortcuts.

0:18:57.248,0:18:59.280
This is how stuff is made memorable.

0:19:00.105,0:19:03.731
And I think if there's one thing[br]that I want to leave you with,

0:19:03.755,0:19:10.283
it's what E.P., the amnesic who couldn't[br]even remember he had a memory problem,

0:19:10.307,0:19:11.504
left me with,

0:19:11.528,0:19:18.044
which is the notion that our lives[br]are the sum of our memories.

0:19:18.863,0:19:24.829
How much are we willing to lose

0:19:24.853,0:19:28.502
from our already short lives,

0:19:28.526,0:19:34.098
by losing ourselves[br]in our Blackberries, our iPhones,

0:19:34.122,0:19:38.984
by not paying attention[br]to the human being across from us

0:19:39.008,0:19:40.559
who is talking with us,

0:19:40.583,0:19:45.265
by being so lazy that we're not[br]willing to process deeply?

0:19:47.463,0:19:49.183
I learned firsthand

0:19:49.207,0:19:52.676
that there are incredible[br]memory capacities

0:19:52.700,0:19:54.716
latent in all of us.

0:19:55.359,0:19:58.182
But if you want to live a memorable life,

0:19:58.206,0:20:00.515
you have to be the kind of person

0:20:00.539,0:20:02.912
who remembers to remember.

0:20:02.936,0:20:04.088
Thank you.

0:20:04.112,0:20:07.796
(Applause)