Tag: memory

REVIEW: MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF REMEMBERING EVERYTHING

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering EverythingMoonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Guy wants to write a book about Memory championships and the field of competitive memorising; becomes USA memory champion. Guy is Joshua Foer, brother of Jonathan Safran Foer of Eating Animals and Everything Is Illuminated fame.

I’m happy to say that with this book, Joshua did what few other people have managed to do: he escaped his brother’s shadow. I recognise him now as a separate author of his own worth; even though they obviously have a lot of things in common which subtly influence their writing, most obviously their Jewish-American upbringing, the fact that he’s Jonathan’s brother comes as more of an afterthought.

To get to the gist: if Eating Animals was the book that turned me into a vegetarian, or if you’re more willing to discuss the matter, a selective omnivore, Moonwalking with Einstein (I couldn’t for the life of me remember this book’s title, until it just clicked, and the fact that it clicked, clicked) made me realise how memory is an art form that can be trained, not really a talent, unless you’re one of the (very) few savants that exist out there whose existence remains quite a mystery. This is valuable information that contradicts most commonly held beliefs about what memory is and how it works.

If I had a cent for each time someone has told that their memory just isn’t good enough as an excuse for not remembering my name, an appointment, a date, a birthday, something—the fact that Google is never farther than a few movements away certainly doesn’t help—I’d probably have enough money to treat myself to a small beer. They, we, just aren’t interested. Even really smart people can’t seem to figure out how their minds work best, and school systems the world over are forcing deadly disingenuous rote memorisation down child and adolescent throats. It’s amazing how we have managed to make the entire educational system a failure the way we have, given the fact that children and adolescents have a much more impressionable memory than adults, which could be used much more intuitively. Just think of all the random things—not taught at school—that you remember from your early years. Such untapped potential!

Talking about untapped potential, what seriously annoyed me while reading the book were its protagonists, namely various memory champions that have made their life’s point memorising strings of random numbers and cards. I know I might be completely missing the point here, but what I would do with such a skill as having a wealth of memory palaces in my mental possession and the ability to use them would be something more, I don’t know—useful? Interesting? Unless they’ve already memorised all that and just decided to use their skill to get some money and recognition. Perhaps. Anyway, it does look like the Art of Memory has moved a long way from way back when it was utilised for reciting speeches, epic poems and the like by heart. Let’s just be happy that in this world of memory externalisation it has been preserved at all.

If you enjoyed this book, or think you could, I would recommend the segment on memory from Derren Brown’s Tricks of the Mind.

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REVIEW: CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD BOOK 2

Conversations with God, An Uncommon Dialogue: Living in the World with Honesty, Courage, and LoveConversations with God, An Uncommon Dialogue: Living in the World with Honesty, Courage, and Love by Neale Donald Walsch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t have much more to say about the 2nd book of Conversations with God than what I did in my review of the 1st one, at least not as far as the whole concept goes. It was on the same wavelength as the first one, with an emphasis on world politics, social topics and economics, suggesting for example that a good way to end income inequality would be to have all money-related data public and visible—“nothing breeds fairness faster than visibility”.

An analysis I particularly enjoyed was on the subject of education and how it should teach children how to think, not “memorise” facts (right now I’m reading another book, which is on memory, and that one says that it’s not even proper memorising we’re doing at school, which makes what most children and youngsters do there even more useless. But I digress).

On the other hand, I was rather surprised to read that God thinks we should have a world government as a solution for stopping wars and competition for resources. The idea was that once upon a time, the precursors of the United States, before they were unified that is, were competing between themselves and could not co-operate, however, their unification proved that it was possible to have a working federation which would go beyond nationalism, which is really tribalism on a larger scale. Hey, it was a matter of fact of the mid-’90s zeigeist that the US had to lead the march of progress of the civilised world, no doubt about it. God was speaking through the writer, with all cultural filters in place, don’t forget that.

I do wonder what God would have to tell Neale Donald Walsch about the current European crisis and how much of a success the EU has or hasn’t been. In a way, it’s been more successful than the US, since it’s covered a lot of ground towards federatio in a short period of time, considering it had both world wars fought on its soil. Today, no matter the shape of current events, it still is possible to envision a world where the benefits of having a completely united Europe would outweigh the downsides. I should know: the EU has granted me with thousands of euros on its intention to make me feel stronger about my European identity than my national one(s), and while it hasn’t completely succeeded, I must admit I can see where they’re coming from.

As it is now, however, twenty years after this book was written, a world government, or a more integrated European Union, would not be a good idea. I said before that I wondered what God’s comment would be. Allow me to rephrase: having read the book, I can easily imagine what God would have to say about all this, as well as about our freedom of actions and that we have everything we need on this planet to make it work, we’re just choosing not to. Huh, maybe I should go write my own version of this book. No; God would say I’m already doing so! I’m exiting this loop before it’s too late.

Here are some indicative quotes I’m copying from my Kindle’s clippings file, something I kind of regret I didn’t do for my review of the first book. These quotes will end up being quite a bit lengthier than the review itself, but I’d like to share them with you anyway.

 

“…It may be normal, but it is not natural. “Normal” means something usually done. “Natural” is how you are when you’re not trying to be “normal”! Natural and normal are not the same thing. In any given moment you can do what you normally do, or you can do what comes naturally. I tell you this: Nothing is more natural than love. If you act lovingly, you will be acting naturally. If you react fearfully, resentfully, angrily, you may be acting normally, but you will never be acting naturally.”

“Practice saying this ten times each day: I LOVE SEX Practice saying this ten times: I LOVE MONEY Now, you want a really tough one? Try saying this ten times: I LOVE ME! Here are some other things you are not supposed to love. Practice loving them: POWER GLORY FAME SUCCESS WINNING Want some more? Try these. You should really feel guilty if you love these: THE ADULATION OF OTHERS BEING BETTER HAVING MORE KNOWING HOW KNOWING WHY.”

“As Americans saw how good it was possible to have it, they sought to have it even better. Yet there was only one way to have more and more and more. Someone else had to have less and less and less.”

“Not just in matters of sexuality, but in all of life, never, ever, ever, fail to do something simply because it might violate someone else’s standards of propriety. If I had one bumper sticker on my car, it would read: VIOLATE PROPRIETY I would certainly put such a sign in every bedroom.”

“Appropriate” behavior is not always the behavior that’s in what you call your “best interests.” It is rarely the behavior that brings you the most joy.”

“Betrayal of yourself in order not to betray another is Betrayal nonetheless. It is the Highest Betrayal.”

“It is only through the exercise of the greatest freedom that the greatest growth is achieved— or even possible. If all you are doing is following someone else’s rules, then you have not grown, you have obeyed. Contrary to your constructions, obedience is not what I want from you. Obedience is not growth, and growth is what I desire.”

“It’s time to make friends with your mind again. Be a companion to it—it’s felt so alone. Be a nourisher of it—it’s been so starved.”

“Programs calling for children to develop abilities and skills rather than memories are soundly ridiculed by those who imagine that they know what a child needs to learn. Yet what you have been teaching your children has led your world toward ignorance, not away from it.”

“- As I keep saying repeatedly here, taken a look at the world lately? – You keep bringing us back to that. You keep making us look at that. But all that isn’t our fault. We can’t be blamed for the way the rest of the world is.
– It is not a question of blame, it is a question of choice. And if you are not responsible for the choices humankind has been making, and keeps making, who is?
– Well, we can’t make ourselves responsible for all of it!
– I tell you this: Until you are willing to take responsibility for all of it, you cannot change any of it.”

“On your planet you have created a society in which little Johnnie has learned how to read before getting out of pre-school, but still hasn’t learned how to stop biting his brother. And Susie has perfected her multiplication tables, using flash cards and rote memory, in ever earlier and earlier grades, but has not learned that there is nothing shameful or embarrassing about her body.”

“Your first question, always, must be: What do I want here?—not: What does the other person want here?”

“Be a living, breathing example of the Highest Truth that resides within you. Speak humbly of yourself, lest someone mistake your Highest Truth for a boast. Speak softly, lest someone think you are merely calling for attention. Speak gently, that all might know of Love. Speak openly, lest anyone think you have something to hide. Speak candidly, so you cannot be mistaken. Speak often, so that your word may truly go forth. Speak respectfully, that no one be dishonored. Speak lovingly, that every syllable may heal. Speak of Me with every utterance. Make of your life a gift. Remember always, you are the gift! Be a gift to everyone who enters your life, and to everyone whose life you enter. Be careful not to enter another’s life if you cannot be a gift.”

“(You can always be a gift, because you always are the gift —yet sometimes you don’t let yourself know that.) When someone enters your life unexpectedly, look for the gift that person has come to receive from you.”

“Know that every thought I am sending you, you are receiving through the filter of your own experience of your own truth, of your own understandings, and of your own decisions, choices, and declarations about Who You Are and Who You Choose to Be. There’s no other way you can receive it. There’s no other way you should.”

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GROWING SICK OF THE ‘NET YET AGAIN: INCOMING MEDIA FAST

I’ve been disciplining my body these days more than I ever have. Namely, I’ve been following Reddit’s Starting Stretching, Bodyweight Fitness Training Routine for beginners and I finally restarted going for runs, aiming to relive the “glory days” of being able to run up to 10 kilometres, which in fact I managed to do exactly one year ago while I was in Sofia (post about me finally running 8k).

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going to the Alsos almost every day, rotating the bodyweight fitness (push-ups, pull-ups, handstands, L-sits etc) with the running. And it feels grrreat! Daphne has been helping a lot with cooking healthy and nutritious vegetarian meals with lots of protein, not that I’m shy of the stoves, but  I tend to cook the same three or four things, not experimenting unless in the mood, and with her in control we’ve been eating like vegetarian kings. It activates me and it’s bringing in some good skills to have. I don’t know if I would be doing it if I didn’t have all the free time I have now, but that’s beyond the point. Having a workout and exercise routine helps me bring some (illusion of) order to my disorganised life, and with some much appreciated visible results.

Nevertheless, what I haven’t been able to organise, discipline and harness at all– seriously, AT ALL — is my mind.

In June last year, apart from running 10k, I posted this little write-up I’m still proud of:

I’M SICK OF THE INTERNET – AREN’T YOU? GETTING THROUGH INTERNET ADDICTION

Trouble is, I didn’t go through with what I pledged I would do. As far as I can remember (which isn’t a lot, because, as typically happens when you regress to addictive behaviour, your memory-forming functions give way to the reptilian dopamine-releasing pleasure centres, quite conveniently, too, because you don’t really want to remember in shame the ego-shattering moments when you and your actions fail to hold up to your initial intention), ten days later I was again browsing the web, free as a bird — or, to be more precise, free as a bird enclosed in a cage made of invisible walls.

A few days ago, while I was running no less, the thought came to me: why don’t I try again with this whole less internet, less  media thing? I could use the extra time to think and create. I seriously miss creating…

The next 4 days I’m going to be in Loutra doing a media fast with Daphne: each day, we will be allowed to use the internet for just 30 minutes, and that’s just for e-mail, practicalities and Rights4Water. The rest of the time, anything with a screen will be off-limits. No movies, no games, no TV, no smartphones — I will switch mine to battery-saving “dumbphone mode”– no distractions from the interestnet. The only exception will be my Sansa Clip Zip I will be using for audiobooks, podcasts and music for when I’m doing exercise. The idea is to limit options, minimise distractions and allow for deeper thought and even boredom, which will force us to be creative instead of us automatically turning to the mind-numbing net for excitement and stimulation.

Let’s see how it goes.

CUBILONE’S DIMENSION TURNED SEVEN

seven_001

Obligatory Cubilone’s Dimension birthday post. Cubilone’s Dimension turned seven yesterday. Hurray.

Obligatory musing on whether the person who started this blog counts as the same person who’s writing now. According to one of the latest VSauce episodes, the answer is no. Especially since it’s been seven years since that fateful night in Mytilini, no less, and every single atom of my body is allegedly different from its counterpart back then.

Obligatory confusion at the direction, lack of content and ideas as of late, as well as semi-long write-up on personal identity crisis that is reflected in blog, too.

Obligatory follow-up comment and notice that it’s not the lack of ideas, there’s always been plenty of those, in fact it’s the incredible soul-crushing plentitude of ideas and the inability to differentiate, my inability to resist distraction and simply devote myself, whether it be to an idea, as aforementioned, or a cause, or even people. In other words, I don’t put the work in and call it flexibility. It’s my personally most beloved and most hated characteristic. But could it be any other way? It’s all a matter of perspective, after all. Some people call me scatter-brained, some call me versatile or… an interesting person. In the most basic philosophical level at least, they’re not seeing a different qb.

Obligatory comment on how self-referential this all is. How post-modern of me.

Sometimes I want to see this place burn, the same way I’ve been having this urge lately to delete all of my photos. At the very best, remove Cubimension from the net, perhaps start over, perhaps not, tuck it away in some hard disk or USB stick next to the old MP notebooks, only for my own eyes to see and heart to recordar (to recordar, to remember in Spanish—maybe also Latin, I have no idea—is to pass through the heart again. That is what I feel happens when I truly remember, especially when *bleep*. Unless it’s a false memory, then it’s the brain’s vile work). At the very worst, simply delete all, forget all. Leave it to the Wayback Archive and the often surprisingly robust memories of friends and readers what shall remain of the past, my past, Cubilone’s past. Are we the same person anyway?

Obligatory reminder to not take myself too seriously. It’s not good for PR. Everybody’s taking themselves too seriously and I’m different, aren’t I. Or if I’m not, I know I can be. A unique voice that could, in the sea of unique voices that in unison is showing intelligence but the only signs of intelligence it’s showing is self-consciousness, while forgetting it’s a liquid, instead acting as a collection of vaguely connected assortments of molecules occupying space. That’s what gases are, aren’t they? They work kind of like liquids, but they’re, heh, farts in the wind. Remember, keep it light. Light but flammable, if possible.

Review: Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past

Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past
Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past by Douwe Draaisma

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

“You’ll come away with hopefully more questions that you had at the beginning”. It says something along these lines on the back cover on “Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past”. I didn’t come away with more questions. In fact, I didn’t even get an answer for the title of the book! It’s structure and content is such that it doesn’t analyse the problems at hand in depth or in a way that led to some visible conclusion (I’m one of the people that accepts the conclusion of no conclusion quite alright. Imagine.) Instead, it’s little more than a collection of case studies. Interesting case studies, I have to give Mr. Draaisma that, but ones that do not come very close to trying to tackle the huge chapter of human life that is autobiographical memory. This book could be so much more. Instead, it’s just a text of well-organised and researched memory-related anecdotes that might be interesting by themselves but come across as superficial. A pity; memory, together with time, is one of my favourite topics.

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