"Moonwalking with Einstein" Book Writeup
April 17, 2011
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Joshua Foer
ISBN: 9781594202292
What’s the point?
The book is about memory and memorization techniques, intertwined with a story about how
the author trained and competed in the US Memory Championship. The author discusses common
techniques used by ‘mental athletes’ that allow them to memorize the order of a deck of
cards in under a minute or whole pages of poetry or books.
How was it?
My last few books have been very technical, so it was good to enjoy something a little
lighter. The book has good pacing, as it alternates between first-hand accounts of the
memory competitions, studies of people with extraordinary memories and the basics of
neuropsychology.
The techniques discussed in the book are pretty cool, though even the author admits are not incredibly practical for everyday usage. I was able to use the ‘memory palace’ method to remember a list of 15 random objects and was able to recall them pretty easily several weeks later, so there may be some actually utility.
I found that the most interesting aspect of the book was Josh’s practice regiment and training; the discussion on deliberate practice was neat and echoes what others in the software field have said before.
Who should read it?
It is similar in style and subject matter to Freakonomics or Malcolm Gladwell’s books,
so if you like those then you will probably enjoy Moonwalking with Einstein as well.
If you have taken any intro-level psychology courses, you might already be familiar with
some of the material and experimental subjects, but I would still recommend it as light
reading.
Notes: I read this book on my Kindle, no issues.