Time: 4:29 pm
Weather: Snowy and cold
Music: Green Hornet - Kill Bill
Mood: Enlightened
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I would wager many of you have been anxiously awaiting my latest post with baited breath! But truthfully I know that to be a vain expectation. The return to Seoul searching was prompted by my most recent exposure to a game changing proposal: the only difference between a good memory and a bad one is effort and training. After finding Ed Cooke's AMA via Reddit I have yet again had my world turned upside down. Ed Cooke, a competitive memorize-r hailing from the U.K. has set out to teach language through the use of mnemonics and memes. And to top it all off it's completely free: Memrise. This then spurred on the desire to learn more about the "latent power" with which Ed claimed we all possessed.
And lo and behold there was a Ted talk covering this very topic: Ted Talk. Joshua Foer explores the art and I would go so far as to say the craft of memorizing. A scientific journalist by trade, Joshua set out to uncover the world of competitive memorizers and to reveal what made them tick. In a short 20 minute video he recounts his initial meeting with these apparent "savants" and his immersion into the world of memorizing. He not only covers techniques for unlocking this "latent potential" but also identifies the greatest handicap many of us face: that we first have a bad memory but more importantly we are biologically condemned to idly stand by and accept our apparent fate.
In a world where "new" is king and old is archaic and ill suited for the ever changing times, Joshua reveals the ancient techniques that great philosophers, poets and leaders of old utilized in order to sway audiences to tears or war through intricate and lengthy speeches. Though these methods are nearly 2,500 years old, their present value still holds true to our day and age. He challenges the Tedx audience to ask themselves (paraphrased) : 'can we live a meaningful and memorable life if we are unable to remember it?" This great craft of memorizing and its popular practice - he argues was lost due to the cognitive outsourcing of information and memories due to technological advances. However, the emotional dissonance between the significance of any given experience and our current ability to remember it with any great clarity or as much as 3-5 seconds will allow leaves us with a diluted and lukewarm existence. It is our memories, Joshua contends, that mold and shape us into who we are and ultimately guide us in the direction of who we will become. Have we then outsourced our identities and personal narrative to the vines, twitters, facebooks and instagrams of our present age? Would we be able to remember those epic nights and incredible trips, meaningful friends we shared without the aid of these services?
Let us desire to remember to remember with the same intensity, richness and integrity our minds are able to afford us and our experiences deserve.
