This book was a unique hybrid of personal narrative and self-help book, in which Josh leads you through his personal experiences in the realm of extreme memory sports while simultaneously explaining the memory tricks he learned. I found it to be a unique account in the level of detail it provided into what are normally internal thought processes. Think of how fleeting an experience it is to actually piece together a memory, and yet within its moment, clearly defined.
While I was recalling this, I thought back to my own experience in reading Josh's personal account of his induction into the memory club, whose name escapes me now, in which he is required to down two pints and then recall an arbitrary list of facts that he had just learned. I remember thinking at the time that it was nearly impossible he would be able to recall the entire experience of learning the list, downing the beers and then trying to recall the list (even failing for the first time). In attempting to recount my feelings about this at the time, I remembered that I had been reading this book as an ebook on my phone, while sitting in bed.
OK, obviously nobody can recall in that level of detail, and the whole remembering of forgetting poses certain logical problems. Nonetheless it seems a realistic and useful account. The mental tricks are genuinely useful and worth applying. I'll see if I can use them to remember folks' names.
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