How much do you remember?

Imagine you are given a shuffled pack of cards and asked to memorize them in the correct order (number & suit). You are allowed to look at them for as long as you want. Do you think you can EVER complete the task? If yes, how long do you think it would take you? Take a moment to allow the enormity of this task to sink in…a complete deck of 52 cards. It may surprise you to know that someone has done this in just 21 seconds. On two separate occasions!

Or imagine an experiment in which a person starts reciting digits to you, at the rate of one digit per second for one hundred seconds non-stop. You are then asked to repeat the hundred digits in the correct order? Do you think you would be able to do it? Again, this has also been done by someone.

There is annual event called the World Memory Championships where enthusiasts from around the world congregate and attempt to outdo each other in extreme feats of memory including but not limited to the ones described above. The tests including memorizing lists of random words, entire passages of prose, random numbers, names & faces and even symbols!!   You may feel that doing these kinds of things is very silly and a complete waste of time. I am not trying to convince you otherwise. Extreme memory feats such as these are just a hobby like any other game or sport. But regardless of your interests, you have to admit that the above feats are pretty damn impressive!!

The people who can do these things are not really special or gifted for the most part (a few are though). They are regular folks like you and me, who have simply trained their memories in the same way that athletes train their bodies. Now let’s jump away from memory for just a minute.

It’s good to be physically fit, but you don’t need to be a Michael Phelps. It’s good to have peace of mind, but you don’t need to be a spiritual guru. It’s good to earn enough money to be able to support yourself comfortably, but you don’t need to be on the Forbes billionaire list. In a similar manner, it’s good to have a well-trained memory, but you don’t have to be a Dominic O’Brian or a Ben Pidmore or a Simon Reinhard. Physical fitness, peace of mind, comfortable income level - These are all attributes which you can easily correlate with certain associated benefits. It’s just obvious knowledge right? Making a case for any of these would be very easy. It’s a little harder to sell “good memory”.

Technology has enabled us to live a lifestyle with much reduced levels of physical exertion. But we still play sports and exercise, partly because we enjoy doing so and partly also because we know that if we don’t, it will eventually catch up with us and hinder our health. In a similar sense, technology has enabled us to get by without exercising our memory much. But that does not mean we can get away with it. The ill effects may not be “obvious knowledge” today, but I believe in the generations to come they will, once the science of the neurochemistry behind learning, catches up.

Our entire life experience is stored in our memory. Every single day, every single moment, our brain is retrieving old memories and forming new ones. How can it possibly not be harmful to let it rot by not stretching it or pushing it or exercising it even a little bit? I say challenge your memory a little every day. Give it a little work out to keep it young and energetic. Try memorizing a poem or a piece of prose. You’d be amazed at your own results! We used to do this in school so why not now? Or try memorizing a few URLs everyday instead of using bookmarks. How about memorizing a few phone numbers for a change? Or maybe learning a new language! Do whatever suits your fancy, but be sure to keep those synaptic fibres firing and firing and firing!!!

p.s. My next post will be a demonstration of my own memory exploits :P