Joshua Foer Quotes

I highlight everything I find interesting, and then type out everything I've highlighted, and then print out everything I've typed, and reread these printed notes as often as possible.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

I never use notes, they interfere with me.

Always remember those things that tend to strengthen and improve your understanding. You cannot learn without attention, neither retain those lessons that you have once learnt without frequently reflecting upon and reviewing them in your mind; by this means, things long past will remain impressed upon your memory.

With all the lines I have to learn for TV scripts, I don't think I have any problems with forgetfulness - that's brain exercise enough for me.

Sometimes you just need words on a page to memorize.

My memory seems to be holding on quite well. There is no reason why it shouldn't if you keep training it.

Studies of social games, puzzle games, and brain-training games have shown they have little effect on the brain despite often being marketed as improving memory and reaction speeds.

In the camp, this meant committing my verse-many thousands of lines-to memory. To help me with this I improvised decimal counting beads and, in transit prisons, broke up matchsticks and used the fragments as tallies. As I approached the end of my sentences I grew more confident of my powers of memory, and began writing down and memorizing prose-dialogue at first, but then, bit by bit, whole densely written passages. My memory found room for them! It worked. But more and more of my time-in the end as much as one week every month-went into the regular repetition of all I had memorized.

To attain the rank of grand master of memory, you must be able to perform three seemingly superhuman feats. You have to memorize 1,000 digits in under an hour, the precise order of 10 shuffled decks of playing cards in the same amount of time, and one shuffled deck in less than two minutes. There are 36 grand masters of memory in the world.

The sport of competitive memorizing is driven by a kind of arms race where every year somebody comes up with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly, and then the rest of the field has to play catch-up.

No matter how thoroughly a person may have learned the Greek alphabet, he will never be in a condition to repeat it backwards without further training.

Playing 'Tetris' for 15 minutes is like meditation.

Your brain, like your tongue, is a muscle. Practicing thinking by yourself really helps develop your brain, which you need throughout your day. I like to practice my thinking in a darkened room, alone.

I have a little Nintendo DS, and I play these brain games that are supposed to stimulate your mind.

I can read a four-page scene once and have it memorized. It's a skill you learn in school: disposable cramming.

His nerve, his memory, and I can't remember the third thing.

Learning lines is on my mind until I do know them. I'll read the paper or paint the house to keep from starting to memorize. I've never found an easy way.

Repeating is harder than anything else.

I like to remember phone numbers because it keeps your brain active. If you don't use it, you lose it.

You need to pay attention to the little things as well as the big things.

I had a memory span about as long as the lines in a school play.

I write with my left hand even though I'm right-handed, I walk backwards in a very safe place - anything that engages your brain.

I have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory.

I do a mind game every day. I play chess, sudoku. I learn something different: a language, a few words of a different language.