
About the book
In what he calls participatory journalism, Joshua Foer looks into people with exceptional memories, ends up at the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship and then spends a year training with coach Ed Cooke. Along the way he covers the science of how memories form, the low regard Western schooling has had for memorizing, and old techniques from Roman orators and the tannaim of Judea, alongside the Major System and PAO System used to memorize cards and numbers. All of them rest on the method of loci, the memory palace. Foer also describes Kim Peek, the model for Rain Man, and questions the claims of Daniel Tammet. He went on to win the 2006 USA Memory Championship.
Bill Gates called it the most impressive of the five books he finished on one summer vacation, and Jay Shetty said it sets out the methods memory champions rely on.
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This book has 4 recommendations
Bill Gates (CEO/Microsoft)
Of the five books I finished over vacation, the one that impressed me the most – and that is probably of broadest interest – is Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by science writer Joshua Foer. This is an absolutely phenomenal book that looks at memory and techniques for dramatically improving memory. Foer actually mastered these techniques, which led him to the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. His book gives fascinating insights into how the mind works.
Mikhail Dubov (Founder & CEO/Chattermill)
It's always hard to choose a favourite book, but if I had a gun to my head, I'd probably choose Moonwalking with Einstein in Non-Business (but still non-fiction) category. I like [this book] because of fantastic story-telling quality and insights relevant to what I do in business and in life more generally.
Dmitry Dragilev (Founder/JustReachOut & PR That Converts)
There’s a book Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer, amazing book about how memory works in general, really changed the way I kind of think about.
Joshua’s epic bestseller lays out the concepts that the memory pros use to remember everything.
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- Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (2 shared recommenders)
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (2 shared recommenders)
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2 shared recommenders)

