The journalist who trained his memory and won

Joshua Foer, a science journalist, went to report on the USA Memory Championship and met competitors who could memorise a shuffled deck of cards in minutes. They told him they had ordinary memories and that anyone could learn their methods.

He decided to try. Coached by the British memory competitor Ed Cooke, he practised for about a year and in 2006 won the US championship. Moonwalking with Einstein, published in 2011, tells that story alongside the history and science of memory.

The main technique is the memory palace: you imagine a familiar place, such as your home, and put vivid, strange images of the things you want to remember along a route through it. Walking the route later brings them back.

The book shows that memory improves with technique and deliberate practice, and that vivid, unusual, emotional images stick far better than plain facts. It also describes the "OK plateau": once a skill is good enough, people stop improving unless they practise at the edge of their ability and study their mistakes.

The honest limit, which Foer admits, is that memory athletes' tricks work best for lists, numbers and cards. They do not make you understand a subject or remember daily things automatically. Foer tells how, after one success, he took the train home and forgot he had driven. Memory techniques are a tool for specific jobs, and understanding still needs real study.

The idea behind this caseLesson: Summarise anything →

1. 1Memorise your next shopping list by placing each item as a strange image along the rooms of your home.
2. 2Pick one skill that has stalled and practise just beyond your comfort level, noting what goes wrong.
3. 3When you learn something new, explain it in your own words a day later to check you understood it.