Moonwalking with Einstein book club questions

1. 1.

   Foer begins as a journalist with no special memory ability and wins a national championship. What does that suggest about how much of what we call talent is actually accumulated technique?

2. 2.

   The method of loci has been used for thousands of years. Why do you think it's not more widely taught in schools or used in professional settings?

3. 3.

   What have you allowed to reach the OK Plateau in your own life — a skill that works well enough but hasn't improved in years? Is that a problem?

4. 4.

   The shift from oral culture to literate culture changed what memory was for. What's being outsourced to your phone or search engine now, and does it matter?

5. 5.

   Foer describes training with Ed Cooke, who believes almost anyone can become a memory champion with the right technique. Do you believe him? What would it take to convince you?

6. 6.

   Chunking allows experts to perceive complex situations as meaningful units rather than isolated details. Where in your own expertise have you noticed this shift happening?

7. 7.

   The book covers people with extraordinary memory deficits as well as extraordinary memory abilities. What does the contrast reveal about what memory actually does for us?

8. 8.

   What is the most consequential thing you have forgotten — a person's name, an experience, a lesson — where the forgetting had real costs?

9. 9.

   Foer argues that improving memory changes the quality of your present experience because you pay more attention when you know you need to remember. Have you noticed anything like this?

10. 10.

    Memory sports require competitors to memorize abstract information — cards, numbers, words — that has no intrinsic meaning. What does this tell you about the relationship between memory and meaning?

11. 11.

    If you spent a month seriously practicing a memory technique, what would you most want to apply it to? What's stopping you?

12. 12.

    Foer wins the championship and then largely stops practicing. What does that say about sustained motivation after a goal is achieved?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.