MESSAGE #690 THE ART OF MEMORY…

“Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.”
-ERIC GILL

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.

Sports is not about talent, it’s about skill.

Music is not about talent, it’s about skill.

Academics, work, and everything else are the same way.

On Wednesday night, I attended a lecture at Princeton given by a grandmaster of memory, the great Ed Cooke. Grandmaster Cooke can memorize 1,000 numbers in about an hour. And he can memorize a deck of cards in about one minute.

He had the audience remember 20 words, forward and backwards. It turns out it was one way to memorize the Periodic Table of Elements! How did he do it? He created a similar sounding word and linked a picture with it.

He also had the audience memorize pi to 22 decimal places.

And to top it off, at the end of his lecture he memorized a brand new deck of cards in one minute. Amazing.

Author’s note: ALL FEATS ARE LEARNED!

It’s about skill, strategy and hard work. Not talent.

If someone in the world can do it, YOU can do it. I wasn’t born to be a tennis pro or motivational speaker, I was TRAINED to be one.

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”
-HENRY FORD

Thanks for reading.