Part 2/19:
The conversation begins with a reflection on extraordinary mental abilities, notably competing in the World Memory Championships. To reach that level, participants memorize five decks of shuffled cards in under five minutes, and memorize up to 10,000 random numbers within ten minutes — all through rigorous training rather than natural gifts. Joshua Fjord’s book, Walking on Moon with Einstein, documents how these memory experts train and how their skills are cultivated through specific techniques, debunking the myth of innate genius. The speaker has been practicing these techniques since childhood, honing their mental faculties by systematically training their brain in new ways.