“Anyone could do it, really.” (Ben Pridmore). In the novel, Moonwalking With Einstein, the author, Joshua Foer, definitely subverted my assumptions about memory. Because of practicing and studying, Foer, an average person, was able accomplish what I though was something you needed to be born with.

Joshua Foer was just like any other person. He would often misplace his car keys and forget what happened in a story that he had previously read. However, after attending the USA Memory Championship, and hearing that any average person could dot what those in the completion were doing, he was intrigued. In fact, he was so fascinated by the fact that memory is something that you learn, that he decided to give it a try himself. He learned many of those techniques, practicing for days and days. As time went on, his scores increased and he set up a spreadsheet to keep track of how long he was practicing and what his scores were. “August 19: Did 28 cards in 2:57. August 20: Did 28 cards in 2:39.” (176) Prior to reading the book, my belief was that people who have exceptional memories are born with exceptional memories, and people who do not, are not. I had absolutely no idea that practicing techniques was what did the trick. Nevertheless, through practicing and studying different techniques for hours each day, Joshua Foer, just another average person taught himself how to have a remarkable memory.
As Foer continued to study the techniques that he learned, he began to think that he