Moonwalking with Einstein

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1. wahernOct 2026
   Memorizing books is absolutely possible. A great book about it is Moonwalking with Einstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalking_with_Einstein), written by a journalist who was a skeptic but ended becoming a competitive mnemonicist himself. Some people intuitively learn the techniques early in life, and for some of them it becomes a habit.

   Same thing applies to mental arithmetic. There are techniques for doing this. IIRC, ironically there's a famous case of someone who claimed to have memorized some hundreds of thousands digits of Pi but was suspected of using mental arithmetic techniques when reciting them.

   Still, your point stands. People do embellish these kinds of stories based on stereotypes. It's certainly possible, but any particular anecdote may still be suspect.

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2. safeimpSep 2026
   The book Moonwalking with Einstein covers Patient S and memory in general. It's an enjoyable and quick read on the topic, would definitely recommend.
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3. tverbeureSep 2026
   Moonwalking with Einstein is a fun read. I started using some tricks in real life. One of the key premises is that humans are much better at remembering sensory things than abstract ones.

   A good example is remembering names: when one’s name is “John Baker”, it is so much easier to remember by silently adding “the” in front of it.

   We’re also very good at remembering salacious stuff. I tried constructing my own memory palace for a grocery shopping list that included cream cheese. If you mentally make Claudia Schiffer take a bath in cream cheese, you’ll never forget that. (I read the book at least 10 years ago and still haven’t…)

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4. stanfordkidJul 2026
   I think what you're saying might be a stretch. I strongly believe the brain holds some information in a sequential pattern -- not necessarily all of it or even the majority of it. There's a book called Moonwalking with Einstein that digs into this precise fact -- you can remember sequences much much better if you associate a visual image with each item in the sequence. Sequential association covers a lot of human knowledge but certainly not the spatial aspects. I think it's a big reason why I think LLM's might not be as smart as we think they are. The complex spatial representations are only encoded implicitly via projection on to textual descriptions.
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5. 0xmattfJan 2026
   I only read non-fiction; mostly philosophy. Here are some books off the top of my head:

   * The Inner Citadel/Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot

   * Plato's dialogues (someone already mentioned a few of them, but the Republic was missing from their list).

   * Epictetus (Discourses and Enchiridion)

   * The various essays/letters of Seneca

   * Matter and Consciousness by Churchland (older, but fascinating)

   * The Mediations of Marcus Aurelius

   * (mostly) any Buddhist texts

   * What a Plant Knows

   * Moonwalking with Einstein

   There are tons of fascinating books, way too many to list.

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6. vunderbaJan 2026
   Second the recommendation for "Moonwalking with Einstein." Ed Cooke (the memory coach and world memory champion featured prominently in the book) is also a really nice chap.

   If you have any interest in memorization or mnemonics, it's a great read.

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