Many memory techniques involve creating unforgettable imagery, in your minds eye. Thats an act of imagination. Creating really weird imagery really quickly was the most fun part of my training to compete in the U.S. Memory Competition.

When we first hear [a] word, we start putting these associational hooks into it that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.

Our ability to find humor in the world, to make connections between previously unconnected notions, to create new ideas, to share in a common culture: All these essentially human acts depend on memory.

Evolution has programmed our brains to find two things particularly interesting, and therefore memorable: jokes and sex - and especially, it seems, jokes about sex.

When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.

As bad as we are at remembering names and phone numbers and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues, we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.

Memory training is not just for the sake of performing party tricks; it's about nurturing something profoundly and essentially human.