You 2.0: Remember More, Forget Less

In 2005, journalist Joshua Foer attended the US Memory Championships and became interested in memory. Over the next year, he interviewed mnemonists (master memorizers), researchers, and scientists; researched the history of memory; and trained with a grand master of memory, learning enough mnemonic techniques to win the US Memory Championships the following year.

Moonwalking with Einstein (the title is a mnemonic) is a record of everything Josh learned during his year of exploring memory. Most notably, he learned that a good memory isn’t an inherent talent—anyone can improve their memory if they employ the right techniques.

In The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli breaks down the most common logical fallacies that inhibit decision-making, including confirmation bias, social proof, and hindsight bias. Dobelli aims to help people recognize and overcome these fallacies so they can make better decisions.

In this guide, we’ll explore Dobelli’s main fallacies, including those caused by humanity’s past as hunter-gatherers and those caused by other sources such as misinterpretation of cause and effect. Along the way, we’ll compare and contrast Dobelli’s ideas with other experts on logical thinking, such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Daniel Kahneman. We’ll also provide concrete steps to overcome illogical thinking and explore why logical fallacies occur.

Our brains are uniquely complex information processors, yet most people know little about how they work. In Brain Rules, John Medina writes that when we understand how our brains have evolved, we can use their natural impulses and tendencies to our advantage, improving our thinking and learning in all aspects of our lives.

John Medina is a molecular biologist who focuses on psychiatric disorders. Medina wrote this book in order to help the general public understand in a simple, accessible way how brains work and how the functions of the brain affect how we interact with the world. In this guide, we discuss the 12 rules he’s identified that summarize the brain’s core functions, abilities, and limitations. We also offer ways to apply Medina’s principles in your daily life and discuss scientific and cultural ideas related to his brain rules.

Our brains are uniquely complex information processors, yet most people know little about how they work. In Brain Rules, John Medina writes that when we understand how our brains have evolved, we can use their natural impulses and tendencies to our advantage, improving our thinking and learning in all aspects of our lives.

John Medina is a molecular biologist who focuses on psychiatric disorders. Medina wrote this book in order to help the general public understand in a simple, accessible way how brains work and how the functions of the brain affect how we interact with the world. In this guide, we discuss the 12 rules he’s identified that summarize the brain’s core functions, abilities, and limitations. We also offer ways to apply Medina’s principles in your daily life and discuss scientific and cultural ideas related to his brain rules.

The modern workplace is constantly changing, requiring professionals to continually master new skills and knowledge. But not everyone has access to formal education and the upgraded skills required in the workforce are not easy to pick up as you go. In Ultralearning, Scott Young teaches you how to create self-directed learning projects to give you a competitive edge at the fraction of the time and cost necessary for traditional schooling.

In this guide, we’ll cover Young’s core principles of ultralearning to help you stay relevant in your field, advance your career, and master any skill. We’ll also connect Young’s concepts with those in similar books like Jim Kwik’s Limitless and offer tips and insights from other books like Indistractable and The Willpower Instinct to supercharge your ultralearning.

You may not realize it, but your brain has an extraordinary capacity for complex calculations. Simple tasks like stepping over a garden hose as you walk across your lawn require elaborate computations, and yet they seem easy because your brain does them intuitively.

Barbara Oakley wrote A Mind for Numbers to help you learn math and science well enough that they, too, become intuitive. In this guide, we will examine Oakley’s explanation of your brain’s natural capabilities, her strategies for remembering complex concepts more easily, her recommendations for building good study habits and avoiding procrastination, and a few other tips for succeeding in your studies. We’ll also examine the scientific basis of her recommendations and compare her strategies to those of other experts in learning and memory.

How can we live less stressfully in the modern world, where we have more demands on our attention than ever before? In his bestseller The Organized Mind, author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin suggests that the key lies in sorting and externally storing your thoughts and organizing the things around you, which means writing down your thoughts and arranging your physical environment so your brain has less information to manage. Levitin argues that doing so allows you to use your brain power more efficiently and make better decisions.

In this guide, we’ll explore how the modern world overwhelms us, why our current approach to dealing with it doesn’t work, and why you should sort and externalize your thoughts and things instead. Then, we’ll discuss strategies for sorting and externalizing your thoughts, things, and relationships—like how carrying a pack of notecards can help you focus. We’ll discuss other experts’ recommendations for dealing with overwhelm and their tips for sorting and externalizing information.

You may not realize it, but your brain has an extraordinary capacity for complex calculations. Simple tasks like stepping over a garden hose as you walk across your lawn require elaborate computations, and yet they seem easy because your brain does them intuitively.

Barbara Oakley wrote A Mind for Numbers to help you learn math and science well enough that they, too, become intuitive. In this guide, we will examine Oakley’s explanation of your brain’s natural capabilities, her strategies for remembering complex concepts more easily, her recommendations for building good study habits and avoiding procrastination, and a few other tips for succeeding in your studies. We’ll also examine the scientific basis of her recommendations and compare her strategies to those of other experts in learning and memory.

Do you often feel frustrated by your tendency to forget things? Is your memory just plain bad? According to International Grandmaster of Memory Kevin Horsley, there’s no such thing. In Unlimited Memory, Horsley explains that, using the right techniques, anyone can train their brain to learn and remember anything. He offers several techniques to help you remember everything by making associations between things you already know well—like your car or your body—and things you want to remember. He also describes strategies to help you remember things through story, art, and visualization.

In our guide, we’ll explain Horsley’s theories on learning and memory and the importance of attention and associative learning. We’ll also look at some of his specific techniques and how to implement them and explore how to retain information long after you’ve learned it. We’ll supplement Horsley’s ideas with scientific context and tips from other memory experts and writers.