#1 Memory Expert: The No. 1 Thing That Weakens Your Brain

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.

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.

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.

When it comes to taking care of your brain, the best time to start is now. Many people don’t consider dementia or cognitive decline until later in life, but neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s begin developing decades before symptoms appear. Fortunately, you can take steps to prevent cognitive decline and keep your brain strong and resilient throughout your life. In Keep Sharp, neurosurgeon and medical reporter Sanjay Gupta explains how we can best look after our brains in five key areas: exercise, sleep, nutrition, discovery, and social connection.

In our guide, we’ll examine how the human brain works, the potential causes of cognitive decline, and things you can do to promote a healthy brain. We’ll also explain why certain things are helpful or harmful to your brain, like why the Mediterranean diet is so beneficial and what a lack of sleep does to your brain. Throughout the guide, we’ll delve into the ever-evolving science of human cognition so you can better understand how to develop a healthier, happier brain.

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.

According to psychiatrist and brain health expert Daniel G. Amen, many people’s physical, mental, and cognitive issues arise from physical damage to specific regions of the brain and their associated functions. To effectively treat and overcome these issues, you must help your brain recover from physical damage and enhance its overall health.

In Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Amen asserts that even if your brain's health has been compromised, it has the potential for recovery and rejuvenation. Leveraging over 30 years of patient treatment experience, alongside insights gained from cutting-edge brain scans, he provides practical strategies for optimizing your brain's health and overcoming unwanted symptoms.

This guide explores how brain scans revealed the flaws of traditional treatment and informed Amen’s approach and offers practical advice for anyone to enhance their brain health. Additionally, our commentary will expand on Amen’s ideas with research and advice from other health experts.

When you compare who you are now to who you want to be, you’re resigning yourself to a life of unhappiness. Your ideal self is constantly changing, making your goals impossible to reach. Instead, you must compare who you are now to who you used to be so that you can see how far you’ve come. This simple shift in thinking makes all the difference in living a happier life.

This is the core principle of The Gap and The Gain and was developed by entrepreneurial coach Dan Sullivan. In the book, organizational psychologist Benjamin Hardy connects Sullivan’s ideas to scientific concepts that help explain why we tend to focus on the future, and how we can train ourselves to focus on the past instead. Hardy and Sullivan argue that making this change can drastically improve your quality of life. In this guide, we’ll elaborate on the psychological concepts that Hardy presents and discuss how empirical research has (or hasn’t) supported the book’s main ideas.

In Be Your Future Self Now, Benjamin Hardy argues that true success requires living up to your full potential—that is, becoming the highest version of yourself. Anything short of this is a form of failure. However, becoming the person you want to be is one of life’s most difficult challenges. Hardy explains that it requires knowing exactly who your higher self is, identifying the big, life-changing goals that will get you there, and dedicating yourself to those goals above everything else.

In this guide, we’ll present Hardy’s argument for why you should commit to becoming your higher self now. Then, we’ll explain how to identify your higher self and Hardy’s recommendations for adopting the mindset and dedication needed to become this person. We’ll supplement Hardy’s ideas with those of other success experts including Daniel Walter (The Power of Discipline), Gary Keller (The One Thing), and Darren Hardy (The Compound Effect).

In What Happened to You?, Oprah Winfrey and renowned psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry discuss how childhood trauma can have a severe and lasting impact on the brain—and thus our worldview, health, and behavior—sometimes without us even realizing it. They discuss why the developing brain is so susceptible to trauma, why trauma survivors often experience flashbacks, and why it’s so important to address your trauma to live a healthy and happy life. They also describe how to begin the healing process with compassion for yourself and others.

Throughout our guide, we’ll connect Perry and Winfrey’s ideas to those in other popular books on trauma, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. We’ll also elaborate on the authors’ main themes, such as trauma’s impact and the healing process. Finally, we’ll provide information and resources to help those struggling with trauma find high-quality care.

Although people spend their entire lives learning, most of them are doing it wrong. Strategies like rereading and drilling a skill over and over to commit it to memory take a lot of time and ultimately don’t work.

Make It Stick teaches you the strategies that help you achieve the two primary goals of learning: To understand and remember what you learn so you can use your knowledge in future situations. In this summary, learn how a little forgetting helps you remember, and why you’re not a good judge of how much you know.

How can you be more productive and creative? Most of us assume that the answer lies, at least in part, in managing our time better. But in Hyperfocus, productivity expert Chris Bailey presents an alternate hypothesis: To focus in a world full of ever-increasing distractions, you must learn not just how to manage your time but also how to manage your attention.

Bailey explains why your current method of directing your attention isn’t working—like why you still feel tired no matter how many breaks you take—and then shares several strategies for managing your attention for better productivity and creativity. In this guide, we’ll compare these strategies to recommendations from neuroscientists and other productivity experts, supplementing Bailey’s ideas so that you can manage your attention in the most effective way possible.

Whether you're studying for exams, seeking to retain more general knowledge, or aiming to boost workplace productivity, a sharper memory is key to your success.

In this Master Guide, we’ll explore how to supercharge your memory. Our guide compiles memory-retention methods from a diverse group of experts, ranging from seasoned educators and cognitive scientists to a magician and a former winner of the US Memory Championships. These methods cover how to:

• Leverage your brain’s natural affinity for association by linking new information to familiar concepts or experiences.
• Apply active learning strategies to deepen comprehension and fortify memory retention and recall.

You'll come away with proven techniques and a newfound confidence in your ability to capture, retain, and recall information effectively.