Feats of memory anyone can do | Joshua Foer

Translator: Anteja Jež Reviewer: Irma Sutlic

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.

Prosil bi vas, da zaprete oči.

Imagine yourself standing outside the front door of your home.

Predstavljajte si, da stojite

pred pragom svoje hiše.

Rad bi, da ste pozorni na bravo vrat,

I'd like you to notice the color of the door,

the material that it's made out of.

na material, iz katerega so narejena.

Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.

Sedaj si predstavljajte gručo debelih nudistov na kolesih.

(Laughter)

They are competing in a naked bicycle race,

Tekmujejo v nudistični kolesarski tekmi

and they are headed straight for your front door.

in kolesarijo naravnost proti vašim vratom.

I need you to actually see this.

Hočem, da to zares vidite.

They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty,

Gonijo na vso moč. Močno se potijo.

they're bouncing around a lot.

Poskakoujejo gor in dol

And they crash straight into the front door of your home.

in se zaletijo naravnost v vaša vrata.

Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you,

Kolesa letijo na vse strani, gume se kotalijo mimo vas.

spokes end up in awkward places.

Špice pristanejo na nenavadnih mestih.

Prestopite prag hiše.

Step over the threshold of your door into your foyer, your hallway,

Vstopite v vežo ali hodnik, kar pač je na drugi strani.

whatever's on the other side,

and appreciate the quality of the light.

Zavedajte se kakšna je svetloba.

The light is shining down on Cookie Monster.

Svetloba sveti na Muppetka Cookieja.

Cookie vam maha s police

Cookie Monster is waving at you from his perch on top of a tan horse.

in sedi na svetlo rjavem konju.

It's a talking horse.

Gre za govorečega konja.

You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.

Čutite, kako vas njegov moder kožuh žgečka po nosu.

You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that he's about to shovel into his mouth.

Vohate lahko piškot, ki ga drži in ga bo vsak čas pohrustal.

Walk past him.

Pojdite mimo njega v dnevno sobo.

Walk past him into your living room.

In your living room, in full imaginative broadband,

V dnevni sobi si z vso svojo širokopasovno domišlijo

picture Britney Spears.

predstavljajte Britney Sprears.

She is scantily clad, she's dancing on your coffee table,

V obleki, ki komaj kaj prekriva, pleše na klubski mizici

and she's singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time."

in poje eno svojih pesmi.

And then, follow me into your kitchen.

Potem pojdite z mano v vašo kuhinjo.

In your kitchen, the floor has been paved over with a yellow brick road,

Tla v kuhinji so tlakovana z rumenimi tlakovci,

and out of your oven are coming towards you Dorothy, the Tin Man,

iz pečice pa proti vam prihajajo

Doroteja, Kositrni drvar,

the Scarecrow and the Lion from "The Wizard of Oz,"

Strašilo in Lev iz Čarovnika iz Oza.

hand-in-hand, skipping straight towards you.

Z roko v roki poskakujejo naravnost proti vam.

Okay. Open your eyes.

Dobro, odprite oči.

Rad bi vam opisal zelo bizarno tekmovanje,

I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest

that is held every spring in New York City.

ki se vsako leto odvija v New Yorku.

It's called the United States Memory Championship.

Imenuje se vseameriško tekmovanje v urjenju spomina.

And I had gone to cover this contest a few years back

Nekaj let nazaj sem se tekmovanja udeležil v vlogi

as a science journalist,

znanstvenega novinarja.

expecting, I guess, that this was going to be like the Superbowl of savants.

Najbrž sem pričakoval, da bo tekmovanje podobno

super tekmovanju za nadpovprečno razvite.

This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies,

Na tekmovanju je bilo kup moških in nekaj dam

widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.

različnih let in z različno razvitim čutom za higieno.

(Smeh)

(Laughter)

They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers,

Na pamet so se učili na stotine naključnih številk,

looking at them just once.

ki so jih pogledali le enkrat.

They were memorizing the names of dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers.

Na pamet so se učili na ducate in ducate imen tujcev.

They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.

V nekaj minutah so se naučili besedila celotne pesmi.

They were competing to see who could memorize

Tekmovali so v tem, kdo si zapomni

the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards the fastest.

vrstni red premešanih igralnih kart najhitreje.

I was like, this is unbelievable.

Mislil sem si, da je to neverjetno,

These people must be freaks of nature.

da so ti ljudje čudo narave.

And I started talking to a few of the competitors.

Začel sem se pogovarjati s tekmovalci.

This is a guy called Ed Cook, who had come over from England,

To je Ed Cook,

where he had one of the best-trained memories.

ki prihaja iz Anglije,

kjer velja za človeka z najbolj izurjenim spominom.

And I said to him, "Ed, when did you realize

Vprašal sem ga: "Ed, kdaj si spoznal,

that you were a savant?"

da si nadpovprečno razvit?"

And Ed was like, "I'm not a savant.

In Ed mi odgovori: "Saj nisem.

In fact, I have just an average memory.

Pravzaprav imam čisto povprečen spomin."

Everybody who competes in this contest will tell you

Vsi, ki se udeležijo tega tekmovanja, vam bodo rekli,

that they have just an average memory.

da imajo le povprečen spomin.

We've all trained ourselves to perform these utterly miraculous feats of memory

Le izurili smo se,

da si zapomnimo nepredstavljive količine podatkov,

using a set of ancient techniques,

s pomočjo starodavnih metod.

techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece,

Metod, ki so jih pred 2500 leti iznašli Grki.

the same techniques that Cicero had used to memorize his speeches,

Metode, ki je uporabljal sam Cicero,

da si je zapomnil svoje govore,

that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books."

ki so jih srednjeveški učenjaki uporabljali,

da so si zapomnili celotno vsebino knjig.

And I said, "Whoa. How come I never heard of this before?"

Vprašal sem se: "Hej, kako da nisem še nikoli slišal o tem?"

Stali smo pred tekmovalno dvorano

And we were standing outside the competition hall,

and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant, but somewhat eccentric English guy,

in Ed, ki je čudovit, pameten,

a nekoliko ekscentričen anglež,

says to me, "Josh, you're an American journalist.

mi reče: "Josh, ti si ameriški novinar.

Do you know Britney Spears?"

Ali poznaš Britney Spears?"

In jaz: "Kaj? Ne. Zakaj?"

I'm like, "What? No. Why?"

"Ker bi Britney Spears res rad naučil,

"Because I really want to teach Britney Spears

how to memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards

kako si zapomniti vrstni red zmešanih igralnih kart

on U.S. national television.

na ameriški državni televiziji.

It will prove to the world that anybody can do this."

Tako bi svetu dokazal, da to lahko naredi vsak."

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Rekel sem: "No, jaz nisem Britney Spears,

I was like, "Well, I'm not Britney Spears,

but maybe you could teach me.

ampak, lahko naučiš mene.

I mean, you've got to start somewhere, right?"

Nekje moreš začeti, kajne."

And that was the beginning of a very strange journey for me.

Tako se je zame začelo zelo nenavadno potovanje.

Doberšen del naslednjega leta sem preživel tako,

I ended up spending the better part of the next year

not only training my memory,

da sem treniral svoj spomin, obenem pa sem ga tudi raziskoval.

but also investigating it,

trying to understand how it works,

Poskušal sem razumeti, kako deluje,

why it sometimes doesn't work,

zakaj včasih ne deluje

and what its potential might be.

in kakšen bi lahko bil njegov potencial.

Spoznal sem vrsto zanimivih ljudi.

And I met a host of really interesting people.

This is a guy called E.P.

To je E.P.

He's an amnesic who had, very possibly,

Trpi za amnezijo in je po vsej verjetnosti imel

the worst memory in the world.

najslabši spomin na svetu.

His memory was so bad,

Njegov spomin je bil tako slab,

that he didn't even remember he had a memory problem,

da si ni zapomnil niti tega, da ima težave s spominom.

which is amazing.

And he was this incredibly tragic figure,

Bil je izredno tragičen primer, a dal mi je vpogled, v kolikšni meri

but he was a window into the extent to which our memories make us who we are.

nas naš spomin naredi to, kar smo.

Spoznal pa sem tudi tega človeka.

At the other end of the spectrum, I met this guy.

This is Kim Peek, he was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character

To je Kim Peek,

na podlagi katerega je zasnovan lik Dustina Hoffmana v filmu Rain man.

in the movie "Rain Man."

Skupaj sva preživela en popoldan.

We spent an afternoon together in the Salt Lake City Public Library

V knjižnici v Salt Lake Cityju sva se na pamet učila telefonske imenike.

memorizing phone books,

which was scintillating.

Kar je bilo vznemerjivo.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And I went back and I read a whole host of memory treatises,

Vrnil sem se in prebral kup razprav o spominu.

Razprav, ki so bile napisane pred 2000 in več leti.

treatises written 2,000-plus years ago in Latin,

V latinščini, v antiki

in antiquity, and then later, in the Middle Ages.

in potem pozneje v srednjem veku.

And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.

Spoznal sem celo vrsto zelo zanimivih stvari.

One of the really interesting things that I learned

Ena izmed zelo zanimivih stvari je bila ta,

is that once upon a time,

da v tistih časih

this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory

ideja o izurjenem, discipliniranem spominu,

še zdaleč ni bila tako tuja, kot se nam danes zdi.

was not nearly so alien as it would seem to us to be today.

Once upon a time, people invested in their memories,

Nekoč so ljudje invesitrali v svoj spomin,

in laboriously furnishing their minds.

v neutrudno nadgrajevanje svojega spomina.

Over the last few millenia,

Tekom zadnjih tisočletij

we've invented a series of technologies --

smo iznašli vrsto tehnologij:

from the alphabet, to the scroll,

od abecede do zvitka, do kodeksa, tiska, fotografije,

to the codex, the printing press, photography,

the computer, the smartphone --

računalnika, pametnega telefona,

that have made it progressively easier and easier

s katerimi smo vse lažje in lažje

for us to externalize our memories,

svoj spomin shranjevali zunaj naših glav,

for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.

da smo v osnovi začeli oddajati

to temeljno človeško sposobnost.

These technologies have made our modern world possible,

Te tehnologije so omogočile naš moderen svet,

but they've also changed us.

obenem pa so nas spremenile.

They've changed us culturally,

Spremenile so našo kulturo

and I would argue that they've changed us cognitively.

in trdil bi, da so spremenile tudi naše kognitivne navade.

Having little need to remember anymore,

Ker si nam ni več treba zapomniti toliko podatkov,

it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.

se včasih zdi, da smo tudi pozabili, kako.

One of the last places on Earth where you still find

Eden izmed zadnjih krajev na Zemlji, kjer še najdemo ljudi, ki so še navdušeni nad idejo

people passionate about this idea of a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory,

o izurjenem, discipliniranem, kultiviranen spominu,

is at this totally singular memory contest.

je na tem edinem tekmovanju iz spomina.

It's actually not that singular,

Pravzaprav zdaj ni več edino, saj se tekmovanja sedaj prirejajo po vsem svetu.

there are contests held all over the world.

And I was fascinated, I wanted to know how do these guys do it.

Bil sem fasciniran. Želel sem vedeti, kako jim uspe.

Nekaj let nazaj je skupina raziskovalcev na univerzi v Londonu

A few years back a group of researchers at University College London

v laboratorj pripeljala skupino prvakov v urjenju spomina.

brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.

They wanted to know:

Želeli so ugotoviti, ali se njihovi možgani

Do these guys have brains that are somehow structurally,

po zgradbi in obliki razlikujejo od drugih.

anatomically different from the rest of ours?

The answer was no.

Ugotovili so, da se ne.

Ali so pametnejši od drugih?

Are they smarter than the rest of us?

They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests, and the answer was: not really.

Rešiti so morali kup kognitivnih testov

in prišli so do sklepa, da niti niso.

There was, however, one really interesting and telling difference

Ugotovili pa so eno zelo zanimivo razliko

between the brains of the memory champions

med možgani prvakov v urjejenju spomina

and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.

in možgani oseb, s katerimi so jih primerjali.

When they put these guys in an fMRI machine,

Ko so na teh osebah opravili magnetno resonanco

scanned their brains while they were memorizing numbers

in jim skenirali možgane,

medtem ko so se na pamet učili številke, obraze in slike snežink,

and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes,

they found that the memory champions were lighting up different parts of the brain

so odkrili, da so prvaki v urejnju spomina

aktivirali druge predele možganov kot ostali.

than everyone else.

Of note, they were using, or they seemed to be using,

Uporabljali so, oziroma, zdelo se je, da uporabljajo

a part of the brain that's involved in spatial memory and navigation.

predel možganov, s katerim zaznavamo prostor in ga uporabljamo pri navigaciji.

Why?

And is there something that the rest of us can learn from this?

Zakaj? Ali se iz tega ostali kaj naučimo?

Tekmovalno urjenje spomina

The sport of competitive memorizing is driven by a kind of arms race where,

je nekakšna tekma ena na ena.

every year, somebody comes up with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly,

Kjer vsako leto nekdo

najde nov način, kako si še hitreje zapomniš še več stvari,

and then the rest of the field has to play catch-up.

drugi pa ga morajo potem dohiteti.

This is my friend Ben Pridmore,

To je moj prijatelj Ben Pridmore.

three-time world memory champion.

Trikratni prvak v urjenju spomina.

On his desk in front of him are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards

Na mizi pred njim je 36 premešanih kupov kart,

ki si jih skuša zapomniti v eni uri,

that he is about to try to memorize in one hour,

using a technique that he invented and he alone has mastered.

z uporabo metode, ki jo je sam iznašel in v kateri se je sam izuril.

He used a similar technique

Podobno metodo je uporabil,

da si je zapomnil zaporedje 4,140 naključnih binarnih vrednosti

to memorize the precise order of 4,140 random binary digits

in half an hour.

v pol ure.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

Ja.

And while there are a whole host of ways

In čeprav obstaja množica načinov,

of remembering stuff in these competitions,

kako si zapomniti stvari na teh tekmovanjih,

lahko vse tehnike, ki se uporabljajo, razložimo z enim samim konceptom,

everything, all of the techniques that are being used,

ultimately come down to a concept

that psychologists refer to as "elaborative encoding."

ki ga psihologi imenujejo elaborativno kodiranje.

And it's well-illustrated by a nifty paradox

Ta proces dobro prikazuje eleganten paradoks,

known as the Baker/baker paradox, which goes like this:

poznan kot Pek/pek paradoks, ki gre takole:

If I tell two people to remember the same word,

Če dvema osebama rečem, naj si zapomnita isto besedo,

if I say to you,

če vam rečem:

"Remember that there is a guy named Baker."

"Zapomnite si, da obstaja človek, ki mu je ime Pek."

That's his name.

Tako mu je ime.

And I say to you, "Remember that there is a guy who is a baker."

Vam pa rečem: "Zapomnite, da obstaja človek, ki je pek."

Okay?

Čez nekaj časa se vrnem k vam in vas vprašam: "Se spomnite tiste besede,

And I come back to you at some point later on,

and I say, "Do you remember that word that I told you a while back?

ki sem vam jo povedal pred nekaj časa? Se spomnite, katera je bila?"

Do you remember what it was?"

The person who was told his name is Baker

Verjetnost, da si bo oseba, ki sem ji rekel, da je bilo človeku ime Pek,

is less likely to remember the same word

zapomnila enako besedo, kot oseba, ki sem ji rekel, da je oseba po poklicu pek, je manjša.

than the person was told his job is a baker.

Same word, different amount of remembering; that's weird.

Enaka beseda, drugačna količina podatkov, ki se jih je treba zapomniti. To je čudno.

What's going on here?

Kaj se dogaja?

Well, the name Baker doesn't actually mean anything to you.

Ime Pek vam pravzaprav ne pomeni nič.

It is entirely untethered from all of the other memories

Pomolnoma je ločena

od ostalih spominov, ki plavajo v vaših glavah.

floating around in your skull.

But the common noun "baker" -- we know bakers.

Samostalnik pek pa ...

Vsi poznamo peke.

Bakers wear funny white hats.

Peki nosijo smešne bele kape. Peki imajo roke vse od moke.

Bakers have flour on their hands.

Bakers smell good when they come home from work.

Peki dobro dišijo, ko pridejo iz službe. Mogoče celo poznamo nekoga, ki je pek.

Maybe we even know a baker.

And when we first hear that word,

In ko prvič slišimo to besedo, začnemo "obešati" te asociacije na to besedo

we start putting these associational hooks into it,

that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.

in tako si jo čez nekaj časa lažje prikličemo nazaj v spomin.

The entire art of what is going on in these memory contests,

Vsa umetnost tega, kar se dogaja na teh tekmovanijh v spominu,

and the entire art of remembering stuff better in everyday life,

in vsa umetnost tega, da si stvari bolje zapomnimo v vsakdanjem življenju

is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers

je, da najdemo načine, kako veliko črko v "Peku"

into lower-case B bakers --

spremenimo v malo črko.

to take information that is lacking in context,

Da vzamemo informacije, ki jim primanjkuje konteksta,

in significance, in meaning,

pomembnosti, pomena

and transform it in some way,

in jih spremenimo na način,

so that it becomes meaningful in the light of all the other things

da dobijo pomen,

v primerjavi z vsemi ostalimi stvarmi v naših glavah.

that you have in your mind.

One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this

Ena izmed bolj izpopolnjenjih tehnik, da to dosežemo,

dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.

sega 2500 let nazaj, v obdobje antične Grčije.

It came to be known as the memory palace.

Imenovali so jo palača spomina.

Zgodba o njenem nastanku gre takole:

The story behind its creation goes like this:

Živel je pesnik po imenu Simonides,

There was a poet called Simonides, who was attending a banquet.

ki se je udeležil banketa.

He was actually the hired entertainment,

Pravzaprav je bil najet, da je skrbel za vzdušje.

because back then, if you wanted to throw a really slamming party,

V tistih časih je namreč nekdo, ki je želel prirediti res hudo zabavo,

you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.

namesto DJ-ja najel pesnika.

And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door,

On vstane, zrecitira na pamet svojo pesem, in odide ven.

and at the moment he does,

V tistem trenutku se dvorana poruši

the banquet hall collapses.

in pokoplje vse pod sabo.

Kills everybody inside.

Ne samo, da vse pobije,

It doesn't just kill everybody,

it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.

temveč trupla tako iznakazi, da jih ni moč več prepoznati.

NIhče ne more reči, kdo je bil notri.

Nobody can say who was inside,

nobody can say where they were sitting.

Nihče ne more reči, kje so sedeli.

The bodies can't be properly buried.

Trupla ni moč pokopati, kot se spodobi.

It's one tragedy compounding another.

Nesrečam ni konca.

Simonides, standing outside,

Simonides, ki stoji zunaj,

the sole survivor amid the wreckage,

edini preživeli med ruševinami,

closes his eyes and has this realization,

zapre oči in doživi spoznanje,

to, da lahko v svojih mislih

which is that in his mind's eye,

he can see where each of the guests at the banquet had been sitting.

vidi, kje je sedel vsak posamezni gost na zabavi.

Sorodnike prime za roko

And he takes the relatives by the hand,

and guides them each to their loved ones amid the wreckage.

in jih odvede do njihovih ljubljenih med ruševinami.

What Simonides figured out at that moment,

Simonides je v tistem trenutko spoznal

is something that I think we all kind of intuitively know,

nekaj, kar vsi na nek intuitivni način vemo,

which is that, as bad as we are at remembering names and phone numbers,

da čeprav si še tako slabo

zapomnimo imena in telefonske številke,

and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues,

in navodila naših sodelavcev,

we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.

imamo zares izjemen vizualen in prostorski spomin.

Če bi vas prosil, da ponovite prvih 10 besed

If I asked you to recount the first 10 words of the story

that I just told you about Simonides,

zgodbe o Simonidesu, ki sem vam jo ravnokar povedal,

chances are you would have a tough time with it.

bi imeli gotovo s tem težave.

But, I would wager that if I asked you to recall

Ampak stavil bi, da če bi vas prosil, da se spomnite,

who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse

kdo sedi na govorečem svetlo rjavem konju

v vaši veži ravno v tem trenutku,

in your foyer right now,

you would be able to see that.

bi vam to uspelo.

The idea behind the memory palace

Pri palači spomina gre za to,

is to create this imagined edifice in your mind's eye,

da si v svojih mislih ustvarimo domišljisko stavbo

and populate it with images of the things that you want to remember --

in vanjo naselimo podobe,

stvari, ki si jih želimo zapomniti.

the crazier, weirder, more bizarre,

Bolj kot je podoba nora, čudaška, bizarna,

funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is,

smešna, spotakljiva, neokusna,

večja je vrjetnost, da je ne boste pozabili.

the more unforgettable it's likely to be.

This is advice that goes back 2,000-plus years

To je nasvet, ki sega več kot 2000 let nazaj, k prvim latinskim razpravam o spominu.

to the earliest Latin memory treatises.

So how does this work?

Kako torej to deluje?

Let's say that you've been invited to TED center stage to give a speech,

Recimo, da ste bili povabljeni,

da predavate na TED-ovi konferenci

and you want to do it from memory,

in govor želite podati na pamet.

and you want to do it the way that Cicero would have done it,

Želite ga podati tako, kot bi ga Cicero,

if he had been invited to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.

če ga bi povabili na TEDxRim 2000 let nazaj.

(Laughter)

What you might do

Mogoče bi si predstavljali,

is picture yourself at the front door of your house.

da stojite pred pragom vaše hiše

And you'd come up with some sort of crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image,

in bi si izmislili neko popolnoma noro, trapasto, nepozabno podobo,

to remind you that the first thing you want to talk about

da bi si zapomnili, da je prva stvar, ki jo želite omeniti,

is this totally bizarre contest.

to popolnoma bizarno tekmovanje.

(Laughter)

And then you'd go inside your house,

Potem bi vstopili v hišo in bi zagledali podobo Muppetka Cookija

and you would see an image of Cookie Monster on top of Mister Ed.

na vrhu gospoda Eda.

And that would remind you

that you would want to then introduce your friend Ed Cook.

To bi vas spomnilo, da želite predstaviti vašega prijatelja Eda Cooka.

And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears

Potem bi zagledali podobo Britney Spears, kar bi vas spomnilo na anekdoto, ki jo želite povedati.

to remind you of this funny anecdote you want to tell.

And you'd go into your kitchen,

Potem bi šli v kuhinjo in četrta tema, o kateri ste želeli govoriti,

and the fourth topic you were going to talk about

was this strange journey that you went on for a year,

je bilo to nenavadno enoletno potovanje

and you'd have some friends to help you remember that.

in imeli bi nekaj prijateljev, ki bi vam pomagali pri obujanju spomina.

This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches --

Tako so se rimski govorci učili svojih govorov.

not word-for-word, which is just going to screw you up,

Ne besedo za besedo, kar vas bo samo zmedlo,

but topic-for-topic.

ampak temo za temo.

Pravzaprav izraz "topic sentence" (tema)

In fact, the phrase "topic sentence" --

that comes from the Greek word "topos,"

izhaja iz grške besede "topos",

which means "place."

kar pomeni "kraj".

That's a vestige of when people used to think about oratory and rhetoric

To je zapuščina iz dni, ko so ljudje o govorništvu in retoriki razmišljali z vidika prostorskih pojmov.

in these sorts of spatial terms.

The phrase "in the first place,"

Fraza "na prvem mestu" je kot da bi rekel "na prvem mestu naše palače spomina".

that's like "in the first place of your memory palace."

To se mi je zdelo naravnost fascinantno in sem popolnoma padel notri.

I thought this was just fascinating,

and I got really into it.

And I went to a few more of these memory contests,

Udeležil sem se še nekaj tovrstnih tekmovanj in prišel sem na idejo, da bi napisal kaj daljšega

and I had this notion that I might write something longer

about this subculture of competitive memorizers.

o tej subkulturi tekmovanj v urjenju spomina.

But there was a problem.

Obstajal pa je problem.

The problem was that a memory contest

Težava je bila v tem, da je tekmovanje v urjenju spomina

is a pathologically boring event.

patološko dolgočasen dogodek.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

V bistvu je kot da bi gledal kup ljudi med pisanjem mature.

Truly, it is like a bunch of people sitting around taking the SATs --

Najbolj napeto postane takrat, ko si nekdo začne masirati senca.

I mean, the most dramatic it gets

is when somebody starts massaging their temples.

And I'm a journalist, I need something to write about.

Jaz pa sem novinar, rabim nekaj, o čemer lahko pišem.

Vem, da se v glavah tekmovalcev dogajajo neverjetna stvari,

I know that there's incredible stuff happening in these people's minds,

but I don't have access to it.

a do tega nimam dostopa.

And I realized, if I was going to tell this story,

Spoznal sem, da moram, če želim povedati to zgodbo,

I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.

nekaj časa preživeti v njihovi koži.

And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes

Tako sem vsako jutro poskusil nameniti 15 do 20 minut,

every morning, before I sat down with my New York Times,

preden sem v roke prijel časopis,

just trying to remember something.

temu, da sem si nekaj zapomnil.

Maybe it was a poem,

maybe it was names from an old yearbook that I bought at a flea market.

Mogoče je bila to pesem.

Mogoče so bila to imena iz starega šolskega almanaha,

ki sem ga kupil na boljšaku.

And I found that this was shockingly fun.

Spoznal sem, da je začuda zabavno.

I never would have expected that.

Tega ne bi nikoli pričakoval.

It was fun because this is actually not about training your memory.

Bilo je zabavno, ker v bistvu ni šlo za urjenje spomina.

What you're doing, is you're trying to get better and better

Postati poskušaš vedno boljši in boljši

at creating, at dreaming up,

pri ustvarjanju, izmišljanju teh naravnost nesmiselnih, spotakljivih, smešnih

these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious,

in upam da nepozabnih podob v svojih mislih.

and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.

And I got pretty into it.

Stvar me je res pritegnila.

This is me wearing my standard competitive memorizer's training kit.

To sem jaz, na glavi pa imam standardno napravo za tekmovalno urjenje spomina.

(Laughter)

It's a pair of earmuffs

Glušnike

and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over

in varnostna očala, ki sem jih popolnoma zatemnil, pustil sem le dve majhni odprtini,

except for two small pinholes,

because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.

saj je dekoncentracija najhujši sovražnik tekmovalca v urjenju spomina.

I ended up coming back to that same contest

Vrnil sem se na isto tekmovanje, s katerega sem leto prej poročal.

that I had covered a year earlier,

and I had this notion that I might enter it,

Zamislil sem si, da bi se ga udeležil.

sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.

Bil bi nekakšen poskus participativnega novinarstva.

It'd make, I thought, maybe a nice epilogue to all my research.

Mislil sem si, da bi bil to posrečen epilog mojim raziskavam.

Problem was, the experiment went haywire.

Težava je bila v tem, da je šel poskus čez vse meje.

I won the contest --

Na tekmovanju sem zmagal,

(Laughter)

which really wasn't supposed to happen.

česar nisem načrtoval.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)

Now, it is nice to be able to memorize speeches

Lepo je,

da si lahko zapomniš govore

in telefonske številke in nakupovalne sezname,

and phone numbers and shopping lists,

but it's actually kind of beside the point.

a smisel ni v tem.

To so le triki.

These are just tricks.

Triki, ki delujejo,

They work because they're based on some pretty basic principles

ker temeljijo na bolj ali manj osnovnih principih

about how our brains work.

delovanja naših možganov.

And you don't have to be building memory palaces

Ni vam potrebno graditi palač spomina,

or memorizing packs of playing cards

ali si zapomniti kupov kart, da potegnemo nekaj zase iz vpogleda v

to benefit from a little bit of insight about how your mind works.

delovanje naših možganov.

We often talk about people with great memories

O ljudeh z odličnim spominom pogosto govorimo, kot da jim je bil položen v zibelko,

as though it were some sort of an innate gift,

but that is not the case.

a to ne drži.

Great memories are learned.

Odličen spomin se pridobi.

Na najbolj osnovni stopnji, zapomnimo si takrat, ko smo pozorni.

At the most basic level, we remember when we pay attention.

We remember when we are deeply engaged.

Zapomnimo si, ko se z nečim intenzivno ukvarjamo.

We remember when we are able to take a piece of information and experience,

Zapomnimo si takrat, ko smo zmožni vzeti informacijo ali izkušnjo

and figure out why it is meaningful to us,

in ugotoviti, zakaj je za nas pomembna. Zakaj je bistvena, zakaj je barvna.

why it is significant, why it's colorful,

when we're able to transform it in some way that makes sense

Ko smo jo sposobni preoblikovati na način, da ima smisel

in the light of all of the other things floating around in our minds,

v primerjavi z vsemi ostalimi stvarmi v naši glavi,

when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.

ko smo zmožni preoblikovati Peke v peke.

The memory palace, these memory techniques --

Palača spomina, te miselne tehnike, so le bližnjice.

they're just shortcuts.

In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.

Pravzaprav v resnici niso bližnjice. Delujejo zato, ker vas pripravijo, da delujete.

They work because they make you work.

Spodbujajo nenkakšno poglobljeno procesiranje,

They force a kind of depth of processing,

a kind of mindfulness,

nekakšen tok misli, ki ga večina ponavadi ne prakticira.

that most of us don't normally walk around exercising.

But there actually are no shortcuts.

V resnici to niso bližnjice.

This is how stuff is made memorable.

Na ta način stvari postanejo nepozabne.

Če izpostavim eno stvar, ki jo danes želim deliti z vami,

And I think if there's one thing that I want to leave you with,

it's what E.P., the amnesic who couldn't even remember he had a memory problem,

je to tisto, kar je E.P.,

ki trpi za amnezijo in se ne spominja niti tega, da ima težave s spominom, zapustil meni.

left me with,

which is the notion that our lives are the sum of our memories.

Zavedanje,

da je naše življenje skupek naših spominov.

How much are we willing to lose

Koliko smo pripravljeni izgubiti

from our already short lives,

v naših, že tako kratkih, življenjih,

by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones,

s tem, da se izgubljamo v naših blackberryjih, i-phonih,

by not paying attention to the human being across from us

s tem, da ne posvečamo pozornosti ljudem okoli nas, ki se z nami pogovarjajo,

who is talking with us,

by being so lazy that we're not willing to process deeply?

s tem, da smo tako leni, da se nam ne da poglobljeno procesirati?

Iz prve roke sem se naučil,

I learned firsthand

that there are incredible memory capacities

da so neverjetne miselne sposobnosti

latent in all of us.

skrite prav v vsakem izmed nas.

But if you want to live a memorable life,

A če želimo živeti nepozabno življenje,

you have to be the kind of person

moramo biti oseba,

who remembers to remember.

ki si zapomni, da si zapomni.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)