Feats of memory anyone can do | Joshua Foer

譯者: Yilun Zhou 審譯者: Yuguo Zhang

請大家跟我一起閉上眼睛

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

想象一下 你站在

Imagine yourself standing outside the front door of your home.

自己家門外

請留心一下門的顏色

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

the material that it's made out of.

以及門的材質

Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.

現在請想象一群超重的裸騎者

(Laughter)

正在進行一場裸體自行車賽

They are competing in a naked bicycle race,

向你的前門直沖而來

and they are headed straight for your front door.

I need you to actually see this.

盡量讓畫面栩栩如生近在眼前

They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty,

他們都在奮力地踩腳踏板 汗流浹背

路面非常顛簸

they're bouncing around a lot.

然後徑直撞進了你家前門

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

自行車四下飛散 車輪從你身旁滾過

Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you,

輻條紮進了各種尷尬角落

spokes end up in awkward places.

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

跨過門檻

進到門廳 走廊 和門裏的其他地方

whatever's on the other side,

and appreciate the quality of the light.

室內光線柔和舒適

The light is shining down on Cookie Monster.

光線灑在甜餅怪物身上

他坐在一匹棕色駿馬的馬背上

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

向你招手

It's a talking horse.

這匹馬會說話

You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.

你可以感覺到怪物的藍色鬃毛讓你鼻子發癢

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

你可以聞到他正要扔進嘴裏的葡萄燕麥曲奇的香氣

Walk past him.

繞過他. 繞過他走進客廳

Walk past him into your living room.

In your living room, in full imaginative broadband,

站在客廳裏 把你的想象力調到最大檔

picture Britney Spears.

想象小甜甜布蘭妮

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

她衣著性感 在你咖啡桌上跳舞

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

並唱著"Hit Me Baby One More Time"

And then, follow me into your kitchen.

接下來 跟著我走進你的廚房

廚房的地面被一道黃磚路覆蓋

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

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

依次鉆出你的烤箱向你走來的是

《綠野仙蹤》裏的多蘿西 鐵皮人

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

稻草人 和獅子

hand-in-hand, skipping straight towards you.

他們手挽著手 蹦蹦跳跳地向你走來

Okay. Open your eyes.

好了 睜開眼睛吧

我要給你們講一個每年春天在紐約

I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest

that is held every spring in New York City.

都會舉辦的奇異競賽

It's called the United States Memory Championship.

叫做全美記憶冠軍賽

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

幾年前我作為一名科技類記者

as a science journalist,

去報道這項競賽

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

我期待這是一個

學者的超級碗

參加比賽的是一群男人 以及少數女人

This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies,

widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.

在年齡和衛生習慣上有很大不同

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

他們在記憶幾百個隨機數

They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers,

looking at them just once.

卻僅僅看那些數字一眼

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

他們記很多陌生人名

他們在幾分鍾內記憶征收詩歌

They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.

他們競爭來看誰能

They were competing to see who could memorize

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

最快的記憶一副牌的順序

I was like, this is unbelievable.

我覺得這難以想象

這些人一定是異類

These people must be freaks of nature.

And I started talking to a few of the competitors.

所以我開始和他們交流

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

有一個叫艾德·庫克的人

是英格蘭人

where he had one of the best-trained memories.

在那裏他是記憶力最好的人之一

我說 艾德你什麽時候意識到

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

that you were a savant?"

你是這種專家？

他說 我不是專家

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

In fact, I have just an average memory.

我的記憶力很普通

Everybody who competes in this contest will tell you

這個比賽中的所有人

都會告訴你他們的記憶力很普通

that they have just an average memory.

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

我們訓練我們自己

來完成這種奇迹般的任務

using a set of ancient techniques,

用的只是一些很古老的技巧

techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece,

在2500年前的希臘就有了

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

這個西斯羅用來記憶演講

是同一個技術

that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books."

也是醫學學者來背醫書的技巧

我問 喔 我怎麽從來沒聽說過？

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

然後我們站在競賽大堂外面

And we were standing outside the competition hall,

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

艾德 一個奇妙的 聰明的

但有些奇怪的英國人

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

告訴我 約什 你是一個美國記者

Do you know Britney Spears?"

你知道布蘭妮·斯皮爾斯（歌手）嗎？

我說 什麽 不 圍著幹嘛

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

因爲我想叫布蘭妮·斯皮爾斯

"Because I really want to teach Britney Spears

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

如何記憶撲克牌順序

on U.S. national television.

在美國國家電視台上

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

這樣就能證明每個人都行

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

我說 我不是布蘭妮·斯皮爾斯

但也許你能教我

but maybe you could teach me.

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

我說 咱們開始吧

這對于我來說是一段奇異的旅行

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

在最後 我花了第二年的很長時間

I ended up spending the better part of the next year

not only training my memory,

不僅用來訓練記憶力

but also investigating it,

更研究它

trying to understand how it works,

嘗試弄懂它如何工作

why it sometimes doesn't work,

爲什麽有時不工作

and what its potential might be.

它的潛能何在

And I met a host of really interesting people.

我遇到了很多很有趣的人

This is a guy called E.P.

有一個叫E.P.

He's an amnesic who had, very possibly,

他是一個健忘症患者 也許有著

the worst memory in the world.

世界上最糟糕的記憶力

His memory was so bad,

他的記憶力太不好

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

以至于他不記得他又記憶問題

這多麽驚訝

which is amazing.

And he was this incredibly tragic figure,

他就是這樣一個悲劇的人

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

但它反映了

記憶能把我們變成什麽

在另一個極端 我遇見了這個人

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

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

他叫金·匹克

他就是達斯汀·霍夫曼電影“雨人”的原型

in the movie "Rain Man."

他花一個下午

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

在鹽湖城公共圖書館記電話號

memorizing phone books,

這閃爍著光芒

which was scintillating.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

然後我回去讀了很多關于記憶的文章

在兩千多年前寫的

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

用拉丁文寫的

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

然後就是在中世紀寫的

And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.

我學到了很多有趣的是

One of the really interesting things that I learned

其中一個就是

is that once upon a time,

從前

this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory

訓練記憶力這個觀念

沒有現在這麽陌生

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

從前人們努力訓練記憶力

Once upon a time, people invested in their memories,

in laboriously furnishing their minds.

通過極爲刻苦的工作

Over the last few millenia,

在過去的幾千年裏

we've invented a series of technologies --

我們發明了一系列的技術——

from the alphabet, to the scroll,

從字母表到滾軸

to the codex, the printing press, photography,

到代碼 出版社 攝影

the computer, the smartphone --

計算機 智能手機——

這些都把記憶

that have made it progressively easier and easier

for us to externalize our memories,

變得越來越簡單

for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.

讓我們超越

人類的極限

These technologies have made our modern world possible,

這些技術讓我們的現代社會成爲可能

但他們也改變了我們

but they've also changed us.

他們在文化上改變了我們

They've changed us culturally,

而且我想說他們從認知上改變了我們

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

Having little need to remember anymore,

幾乎不需要記什麽東西

it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.

我們似乎忘記了如何記

One of the last places on Earth where you still find

地球上最後一塊地方

你依然能夠找到關于訓練記憶力

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

有激情的人

is at this totally singular memory contest.

就是在唯一的記憶競賽

It's actually not that singular,

其實不唯一

在全世界都有競賽

there are contests held all over the world.

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

並且我很好奇 我想知道那些人如何完成的

幾年前一夥研究人員在倫敦大學

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

brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.

把一些記憶冠軍帶到了實驗室

他們想知道

They wanted to know:

Do these guys have brains that are somehow structurally,

這些人

有結構上不同的大腦嗎？

anatomically different from the rest of ours?

The answer was no.

答案是否定的

Are they smarter than the rest of us?

他們是比我們更聰明嗎？

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

他們進行了一系列認知測試

並且得到否定的答案

There was, however, one really interesting and telling difference

然而的確有一個有趣的不同

between the brains of the memory champions

在這些記憶冠軍的大腦

and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.

和控制組的大腦裏

When they put these guys in an fMRI machine,

當他們用核磁共振

掃描

scanned their brains while they were memorizing numbers

正在記憶數字 面部 圖像的大腦時

and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes,

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

他們發現記憶冠軍

在用和其他人不同的部分

than everyone else.

來記憶

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

他們在用

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

一個管理空間記憶和導航的部分

Why?

爲什麽？我們能學到什麽？

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

記憶競賽

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

被一種軍備競賽驅動

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

在這裏每年一些人來到

同時帶來一些新的記憶方法

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

然後其他人要趕緊追上來

這是我的朋友本·普裏蒂莫

This is my friend Ben Pridmore,

三次世界記憶冠軍

three-time world memory champion.

在他的台前

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

有三十六副打亂順序的牌

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

他要在一個小時內記下全部

用的是一種他自己發明的 也只有他會的技巧

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

He used a similar technique

用與此類似的方法

他曾一字不差地背下了

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

4140個任意排列的二進制數

in half an hour.

只用了半個小時

(Laughter)

Yeah.

很牛吧

And while there are a whole host of ways

參賽者在這些競賽中

of remembering stuff in these competitions,

運用過很多不同的記憶方法

everything, all of the techniques that are being used,

各式各樣 被運用到的所有技巧

ultimately come down to a concept

最終都能歸化爲一個概念

that psychologists refer to as "elaborative encoding."

心理學家稱之爲"精細編碼"

And it's well-illustrated by a nifty paradox

這個概念能用一則幽默的悖論完美诠釋

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

叫做貝克悖論

簡單說來就是

If I tell two people to remember the same word,

假設我讓兩個人去記同一個詞

if I say to you,

我跟你說

"Remember that there is a guy named Baker."

"記住有個人叫貝克"

That's his name.

貝克是人名

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

我又來告訴你 "記住有個人是面包師(英文和貝克一樣)"

Okay?

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

過了一段時間我又回來找到你們

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

問 "還記得我之前

叫你們記住的那個詞嗎?"

Do you remember what it was?"

”還記得是什麽詞嗎?“

The person who was told his name is Baker

被告知人名是貝克的人

is less likely to remember the same word

記住這個詞的可能性遠不如

than the person was told his job is a baker.

被告知職業是面包師的那個人

同樣的詞 導致不同的記憶程度

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

What's going on here?

到底是爲什麽呢

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

是因爲 人名Baker沒有任何特殊含義

It is entirely untethered from all of the other memories

沒法跟你腦海裏

零碎繁雜的記憶産生任何聯系

floating around in your skull.

但是面包師作爲一個常用名詞

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

我們都知道面包師是什麽

Bakers wear funny white hats.

面包師帶著搞笑的白帽子

Bakers have flour on their hands.

他們手上沾滿了面粉

Bakers smell good when they come home from work.

他們下班回到家帶著撲鼻的烤面包香

Maybe we even know a baker.

甚至可能有些人有朋友就是面包師

And when we first hear that word,

我們初次聽到這個詞時

馬上就會産生各種各樣的聯想

we start putting these associational hooks into it,

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

這使我們能在一段時間後還能回憶起來

其實 要理解記憶競賽中的

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

一切奧妙

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

或在日常生活中改善記憶力的秘訣

僅僅在于想辦法把Baker中的大寫B

is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers

變爲面包師(baker)中的小寫b

into lower-case B bakers --

把沒有前因後果

to take information that is lacking in context,

in significance, in meaning,

沒有重要性 沒有涵義的信息

and transform it in some way,

用某種方法轉化爲

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

有意義的內容

跟腦海裏的其他記憶串聯起來

that you have in your mind.

One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this

這種精確記憶的技巧

在兩千五百年前的古希臘就已出現

dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.

It came to be known as the memory palace.

後來將其稱爲記憶宮殿

發明這種技巧的過程如下

The story behind its creation goes like this:

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

有個叫做西蒙奈德的詩人

他要去參加一個晚宴

其實他算是被請去做表演嘉賓的

He was actually the hired entertainment,

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

因爲在那個年代 炫酷派對的標准

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

不是請D.J.來打碟 而是要請詩人來頌詩

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

他站起來 背出了他的全篇詩作 然後潇灑離去

and at the moment he does,

他剛走出門口 晚宴大廳就塌了

the banquet hall collapses.

砸死了裏面所有的人

Kills everybody inside.

不僅全體死亡

It doesn't just kill everybody,

it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.

所有的死者都被砸得面目全非

沒人說得清死者都有些誰

Nobody can say who was inside,

沒人說得清誰坐在哪兒

nobody can say where they were sitting.

The bodies can't be properly buried.

導致死者的屍體沒法得到合適的殉葬安置

It's one tragedy compounding another.

這又加重了整件事的悲劇色彩

Simonides, standing outside,

西蒙奈德站在外面

the sole survivor amid the wreckage,

作爲廢墟中的唯一幸存者

closes his eyes and has this realization,

閉上眼睛 猛然意識到

在他的腦海中

which is that in his mind's eye,

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

他眼前出現了所有賓客所坐的位置

And he takes the relatives by the hand,

他就牽著親屬們的手

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

穿過廢墟 把他們帶到了親人身邊

西蒙奈德當時猛然醒悟的事

What Simonides figured out at that moment,

大概我們大家也都猜到了

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

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

其實是 不管我們

有多不善于記住姓名 電話號碼

and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues,

或是同事的每句指令

we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.

我們都擁有異常敏銳的視覺或空間記憶能力

要是我讓你們逐字逐句地重述

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

that I just told you about Simonides,

我剛才講的西蒙奈德故事的前十個字

應該沒幾個人會記得

chances are you would have a tough time with it.

但我敢打賭

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

如果我讓你們現在回想下

who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse

在你的門廳裏 坐在會講話的棕色駿馬上的

是誰

in your foyer right now,

你們就明白我剛才說的意思了

you would be able to see that.

The idea behind the memory palace

記憶宮殿的原理

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

就是在你的腦海裏建立一棟想象大廈

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

並讓你想記住的東西

的影像充滿其中

the crazier, weirder, more bizarre,

越是瘋狂 古怪 奇詭

funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is,

荒誕搞笑 亂七八糟 招人厭惡的影像

the more unforgettable it's likely to be.

就越容易記住

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

這個建議來自于兩千多年前

拉丁最早的記憶學者

to the earliest Latin memory treatises.

So how does this work?

那麽 這種說法的原理到底是什麽呢

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

假設你被邀請

站上TED的中心講台演講

而你想脫稿完成

and you want to do it from memory,

如西塞羅在兩千年前在TEDx羅馬上的演講一般

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

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

他就會這麽霸氣走一回 而你也想這樣

(Laughter)

What you might do

你要做的就是

is picture yourself at the front door of your house.

想象自己站在自家門前

然後憑空想象出

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

一段完全荒誕瘋狂難忘的景象

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

用來提示你上台要提的第一件事

is this totally bizarre contest.

就是這場詭異的裸騎大賽

(Laughter)

然後你走進房子裏

And then you'd go inside your house,

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

想到甜餅怪物

坐在Ed先生背上的樣子

And that would remind you

這個景象會提醒你

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

要介紹你的朋友Ed Cook

然後你腦海裏出現了小甜甜布蘭妮的樣子

And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears

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

你就會想起要講那個關于布蘭妮的小故事

And you'd go into your kitchen,

然後你走進廚房

and the fourth topic you were going to talk about

你要說到的第四個話題是

你花了一整年走過的奇妙曆程

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

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

通過綠野仙蹤就可以聯想得到

這就是羅馬演說家背誦演講稿的秘訣

This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches --

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

並非一字不差 逐字背誦只會平添麻煩

but topic-for-topic.

而是記住一個個主題

其實 短語"主題句"

In fact, the phrase "topic sentence" --

就來源于希臘詞"topos"

that comes from the Greek word "topos,"

which means "place."

意思是"地點"

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

這是古時候

人們談到演講或是修辭時

會用到的空間術語

in these sorts of spatial terms.

The phrase "in the first place,"

短語 "第一"

就意味著你的記憶宮殿的第一層

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

I thought this was just fascinating,

這簡直太有意思了

and I got really into it.

我對這起了很大的興趣

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

後來我又去了更多記憶大賽

and I had this notion that I might write something longer

我開始萌發了要更詳細描寫

about this subculture of competitive memorizers.

這種競技記憶文化的念頭

但有一個問題

But there was a problem.

The problem was that a memory contest

問題是記憶大賽

is a pathologically boring event.

其實過程很無聊的

(Laughter)

(大笑)

真的 就像一群人坐那兒高考一樣

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

I mean, the most dramatic it gets

最最激動人心的時刻

is when somebody starts massaging their temples.

也不過就是有人揉了揉太陽穴

我是個記者 總得有東西可寫呀

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

我知道這些人腦子裏肯定是驚濤駭浪

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

but I don't have access to it.

但我作爲外人無法得見

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

我意識到 若我真的想報道這事兒

I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.

一定得親身體驗才行

所以我開始嘗試著每天早上坐下來看紐約時報前

And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes

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

花上十五到二十分鍾

just trying to remember something.

嘗試記憶一些事

背背小詩

Maybe it was a poem,

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

背背我在跳蚤市場買來的

舊年鑒裏的人名

我驚奇地發現這其實非常帶勁

And I found that this was shockingly fun.

I never would have expected that.

要不去嘗試根本想不到

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

有趣在于 其實目標並不是要通過訓練提高記憶力

而是你在努力培養改善

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

創造力 想象力

at creating, at dreaming up,

these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious,

在你的腦海裏憑空造出

and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.

那些完全滑稽荒誕胡亂 最好是難忘的影像

And I got pretty into it.

而它成爲了我的樂趣

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

這是我戴著標准競賽記憶者訓練套裝的樣子

(Laughter)

它有一對耳塞

It's a pair of earmuffs

and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over

一副護目鏡 鏡面全部遮黑

就留了兩個小孔

except for two small pinholes,

because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.

因爲競技記憶者最大的敵人就是注意力分散

最後 我再次回到了一年前報道的那場競賽場上

I ended up coming back to that same contest

that I had covered a year earlier,

and I had this notion that I might enter it,

我一時衝動 也想報名參加

sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.

就當做參與性新聞報道的實驗了

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

我當時想 到時能在前言裏調侃一下自己也好

Problem was, the experiment went haywire.

問題是 實驗最後得到了意想不到的結果

I won the contest --

那場競賽我贏了

(Laughter)

which really wasn't supposed to happen.

真是完全出乎我預料之外

(Applause)

(鼓掌)

Now, it is nice to be able to memorize speeches

對我來說現在

背演講稿 電話號碼 或是購物單

and phone numbers and shopping lists,

都是小菜一碟 倒是很不錯

但其實這些都不重要了

but it's actually kind of beside the point.

這些都是小伎倆

These are just tricks.

這些記憶伎倆之所以有效

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

是因爲它們依仗人類大腦運轉的

about how our brains work.

一些基本原理

並不用真的去建立記憶宮殿

And you don't have to be building memory palaces

or memorizing packs of playing cards

或記下幾副牌的順序

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

你也完全可以從了解大腦運轉原理中

獲得一些益處

We often talk about people with great memories

我們總會議論記憶力很好的人

總覺得那些人是天賦異禀

as though it were some sort of an innate gift,

but that is not the case.

事實並不是這樣

Great memories are learned.

強大的記憶力是可以習得的

從最根本的說起 專心致志就能記住

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

全心投入時就能記住

We remember when we are deeply engaged.

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

只要能想辦法把信息和經曆

轉化爲有意義的事

and figure out why it is meaningful to us,

就能記住

why it is significant, why it's colorful,

想它爲何重要 爲何多彩

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

當我們能把它轉化成爲

有前因後果的事

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

並跟我們腦海中繁雜瑣碎的其他事産生聯想時

when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.

當我們能把人名Baker轉化爲面包師baker時

記憶宮殿 或是那些記憶技巧

The memory palace, these memory techniques --

都只是捷徑而已

they're just shortcuts.

In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.

其實 說到底它們都不能算捷徑

They work because they make you work.

這方法有效是因爲它迫使你思考

它迫使你往更深層次去想

They force a kind of depth of processing,

a kind of mindfulness,

讓你更加專注

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

大部分人平時並不會費力去訓練這個

But there actually are no shortcuts.

其實捷徑並不存在

這一直就是我們能記住事物的原因

This is how stuff is made memorable.

有一件事我希望你們能記住

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

就是E.P.

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

那個連自己患了健忘症都想不起來的人

left me with,

讓我深思

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

得出了一個感想

人生就是我們個人記憶的合集

How much are we willing to lose

在短暫的人生裏

你還願意因爲黑莓 iPhone

from our already short lives,

by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones,

喪失多少瞬間

by not paying attention to the human being across from us

忽略對面坐著的人

who is talking with us,

在跟我們交談的人

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

變得越發懶惰 不願意

深究任何事？

通過親身經曆 我發現

I learned firsthand

that there are incredible memory capacities

我們的身體裏潛藏著

latent in all of us.

不可思議的記憶能力

但若你想活得難忘

But if you want to live a memorable life,

就得做那種

you have to be the kind of person

who remembers to remember.

記得時常記憶的人

Thank you.

謝謝

(Applause)

(鼓掌)