Sunday, March 07, 2004

where are my keys?

Wired has an interesting article about the 'Masters of Memory', people who are extraordinarily good at remembering. There's even a competition, where events include memorizing 400 words and reciting them back in order and memorizing a string of thousands of random 1's and 0's.

The part I find interesting is these aren't 'Rainman' savants... in fact, many of the competitors say that anyone can do what they do, with enough practice. While I am willing to accept this, in theory, I must also admit that I need to count on my fingers to figure out how old I am, and I have (on more than one occasion) lost my keys or glasses when they were in my hand. So yeah, I'll probably be at the World Memory Championships... I'll be the guy taking your ticket at the door. Don't bother asking me where the bathrooms are or when the events start... I'm sure I won't remember.