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What Makes an Expert? Thoughts From a Memory Champion

06.05.11

For a crowd so invested in methodology , you might expect awe at Foer's memorization feat—especially considering the year of practicing he endured with a mental gymnastics club here in New York, and the Memory Champion title he won while writing his book. But as it turns out, Foer has a handicap: He's American. Elsewhere in the world, where memorization is apparently considered less lame of a hobby, mental gymnasts routinely memorize the same 52-card deck in about one-third the time. Most Americans have trouble breaking a minute.

The reward for vanquishing a mental barrier, it seems, is a mean case of hindsight, more competitors, and new, taller barriers. Foer cites Roger Baninster's four-minute mile on this day in 1954, and the scores of runners who've achieved it since. Once people get over their mental blocks, he says, "What seems like an impenetrable barrier often becomes a floodgate."

Back in the zoo, this was not auspicious news. Consider the following example.