Unlimited Memory
Kevin Horsley · 2014
Unlimited Memory (2014) is a book by Kevin Horsley on Learning & Memory. Memory grandmaster Kevin Horsley turns recall into a trainable skill: kill the "bad memory" story, master concentration, then convert dry information into vivid images anchored to journeys you already know.
A memory grandmaster who was labelled learning-disabled as a child proves the punchline: memory isn't a gift you're born with, it's a set of techniques you can learn in an afternoon.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Unlimited Memory pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- Horsley was diagnosed with a learning disability as a child and later memorized pi to 10,000 digits, the strongest available evidence that memory is a trained skill, not inherited hardware.
- Saying "I have a terrible memory" is not a diagnosis, it's an instruction. The brain obeys the identity you repeat, so the first technique in the book is deleting the label.
- Most "forgetting" is never actually encoding. You didn't lose the person's name, you were rehearsing your own introduction while they said it.
The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 9 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- The Man Who Wasn't Supposed to Remember
- Delete the Story You Tell About Your Memory
- Concentration: Be Here Now
- The SEE Principle: Making Images Impossible to Ignore
- The Car Method and the Body Method
- Turning Numbers into Things You Can Picture
- Names, Faces, and the Art of Actually Hearing Them
- Learning, Reading, and Remembering What You Read
- Use It or Lose It: Review, Procrastination, and Practice
Finish Unlimited Memory tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
More on Learning & Memory
-
A Mind for Numbers Barbara Oakley An engineering professor who once flunked her way through math shows that "not a math person" is a description of your study… -
Moonwalking with Einstein Joshua Foer A skeptical journalist trains for a year, wins the U.S. Memory Championship, and proves that extraordinary memory is a learnable… -
The Memory Book Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas The book that turned memory from a talent you're born with into a set of mechanical tricks anyone can run in seconds. -
Remember Lisa Genova A neuroscientist explains what your memory is actually built to do, and why most of what terrifies you about forgetting is your… -
Why We Remember Charan Ranganath You don't have a bad memory, you have a human one, tuned to keep what matters and let the rest go. -
Atlas of the Heart Brené Brown Most of us can name only three emotions; this atlas hands us language for eighty-seven, and argues that the words you have for…