In this chapter the author want to find out, how can an average human being can become an Expert in a specific field, and He highlights the common traits of the experts such as: expert see the world differently, which the non-experts can’t see An Expert in a specific field has a superior memory for the details of that field Most importantly experts overcomes the brain’s most famous constraint “7” Author says that in the field of remembering an average human can hold upto 7 plus or minus 2 digits in his brain at time. This the capacity of our short term memories by which we are limited but an expert is not limited by this constraint. When an expert look at a number, he does not see just the number rather he sees a memory or an image from the past such as Birth date or any memory which is related to the number. In the chapter author explains this difference between an average human and expert more clearly with examples such as chicken sexers and Swat officers

1. Chapter_4: Moonwalking
with Einstein
By Joshua Foer
Presenter: Uday kiran Yeda

2. Content
▶ About The Book
▶ What is world memory championship?
▶ Who is an expert?
▶ Common traits of Experts
▶ Example 1: Chicken Sexers
▶ Example 2: Swat Team
▶ The Magic Number seven
▶ Skilled memory Theory
▶ How they are seeing the world differently?
▶ Conclusion

3. About the Book
● This book is about the year author spent in training his memory and also
about
● Understanding that even a person with average memory(untrained memory)
can improve his memory to a level of a Memory champion/athlete
● Memory
● How it works?
● Natural deficiencies
● Hidden potential

4. What is world memory championship?
Qualifying Events in memory Championship
● Names and Faces – record 201 points (i.e. 201 face in 15 min)
● Speed Numbers - 483 digits in 5 min
● Speed Cards - 52 cards in 18.653 seconds (world record)
● Poetry - 15 minutes to memorize a previously unpublished poem

5. Who is an expert?
According to Wikipedia:
Somebody who obtains results that are vastly superior to those obtained by the
majority of the population
Example

6. Common traits of Experts
● Every expert see the world differently, which the non-experts cant see
● An Expert in a specific field has a superior memory for the details of that
field.
● Superior memory of waiters.
● Vast capacity of actors to remember lines
● Best violinists are good at understanding new musical scores
● Cognitive capabilities
● Most importantly experts overcomes the brain’s most famous constraint “7”
● Rapid decisions in complex and dynamic situations

7. Expert Example1 chicken sexers
Chicken sexing: Determining the sex of a chicken whether the chick is a boy or a
girl
● It has revolutionized the global hatchery industry and eventually lowered the
price of egg worldwide
● Zen-nippon Chicken sexing school
● Every sexer has to remember thousands of different configurations to become
competent

8. Expert Example 2: SWAT team
Experiment:
where members of SWAT team and recent police graduates were bombarded with
a scenario, where they saw a man walk towards a school with a suspicious bulge
that looked like a bomb strapped to his chest.
Result :
Experienced SWAT officers immediately pulled their guns and yelled repeatedly
for the suspect to stop. When he didn't they almost always shot him. Where as
the recent graduates let the man with bomb into the building.

9. Question is how do they do it ?
● Even the best professional cant determine how they determine the gender in
the most toughest and Ambiguous cases
● With in 3 seconds they know whether the chicken is boy or a girl
● They call it “intuition”

10. The magic number seven
Working memory
● Collection of brain systems that holds what ever is rattling around in our
conscious at the present movement
● Filter between perception of the world and the long term memory of it
● “magic number seven” universal capacity of short-term or working memory

11. Skilled memory theory
Skilled memory theory: Explains how and why our memories are improvable.
Experiment : To remember as many numbers as possible, at the rate of 1 per
second
Initially : He could hold only about 7 digits at a time in his head (phonological
loop)
After 250 hours: Expanded his ability by factor of 10. (chucking)

12. Chunking
The way to remember less number of items by increasing the size of the item
● Phone number - broken into two parts plus an area code
● Credit card – numbers split into group of four
● Example 12 digit numerical string 120741091101
● Break it into four chunks 120, 741,091, 101
● Turn it into two chunks 12/07/41 and 09/11/01
● Make it more meaningful “pearl harbor” and “911”

13. How its working
● He was using the associations in his long term memory to see the numbers
differently
● Past experience which shapes how we perceive the present
● They use their memories to see the world differently

14. How they are seeing the world
differently?
● SWAT officer
● Doesn't see a man walking in front of a school.
● He sees nervous twitch in the mans arm that call up associations with dozens of
other nervous twitches he’s seen in his years of policing
● He perceives the current encounter in the light of the past encounter like it
● Chicken Sexer
● When a skilled chicken sexer they look at the chick’s bottom, They automatically
pull up the stock of information in the chick’s anatomy. To decide whether a chick
is a boy or a girl
● They call it “intuition” which has been shaped by years of experience
● Each sexer should work through at least 250,000 chicks before attaining degree.

15. BUT…
● There is something about the mastering a specific field that breeds a better
memory for the details of that field
● But what is that something
● Can that something be generalized
Yes, its called Experience
Chicken Sexer: Each sexer should work through at least 250,000 chicks before attaining
degree
Senior SWAT office: his experience is hard earned

16. Continued..
● Experts intuitions are shaped by years of experience
● Inmost of the cases, the skill is not the result of conscious reasoning, but
pattern recognition.
● In other words it’s a feat of perception and memory not analysis

17. Conclusion
● Our memories are always with us shaping and being shaped by the information
flowing through our senses ,in a continuous feed back loop.
● Who are we and what we do is a fundamentally a function of past.