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GET SMART
AN INTERVIEW WITH BRAIN AND MEMORY AUTHORITY TONY
BUZAN
by Jason Zasky
In
the classic 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow wonders
what he might accomplish if he only had a brain. Tony Buzan ponders
how he can get individuals to maximize the mental capacity they
already possess. For the past 30 years, Buzan's mission has been
to raise public awareness about the potential of the human brain—writing,
lecturing and teaching individuals how to improve their memory,
creativity and problem solving ability. In the process, he's created
his own cottage industry, demonstrating what's possible if you only
"Use Your Head"—the title of one of his best-selling books.
Among his other achievements, Buzan is the founder of the World
Memory Championships and inventor of Mind Maps®, a paper-and-pencil
system of planning and note taking designed to promote creativity
and imagination. On March 1—in the midst of a month-long U.S.
tour to promote his new book "How To Mind Map" (Thorsons)—Buzan
attended the 2003 U.S. Memory Championship (Memoriad) in New York
City, where Failure presented him with a handful of questions
on the subject of memory.
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| A
sample Mind Map |
What's the
difference between the competitors at the Memoriad and the average
person?
The difference is that they are here. In other words, their brains
are the same. The people who compete in memory competitions include
students, musicians, journalists, computer technicians, writers,
teachers, laborers, psychiatric workers, nurses, lawyers, gardeners—you
name the profession. They are interested because the fundamental
glue that joins everybody together is memory. Whatever your profession
or your hobby, you've got to remember information about it. Whatever
your situation, memory is a prime—if not the prime—survival
tool.
"The
reason why they have a fear of failure is that they've been told
not to make mistakes."
Perhaps the closest metaphor is when you go into a health club or
gym you see a whole bunch of people working out the muscles of their
body. The people at the Memoriad are working out the muscles of
their mind. Some people say, "What's the point of memorizing a bunch
of numbers?" Now, I could use just the same argument. Go into a
gym and look at somebody who's been on a bike for 41 minutes and
say, "Look, you stupid idiot, you've been cycling like a maniac
for 41 minutes and you haven't gone anywhere. What's the matter
with you?" In the same way as cycling in the gym or lifting weights
builds your body, memorization trains your mind. The nice thing
is when you train the muscle of memory you are simultaneously training
the muscles of creativity, general thinking, survival and problem
solving.
The contestants
here all seem to be using memory techniques. What are some of the
most common techniques?
They are all using their own personalized approach. But the technique
that every single one uses is the same. It's always an image that
is linked to something else. For instance, when they are memorizing
a number, in their own head they have a special picture. For the
number one, they might have a picture of a paintbrush because it
looks like a "1". For the number two they might have a picture of
a swan in their head. When they get down to number 12 they see a
picture of a paintbrush painting a swan, which is much easier to
remember than a "1" and a "2". So all of them are using imagination
and association, which are the prime memory techniques.
What's the
most memorable performance you've seen by a competitor at the World
Memory Championship?
Three years ago Dominic O'Brien recalled 100 of 100 digits [in the
spoken number event]. Having done that he went for 200 and did about
118. He won the championship and he felt good. He hadn't been drinking
[alcohol] for three months, and he'd been doing athletic activity,
so he was the total mental athlete. After he won the trophy he celebrated
by having a glass of champagne and then at the annual celebration
dinner he continued to celebrate. He had another champagne and another
champagne and then wine with the meal. After he'd had about seven
or eight glasses of wine—well into the late evening—one
of the other competitors said, "Dominic? Could you remember it [the
100 digit number] again?" Dominic said, "I'll try." And after all
that time and all that wine and celebration he started off, [mumbling
slowly] "1, 0, 9, 5, 3, 5 [then faster and more clearly] 1, 8, 7,
5, 6," etc. He recalled it perfectly. Then the other competitor
said, "Could you memorize another one in your current state?" It
was really mean because Dominic is a great game player and again
he said, "I'll try." So we had him memorize and he actually did
better than in the tournament.
What can
a person do to improve his or her memory?
The keys are to improve your imagination and to improve your ability
to associate and locate things. When you do that you are automatically
training your creativity and memory, enabling yourself to focus
and concentrate more. It's simply a matter of sticking to that task,
as any athlete would, so that you become fit in that area.
Tell me
about what you've described as your "failure book."
I wrote a book called "Head Strong." As you know, I coach Olympic
athletes [Britain's Olympic Rowing Team]. One of the main problems
that athletes and people around the world have is the fear of failure.
The reason why they have a fear of failure is that they've been
told not to make mistakes. So the entire body goes into a state
of very negative stress—exactly the opposite of what it needs
to be. In terms of learning there is no such thing as failure, other
than perhaps the idea that you've stopped trying to learn. But what
happens is that athletes "fail"—they drop the ball, the golf
ball goes into the water, they double-fault, whatever it is. Then
they start to associate—which is a key mental power—and
imagine a key mental power in a negative spiral. They beat themselves
up because they think that failure is bad and should never be done.
The amazing thing is when they think that, they automatically increase
the probability that they will make another mistake. We are now
adjusting the way we have historically thought about failure, and
any time you make a mistake you analyze it, check it out and move
on. So I'm sad to inform you that failure doesn't exist [laughs].
EMAIL THE AUTHOR
LINKS
http://www.iMindMap.com
(Official Web site of Tony Buzan)
http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com
(Official Web site of the World Memory Championship)
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