Arthur Benjamin does some amazing feats of brain magic.
He holds an entire audience in awe multiplying numbers such as 57,683 x 57,683.
And says funny words like ‘cookie fission’. Add ‘kerry’ to ‘fission.’ And then ‘rev up’, and add that to ‘fission.’
He has no problem squaring numbers faster than calculators.
In fact he squares two digit numbers, three digit numbers, and four digit numbers like we say ‘three square equals nine’.
He’s able to tell you which day of the month you were born on, based on the year and the date.
And that’s just some of the crazy mathematical stuff he does (and yes, he does it live!)
But is Art Benjamin a liar?
Because he tellls us he’s not a genius.
He says he’s using a method. And when someone says the word ‘method’, it means they’re using a series of steps.
So Art Benjamin is saying he’s not a genius.
Liar!
Susan Polgar, the first female grandmaster in chess says something similar.
Her words are: “You’re in total control of your own destiny. I really believe that if you put your mind to it, and you really want it, you can achieve it. Whatever it is.”
Liar!
Andy Bell is the holder of the title of World Memory Champion
In twenty minutes he has to remember the sequence of ten decks of cards. That’s 520 cards. And he has to remember every card, in its correct sequence. No matter how many cards are fired at him, Andy remembers them perfectly. Everyone correct, and in the right order.
Again, Andy says he has a method. “As I child”, he says, “I had conventionally good memory. But once you learn a technique, like the location method I use, it takes everything beyond what you can possibly do naturally. I think I have the same mental equipment as everyone else. So it’s something anyone can do.”
Liar!
So here’s the irony of so-called genius.
The really smart people say they’re not smart.
They say they have a method. A code. A system.
That they’re like everyone else.
Conventional. Regular. Not genius-like at all.
All liars.
Including the biggest one of them all: Albert Einstein who said, “I am not smarter than anyone else. I’m just more curious.”
Yeah, right!
Note: To watch the video of Arthur Benjamin doing his mathemagic act, you’ll need to go online to: https://brainaudit.com/?p=49
I doubt I could remember 520 cards in sequence if I worked at it for 100 years. But I don’t feel motivated to even try. It’s not something I care to spend energy on.
So how much of a factor in the genius’ ability to do what they do is the factor of “desire”.
I find the things that truly interest me inspire me to do much more than the things that bore me. In fact I often make what I describe as intuitive leaps of logic when working on a problem. Invariably these “leaps of logic” turn out to be correct.
I bet there’s a pattern in there. And I pick up on it without being fully cognizant of it.
Oh to be able to focus that ability on the most important things in life. 🙂
Technically the answer is that you may not be able to crack the code in a 100 years. But that’s only if you don’t know what to look for.
A teacher who is able to give you the code could probably show you how to do it, in a matter of weeks, or months. Or amazingly, even days.
The things that truly interest you have a certain pay-off. Learning how to memorise cards have no pay-off in your mind. Sure it’s a good beer trick, but you can’t see why you’d need to go so far to learn another beer trick.
The message lies in the code.
And the teacher.
And the student.
Willingness can be learned with success.
Read the book, Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.
You’ll see how patterns seem to emerge. You won’t be any wiser about how to do it yourself, but it’s very instructional on how we can’t explain ourselves.