[Music]
so add a little test for you don’t panic
I’m not here to judge you it’s just a
little test okay
first you get 30 seconds to memorize 10
words in the right order after that you
get 30 seconds to write down what you
remembered and then finally you get 30
seconds to check your answers so are you
guys ready well we’re gonna start anyway
so memorize ten words in the right order
in 30 seconds in three two one go
okay stop now write down which you
remember
okay and stop now quickly check your
answers
[Music]
okay and stop so very exciting I heard a
lot of grunting and moaning so I hope I
didn’t stretch you out too much now
a moment of reflection I’d like you to
ask yourself how did I memorize this and
was it the best way to do it now for the
generation of my parents and
grandparents being able to memorize
something like this was an absolutely
essential skill but nowadays why would
anyone want to remember a list of
anything you just take a picture of the
screen and you’re done right so with all
the technology we have these days it
seemed as if memorizing is somehow
become less important so why should we
then in today’s day and age still want
to get better at memorizing well to
answer that question I’d like to tell
you a little story in high school I
flunked a grade twice after seven years
of torture I finally got my diploma
sweet sweet freedom what would I do with
it I didn’t know one thing I did know
however was that I didn’t want to go
back to school because that old learning
business
it wasn’t cut out for me so instead I
went to sunny California for nine months
and there I worked as a bagger not
beggar bagger so in a supermarket I had
to put people’s groceries in bags and
then I’d get a little tip surprisingly
that year I learned so much I learned
how to bag a bunch of groceries really
really quickly I learned how to drive a
car and in California people are a
little bit more open than they are in
Amsterdam so I also learned how to have
a little chat with a stranger just for
the hell of it that year I discovered
that I don’t hate learning just a
specific way of doing it so I just
to go and study psychology now for the
first time ever I was getting
information that I absolutely wanted to
know now I was spending more time in the
library then I spent skipping school as
a teenager voluntarily the only problem
was that I was spending all of my time
in the library because I’d never learned
how to learn so I started experimenting
with different methods of reading texts
of memorizing texts and I got my reading
time of three hours to chapter down to
one this way of studying enabled me to
do an honours program to get my degree
and to fall in love with learning and
now I happily work for a company called
remind in which we teach people the
science and art of learning we’re trying
to bring back into education but we
ourselves missed now for the past three
years we’ve also organized the Dutch
national memory championships for high
schoolers we do this to show that
everybody is capable of amazing feats of
memory but also to show that
memorization is about a lot more than
just learning your French or your
Spanish words and today I’d also like to
share this with you so in the beginning
I made you do this little test just to
make you aware of how you’re memorizing
things right now next I’d like to give
you a new type of memory experience this
time you can even sit back and relax
so I’m going to ask you to find a
comfortable position to sit to close
your eyes and to take a deep breath now
I want you to think of someone you know
called John and I want you to see him
now John just grabbed the Sun out of the
sky and he just threw it on your feet
and now your feet are getting really big
and red and swollen because John just
threw the Sun on your feet
now you look to your knees and on your
knees you see ten little guys playing
basketball very strange sight and on
their shirts you can see in brightly
colored letters the New York Knicks so
you have some Knicks on your knees next
you look to where your thighs are but
they’re gone your thighs have been
replaced with Ford’s the cars they could
be Ford Focuses or Ford Mustangs your
thighs have been replaced with Ford’s
now with your bottom you feel a hard
plastic seat of a go-kart vibrating with
your bottom you feel the hard plastic
seat of a go-kart your belly starts
rumbling very loudly so you follow your
belly and it leads you to McDonald’s and
there Ronald McDonald start shooting
rays of light at you with a ray gun
Ronald McDonald is shooting rays of
light at you with a ray gun you he hits
you on your chest and now from your
chest a big Bush of gray hairs is
growing a huge Bush of gray hair is
growing from your chest
so obviously you hurry home to shave it
off and on your doormat you see a letter
so you open it and it has good news as
you read it you feel the huge weight
falling off your shoulders a huge weight
falling off your shoulders your
shoulders get all light and tingly
because you just paid all of your bills
big bills little bills each and every
bill has been paid for and you have
plenty of money to spare
now you proceed to the bathroom because
now on your neck a bunch of tiny bushes
of thin blonde hairs have appeared on
your neck a bunch of tiny bushes of thin
blonde hair
as you look in the mirror suddenly your
mouth just starts talking all by itself
and it’s saying yes we can yes we can
yes we can
now you turn around and now suddenly
your eyes are ah because Donald Duck
just poked out both of your eyes with
the trumpets made of pure gold now you
can open your eyes again and come back
to this place luckily it’s a lot safer
here than what you just came from so I
just made you guys memorize the past ten
presidents of the United States of
America in the right order now I’m gonna
show you and then you can see how many
of these you still know so with each
body part I’m gonna ask you what
happened there and then you could think
of it even better would be if you just
shout it up now what happened to your
feet John through the Sun yeah President
Johnson
now what happened on your knees Knicks
yes President Nixon okay so what were
your thighs replaced with for its
President Ford okay and what did you
feel with your bottom okay
President Carter yes some people are
ahead of the game um
now um your belly led you to McDonald’s
what happened
okay Ronald McDonald shooting Raisa yeah
okay so Ronald Reagan he itch in your
chest and you got what big Bush of gray
hairs bush senior now your shoulders got
light why paid all your bills Bill
Clinton now um what did you have on your
neck okay
a bush of thin blonde hairs Bush jr.
what was your mob saying yes we can
President Obama and what happen to your
eyes yeah Donald Duck trumpet pure gold
who else but Donald Trump so if you
memorized more this time than the first
time please stand up
okay so we have almost everyone standing
up that’s awesome um now if you think
this way of memorizing is more fun than
the last way you use please stand up or
remain standing if you’re already
standing oh whoa now we almost have
everyone I’m very pleased to see this
okay you guys can sit back down thank
you very much now when you make bizarre
images to memorize suddenly it becomes a
lot easier if you tie these bizarre
images to a place you know well like
your body suddenly memorizing things in
order becomes a lot easier okay well
cool but I asked you guys in the
beginning why should we in today’s day
and age still want to get better at this
and memorizing well because by getting
better in a skill like this you can also
get better at a different skill the
skill of experimentation by
experimenting with different methods of
doing things I found out that I can get
better at anything I found out what
works for me and what doesn’t what if
I’d never learned the skill of
experimentation I may have never gone
back to school I may have never enjoyed
studying psychology and I probably would
not have been standing here today
because one of the things I thought I
really couldn’t do was public speaking
now there are people of every generation
not doing things that they might love
that they might even be great at because
they think they can’t do it
so how beautiful would it be if in
schools we can teach kids that they can
get better at anything and they can even
get better at getting better at things
get it but not just the kids because the
older generation is often seen as too
old to learn but they’re not too rusty
anyone can improve themselves by
experimenting and I hope you experience
that today now out remind
we break up this process of
experimentation into three steps the
check the experience and the experiment
the check is all about becoming aware of
what you’re doing right now
so maybe during the first test you
became aware of the fact that you just
repeat the words over and over and that
that doesn’t work too well the second
step the experience is all about being
open to new possibilities and trying
them out so maybe during the
visualization you realize that this
works a bit better or at least you like
it more and the third step is the
experiment this is about taking
something from that new experience that
you had and applying it in your own life
to see how it works for you so maybe
you’re one of those people that when
someone introduces themselves to you you
just immediately forget their name yeah
sound familiar and you want to use
visualization to do something about that
so far I’ve only taken you guys through
the first two steps the final step is up
to you so when I’m done here I’d like
you to take a moment for yourself and to
write down an experiment on the little
card we’ve given you and to put that in
your wallet as a reminder by continually
following these steps of experimentation
you discover what you’re doing you keep
yourself open to new possibilities and
you allow yourself to continually
transform and regardless of what your
learning be it memorizing or martial
arts or mathematics you’ll get better
not only in the skill that you’re trying
to develop but you’ll get better at the
process of learning itself and that’s
something that sticks it’s something you
could take with you to your new job your
new hobby your new relationship you knew
whatever so this is something absolutely
everyone should know and I believe we
should teach it in schools but let’s not
just wait for it to be implemented in
schools I also believe that the most
important change starts with the
individual it starts with you so go out
there and experiment learn something new
or a new way of approaching something
old because there are a few skills as
valuable as the art of learning thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
so add a little test for you don’t panic
I’m not here to judge you it’s just a
little test okay
first you get 30 seconds to memorize 10
words in the right order after that you
get 30 seconds to write down what you
remembered and then finally you get 30
seconds to check your answers so are you
guys ready well we’re gonna start anyway
so memorize ten words in the right order
in 30 seconds in three two one go
okay stop now write down which you
remember
okay and stop now quickly check your
answers
[Music]
okay and stop so very exciting I heard a
lot of grunting and moaning so I hope I
didn’t stretch you out too much now
a moment of reflection I’d like you to
ask yourself how did I memorize this and
was it the best way to do it now for the
generation of my parents and
grandparents being able to memorize
something like this was an absolutely
essential skill but nowadays why would
anyone want to remember a list of
anything you just take a picture of the
screen and you’re done right so with all
the technology we have these days it
seemed as if memorizing is somehow
become less important so why should we
then in today’s day and age still want
to get better at memorizing well to
answer that question I’d like to tell
you a little story in high school I
flunked a grade twice after seven years
of torture I finally got my diploma
sweet sweet freedom what would I do with
it I didn’t know one thing I did know
however was that I didn’t want to go
back to school because that old learning
business
it wasn’t cut out for me so instead I
went to sunny California for nine months
and there I worked as a bagger not
beggar bagger so in a supermarket I had
to put people’s groceries in bags and
then I’d get a little tip surprisingly
that year I learned so much I learned
how to bag a bunch of groceries really
really quickly I learned how to drive a
car and in California people are a
little bit more open than they are in
Amsterdam so I also learned how to have
a little chat with a stranger just for
the hell of it that year I discovered
that I don’t hate learning just a
specific way of doing it so I just
to go and study psychology now for the
first time ever I was getting
information that I absolutely wanted to
know now I was spending more time in the
library then I spent skipping school as
a teenager voluntarily the only problem
was that I was spending all of my time
in the library because I’d never learned
how to learn so I started experimenting
with different methods of reading texts
of memorizing texts and I got my reading
time of three hours to chapter down to
one this way of studying enabled me to
do an honours program to get my degree
and to fall in love with learning and
now I happily work for a company called
remind in which we teach people the
science and art of learning we’re trying
to bring back into education but we
ourselves missed now for the past three
years we’ve also organized the Dutch
national memory championships for high
schoolers we do this to show that
everybody is capable of amazing feats of
memory but also to show that
memorization is about a lot more than
just learning your French or your
Spanish words and today I’d also like to
share this with you so in the beginning
I made you do this little test just to
make you aware of how you’re memorizing
things right now next I’d like to give
you a new type of memory experience this
time you can even sit back and relax
so I’m going to ask you to find a
comfortable position to sit to close
your eyes and to take a deep breath now
I want you to think of someone you know
called John and I want you to see him
now John just grabbed the Sun out of the
sky and he just threw it on your feet
and now your feet are getting really big
and red and swollen because John just
threw the Sun on your feet
now you look to your knees and on your
knees you see ten little guys playing
basketball very strange sight and on
their shirts you can see in brightly
colored letters the New York Knicks so
you have some Knicks on your knees next
you look to where your thighs are but
they’re gone your thighs have been
replaced with Ford’s the cars they could
be Ford Focuses or Ford Mustangs your
thighs have been replaced with Ford’s
now with your bottom you feel a hard
plastic seat of a go-kart vibrating with
your bottom you feel the hard plastic
seat of a go-kart your belly starts
rumbling very loudly so you follow your
belly and it leads you to McDonald’s and
there Ronald McDonald start shooting
rays of light at you with a ray gun
Ronald McDonald is shooting rays of
light at you with a ray gun you he hits
you on your chest and now from your
chest a big Bush of gray hairs is
growing a huge Bush of gray hair is
growing from your chest
so obviously you hurry home to shave it
off and on your doormat you see a letter
so you open it and it has good news as
you read it you feel the huge weight
falling off your shoulders a huge weight
falling off your shoulders your
shoulders get all light and tingly
because you just paid all of your bills
big bills little bills each and every
bill has been paid for and you have
plenty of money to spare
now you proceed to the bathroom because
now on your neck a bunch of tiny bushes
of thin blonde hairs have appeared on
your neck a bunch of tiny bushes of thin
blonde hair
as you look in the mirror suddenly your
mouth just starts talking all by itself
and it’s saying yes we can yes we can
yes we can
now you turn around and now suddenly
your eyes are ah because Donald Duck
just poked out both of your eyes with
the trumpets made of pure gold now you
can open your eyes again and come back
to this place luckily it’s a lot safer
here than what you just came from so I
just made you guys memorize the past ten
presidents of the United States of
America in the right order now I’m gonna
show you and then you can see how many
of these you still know so with each
body part I’m gonna ask you what
happened there and then you could think
of it even better would be if you just
shout it up now what happened to your
feet John through the Sun yeah President
Johnson
now what happened on your knees Knicks
yes President Nixon okay so what were
your thighs replaced with for its
President Ford okay and what did you
feel with your bottom okay
President Carter yes some people are
ahead of the game um
now um your belly led you to McDonald’s
what happened
okay Ronald McDonald shooting Raisa yeah
okay so Ronald Reagan he itch in your
chest and you got what big Bush of gray
hairs bush senior now your shoulders got
light why paid all your bills Bill
Clinton now um what did you have on your
neck okay
a bush of thin blonde hairs Bush jr.
what was your mob saying yes we can
President Obama and what happen to your
eyes yeah Donald Duck trumpet pure gold
who else but Donald Trump so if you
memorized more this time than the first
time please stand up
okay so we have almost everyone standing
up that’s awesome um now if you think
this way of memorizing is more fun than
the last way you use please stand up or
remain standing if you’re already
standing oh whoa now we almost have
everyone I’m very pleased to see this
okay you guys can sit back down thank
you very much now when you make bizarre
images to memorize suddenly it becomes a
lot easier if you tie these bizarre
images to a place you know well like
your body suddenly memorizing things in
order becomes a lot easier okay well
cool but I asked you guys in the
beginning why should we in today’s day
and age still want to get better at this
and memorizing well because by getting
better in a skill like this you can also
get better at a different skill the
skill of experimentation by
experimenting with different methods of
doing things I found out that I can get
better at anything I found out what
works for me and what doesn’t what if
I’d never learned the skill of
experimentation I may have never gone
back to school I may have never enjoyed
studying psychology and I probably would
not have been standing here today
because one of the things I thought I
really couldn’t do was public speaking
now there are people of every generation
not doing things that they might love
that they might even be great at because
they think they can’t do it
so how beautiful would it be if in
schools we can teach kids that they can
get better at anything and they can even
get better at getting better at things
get it but not just the kids because the
older generation is often seen as too
old to learn but they’re not too rusty
anyone can improve themselves by
experimenting and I hope you experience
that today now out remind
we break up this process of
experimentation into three steps the
check the experience and the experiment
the check is all about becoming aware of
what you’re doing right now
so maybe during the first test you
became aware of the fact that you just
repeat the words over and over and that
that doesn’t work too well the second
step the experience is all about being
open to new possibilities and trying
them out so maybe during the
visualization you realize that this
works a bit better or at least you like
it more and the third step is the
experiment this is about taking
something from that new experience that
you had and applying it in your own life
to see how it works for you so maybe
you’re one of those people that when
someone introduces themselves to you you
just immediately forget their name yeah
sound familiar and you want to use
visualization to do something about that
so far I’ve only taken you guys through
the first two steps the final step is up
to you so when I’m done here I’d like
you to take a moment for yourself and to
write down an experiment on the little
card we’ve given you and to put that in
your wallet as a reminder by continually
following these steps of experimentation
you discover what you’re doing you keep
yourself open to new possibilities and
you allow yourself to continually
transform and regardless of what your
learning be it memorizing or martial
arts or mathematics you’ll get better
not only in the skill that you’re trying
to develop but you’ll get better at the
process of learning itself and that’s
something that sticks it’s something you
could take with you to your new job your
new hobby your new relationship you knew
whatever so this is something absolutely
everyone should know and I believe we
should teach it in schools but let’s not
just wait for it to be implemented in
schools I also believe that the most
important change starts with the
individual it starts with you so go out
there and experiment learn something new
or a new way of approaching something
old because there are a few skills as
valuable as the art of learning thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
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