Sequencing - the careful striptease by which you reveal information to the reader - matters in an article, but it is absolutely essential to a book.
Joshua FoerRead
We're all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories. And to the extent that we control our lives, we do so by gradually altering those habits, which is to say the networks of our memory. No lasting joke, or invention, or insight, or work of art was ever produced by an external memory. Not yet, at least.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our habits define us, and we can change our lives by changing these habits shaped by our memories.
This quote by Joshua Foer suggests that the essence of our identity is rooted in the habits we form over time, all of which are influenced by our past experiences and memories. By recognizing that we have the power to alter these habits, we can take control of our lives and shape our future. Foer emphasizes that personal insights and achievements come from within, rather than relying on external factors.
Themes
HabitsMemoriesChangeControlIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Joshua Foer
All quotes →Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next - and disappear.
Joshua FoerRead
I met with amnesiacs and savants, educators and scientists, to try to understand what memory is, why it works, why it sometimes doesn't, and what its potential might be.
Joshua FoerRead
If you were a medieval scholar reading a book, you knew that there was a reasonable likelihood you'd never see that particular text again, and so a high premium was placed on remembering what you read. You couldn't just pull a book off the shelf to consult it for a quote or an idea.
Joshua FoerRead
There are two possibilities: Either the kiss is a human universal, one of the constellation of innate traits, including language and laughter, that unites us as a species, or it is an invention, like fire or wearing clothes, an idea so good that it was bound to metastasize across the globe.
Joshua FoerRead
To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing not only more about the world, but also more about myself.
Joshua FoerRead
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