Genius by Mike byster

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Copyright © 2012 by Brainetics, LLC All rights reserved. Published in the Unted States by Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com Crown Archetype with colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data is available upon request. ISBN 978-0-307-98585-9 eISBN 978-0-307-98586-6 Printed in the United States of America Book design by Jennifer Daddio/Bookmark Design & Media, Inc. Jacket design by Andrew Janik Author photograph: Lynnette Astaire 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 First Edition Byst_9780307985859_3p_all_r1.indd iv 3/30/12 12:25 PM INTRODUCTION 3 A Memorable Story If I were to ask you to picture a green apple in your mind, you would have already done so by the end of this sentence. That’s about how fast I can solve lots of complex math equations. I can square any three- or even four-digit number, such as 3,567 times 3,567, in my head within seconds. I can divide a three-digit number by a two-digit number, such as 974 divided by 78, and arrive at the answer instantly. And I can unscramble the longest of words or place words in alphabetical order immediately. I know—it’s a bit freaky and unbelievable. When I perform these feats for live audiences, the crowd, which is usually made up of elementary school students, teachers, and parents, always roars: “Whoa!” . . . “Oh my God, that is awesome!” . . . “No way. You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not possible.” . . . “I bet you were just born this way!” But then I have to tell them the truth: I was not born this way. I’ll also admit right off the bat that I’m not a psychologist, brainiac, or even someone who understands the science of math and memory Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 1 3/12/12 9:23 AM 2 M I K E BYST E R down to the neurons and synapses. I don’t have an MD, and I’ve never studied neurology. But I do know this: training your brain to unleash its fullest potential doesn’t hinge on genetics, inherited IQ, access to the best schools, or even medical breakthroughs. According to researchers at both the University of Illinois and Princeton, I possess one of the fastest mathematical minds in the world. Why? Because I continually teach myself how to use my brain in fun and cool ways that enable me to process and memorize information much quicker than others. These techniques have helped me to become smarter, more productive, and exceedingly more imaginative. In this book, I’ll share them with you. Let me be clear: this is not a “memory” book. I’m not here to just teach you a trick to memorize or recall the Declaration of Independence in a heartbeat. Without question, you will learn effortless ways to memorize information, from the driest and most arbitrary details to comprehensive facts and lengthy passages, but I want you to know from the get-go that the strategies in this book will help you become a better, more effective individual in all that you do. These lessons and their related exercises will enhance your ability to communicate, innovate, impress others, stand out in a crowd, get ahead of your peers, move up the social— and corporate—ladder, magnify your employability and moneymaking capacity, learn to make excellent decisions, solve problems large and small, spot trouble and keep a keen eye on the future, plan that future, speak publicly with ease, be a stronger player in games and sports, ask for what you want, adapt to new situations and circumstances, handle crises, work under pressure, be more independent, and so on. I could list hundreds of abilities that can be enhanced by mastering the skills detailed in this book. Throughout the chapters, I’ll point out specifically why you’re learning a given stratagem or being told to do something that seems impossible or impractical Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 2 3/12/12 9:23 AM GENIUS 3 (such as multiply two-digit numbers in your head), but regardless of the specific lesson you’re reading about on any given page, I want you to always be keeping your eye on the bigger— and much more monumental—picture and prize: developing a mind that thinks like a genius. And living up to your greatest potential. Will you become the next Einstein, Oprah, Steve Jobs, or Fortune 500 CEO? I can’t make any promises, but I will pledge that if you read this book, wholeheartedly think about its material, and try my exercises (more than once!), you will begin to optimize the inherent power of your brain, squelch any anxieties you’ve had in the past when it comes to math and memorization, and allow your creative, inventive, and imaginative self to propagate in directions you never thought possible. Using your brain the way I am going to teach you will open you up to mastering anything in life, from foreign languages to music, cooking, negotiating, communicating, and even establishing better relationships with others. You will also be giving your health a boost, because my exercises will give your brain a good workout and you’ll fi nish this book with much more confidence in yourself. And that is perhaps the best gift that I can give you. With confidence, you’ll have the courage to strive for anything— to do and be whatever you want. My program can help anyone— anyone who tries, that is. As I’ll reiterate throughout the book, the lessons and strategies presented here work best if you find ways to apply them to your own life. If a certain technique doesn’t work for you after you’ve tried it a few times, then dump it from your personal toolbox. Move on to another, more effective method. I’ve seen these lessons help people from just about every walk of life, from young students to retirees hoping to preserve their mental faculties, from entry-level employees to executives, CEOs, and those in serious leadership or political positions, and from parents to teachers, mentors, entrepreneurs, inventors, doctors, lawyers, restaurateurs, writers, and philosophers. Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 3 3/12/12 9:23 AM 4 M I K E BYST E R Even if you’re terrified of math, hate numbers and puzzles, and despise games like Scrabble and Boggle, I believe I’ve got something for you that you can not only enjoy but use to enhance your mental capacity. By the end of the book, you will have amassed your own unique collection of tools that make sense to you— and that work! You won’t find these lessons in formal education or even in adult enrichment courses. They are unique to me, and while some of my techniques follow long-established secrets to speeding up mental processing and sharpening memory, the vast majority of the strategies in this book were invented by me, starting when I was just eight years old. From Trading Commodities to Trading Memory Tricks I wasn’t an ace student as a youngster. N ot until I learned how to self-train my brain did I start performing better in school. For much of my adolescence, I received mostly Bs in math but also a few Cs and Ds— even one F. Years later, when I went back to my own middle school to teach my techniques to students, one of my old teachers put it bluntly: “But, Michael, you were never the smart student. What happened?!” Luckily, my parents always believed in me and somehow knew that I’d figure out how to do well in school and life over time. I’m not so sure, though, that they ever believed I’d take my skills this far. One of the most important takeaways in this book is learning how to notice patterns in the world—from the patterns found in numbers and words, to the patterns in other academic subject areas, such as history and science, to the patterns in everyday activities such as driving to work or punching in phone numbers. I Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 4 3/12/12 9:23 AM GENIUS 5 began to notice patterns at a very early age, a lot sooner than most people. When I was just three years old, playing card games with my great-grandmother taught me about higher and lower numbers. During preschool, at the age of four, I memorized all of the US presidents’ birth and death dates, in order. I was developing a talent, but I still didn’t know exactly what I was doing. In other words, you couldn’t have asked me then how I managed to be so “smart,” much less teach anyone my method. In the third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Carlson, told the class that we had to memorize the planets of the solar system. I vividly recall her instructing us to move to the back of the room, saying, “Don’t return to your seats until you have all of them memorized.” She then added that we should think about the following sentence: “My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.” Obviously, she had given us the clue to having all of the planets stitched into our brains quickly. It took me about five minutes to memorize the list from Mercury to Pluto (which technically is no longer a planet, but it was back then). Flash-forward one year. In the fourth grade, my class was sent home with the task of committing all fifty states and their capitals to memory. Contrary to what you might think, I still didn’t know how to make this easy for myself. I studied all night long, staring at the list of all fifty states and their capitals: Bismarck, N orth Dakota; Columbia, South Carolina; Salem, Oregon. . . . Some states seemed to have unlikely capital cities, while others were just plain hard to remember, let alone spell (Montpelier, Vermont?). I thought perhaps the words would magically melt into my brain if I just glared at them long enough. My parents kept coming into my room yelling, “Michael, get to bed already!” But I wouldn’t give up. The next day I felt defeated, tired, and overwhelmed. I didn’t have the capitals memorized, and trying to push all that information into my brain at once made me barely able to recall anything Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 5 3/12/12 9:23 AM 6 M I K E BYST E R at all (except for my own state’s capital of Springfield)! But I also felt cheated. I went up to my teacher, Ms. Sain, and asked her why she hadn’t given us the secret sentence that matched the states and their capitals. She looked at me like I was nuts; she wasn’t like Mrs. Carlson. Thankfully, my mother came to the rescue and helped me to come up with a song that would allow me to recall all of the capitals, accurately and on the spot. And it worked. From that moment on, I knew that I’d have to fi nd not only my own ways of remembering information but also my own ways of organizing and filing away important data. It was also then that I began to really hone my skills in pattern recognition. I became adept at fi nding the hidden codes, formulas, and shortcuts to performing quick mathematics, playing with words in different order to exercise my mind, making up weird and bizarre stories or poems to store information I’d need to recall later, and basically learning to think outside the box to tackle and solve daily problems. I also discovered the value in being able to focus and concentrate as few others can— just by building certain “muscles” in my brain that everyone has, but that not everyone knows how to flex. By the time I got to college, my talents in math were paving my way, and I eventually majored in finance. When I graduated, my cousin landed me a job as a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It was the perfect place for someone like me, and my lightning-fast brain had people calling me “the Human Calculator.” I stayed there from 1981 to 1997 as a full-time trader. During that time I never once thought about teaching or engaging with children. But then, in the fall of 1997, another cousin of mine asked me to visit her high school to “show off” what I could do with my brain. By that time I had mastered all sorts of math tricks, so I could perform some astonishing mental stunts, such as multiplying large numbers and adding a long list of digits in a split second. Even though I was hesitant at fi rst, I accepted the invitation. Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 6 3/12/12 9:23 AM GENIUS 7 Up until that point, with the exception of a few times when I performed as a bar stunt, I mostly kept my gift to myself because I was embarrassed by it. Part of me still felt abnormal; “Rainman,” after all, was my nickname at work because I could freakishly do wild math in my head, just like Dustin Hoffman’s character in the movie of that name. I didn’t know what the kids at my cousin’s school would think of me. But I was delightfully surprised by the reception I got. Those teenagers loved me. I think they were surprised that I didn’t show up in geeky-looking clothes and a pocket protector. When one of them asked, “Can we learn how to do that too?” my world soon took a dramatic turn. This request presented a whole new challenge for me. Initially, I didn’t know which of my skills were actually teachable. I’d take long walks by the lake and try to break down the methods that came so automatically to me. “Okay, what am I doing when I’m doing that? What do I do next?” Since over the years I’d trained my brain to work so fast, slowing it down to make sense of it all was tough. But I eventually simplified my tricks, patterns, and shortcuts down to bite-size pieces that I could share with others. And no sooner did I start interacting with kids than I began to realize that much of what I can do is in fact very learnable. It somewhat startled me to know that others could pick up on how I use my brain and likewise perform some of these amazing mental gymnastics just by trying and practicing. This was a defining moment for me, because once I had proof that my skills could be taught, I created an interactive presentation and began to visit more schools in my local area. Because my presentations were so lively and engaged the kids, they were more like “shows” than the lectures or formal lessons they encountered in their classroom studies. It didn’t take long for word to get around about what I was doing. I started to focus more on the younger students, the kids between grades four and eight, including those with special needs Byst_9780307985859_2p_all_r1.indd 7 3/12/12 9:23 AM
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