Joshua Foer Analysis

In today’s society we have become complacent and content with being average. We have reached what Joshua Foer would refer to as an “ok plateau” . In both the essay The End of Remembering and the speech Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing, Joshua Foer eludes to the idea that as a society we have digressed in everyday mundane tasks, instead of improving. In his essay, Foer discusses how technological advancements have allowed for human’s to do a more superficial style of reading, where we no longer remember what we read because it is no longer a necessity. Reading and retaining what we read is a skill and one that has lost importance slowly throughout time. Foer discusses how psychologists have found there are three stages to learning a new skill. There is the cognitive stage where we actively fail and use our failures to improve on this new skill. Then, there is an associative stage where we start to become better. Lastly, there is the autonomous stage where we reach the “ok plateau” and become completely complacent. Foer relies heavily on the connection he has made between memory, overcoming the ok plateau, and intelligence to define expertise. Foer suggests that an expert is someone who operates outside of their comfort zone and studies themselves failing. By this, he means that an expert is someone who remains in the cognitive stage when focused on a certain task or skill, and uses different strategies to stay in this stage instead of slipping into the autonomous stage. This allows them to continue to improve rapidly on the skill. Foer himself has experimented in this exact mindset with the art of memory. As the 2006 USA Memory Champion, Foer was constantly looking for new ways to track his improvement and study himself and just why he was failing or not improving. He refused to allow himself to be content with where he was. This has made him an expert in his field and this is likely the mindset that all experts have. Foer stated that, “one thing all experts do across all fields is find strategies to stay out of the autonomous stage and in the cognitive stage” (9:04). By staying in the cognitive phase, they are able to surpass the average human’s ability and reach excellence and expertise. Foer gives an example of how the best figure skaters in the world spend most of their practice time doing jumps they don’t land. It is fulfilling to do things that we are good at but it is not how we grow. By constantly challenging ourselves and holding ourselves to a higher standard, we exceed other’s and even our own expectations and we become experts. This however is much more easily said than done. Many of us do not have the time or choose not to make the time to improve in everyday tasks such as typing or driving. Although Foer calls for us to improve he does admit that reaching the autonomous stage in typing and other mundane tasks frees our brains to focus on other more important tasks. Foer discusses how other’s opinions can influence the way we progress in a certain area. Doctors used to believe that no one would be able to run a four minute mile until an English medical student did, and then all of the competent runners in the world were able to run a four minute mile. Foer describes this as “one thing that seemed like an impenetrable barrier but was actually a flood gate” (5:22). This is a great metaphor for …show more content…
Foer makes valid points when it comes to the connection between memory and the ability to overcome the ok. The two are clearly connected in some fashion but to the extent at which Foer implies is debatable. The idea that you cannot be an expert without having an incredible memory is not absurd by any means but it is less accurate in today’s generation. As technology advances we no longer have the need to memorize frivolous information and as we advance our experts should as well. However, I do see Foer’s point when it comes to memory, if our experts are not willing to go beyond what we are then what exactly makes them experts. Holding our experts to a higher standard not only keeps them accountable but also