Supernatural memory ...?

To me, the human memory is a very interesting subject. Every day I’m constantly impressed, but at the same time a bit frightened by my own memory (or maybe lack of memory). My colleagues stare at me like I’m some kind of an alien life form when I remember poker odds, old license plates, the Latin names of muscles and bones or maybe when I try to explain how to solve the Rubik’s cube. I’ve had it handed to me quite roughly that it’s serious indicators of ADHD/ADD or other neuropsychiatric disorders and believe me, it got me rather curious. What makes me doubt my supposed disorder is the other end of the spectra. When I and my girlfriend moved to Norway, we implemented a menu at home, mostly to simplify planning of grocery shopping but also because of economic benefits. I think that this is a brilliant idea even if I interestingly enough never can remember what we’ve decided to eat. I ask her at least twice each day about what we’re having for dinner tonight, although I participated in creating the menu. And when we go shopping I’m screwed if I’m not carrying a shopping list. How come I can remember complex issues with ease while I struggle with the most trivial? Classic ADD or maybe Asperger?

For a moment now, let’s think about chess. Chess players have always impressed me because of their seemingly supernatural memory abilities. It’s not rare to see chess players play full games completely blindfolded. One interesting extreme case is Richard Réti who 1925 broke the record for “blindfolded chess”. He played 29(!) games simultaneously while blindfolded, won 21, drew 6 and lost only 2. This to me is supernatural and borderline alien, even though the record has been broken a few times since.

An interesting study performed on experienced chess masters memory capacity (and non-players as control) that is being discussed in Talent is overrated, really caught my attention. In the study the subjects were being shown a chess board with all the pieces set up as in actual game positions. The subjects studied the board for a brief moment and were then asked to reposition the pieces as they were. The results were expected; the experienced chess masters could with ease place all of the pieces exactly where they were while the non-players could only place 4-5. What really boggled my mind was the second part of the study. Here they repeated the same test, but with the pieces placed randomly on the board, not as in actual game positions. The non-players were still placing only 4-5 pieces, but the really interesting thing is that the chess masters did scarcely better, placing only 6-7 pieces. Does this also imply ADHD/ADD/Random disorder?

Putting it together.
When we’re jealous at someone’s ability to remember something, are we then being jealous at their ability to remember something specific or at their memory capacity in general? I’d say the latter even though it’s hard to find any real evidence that someone with a “supernatural” memory in one field would be better than average in another. If you practice remember something, you will be good at remembering just that. Exactly how to train your memory is not a question that I have definite answers to as of yet, although I’m definitely interested in finding it out.

Question: Is there really something supernatural or special about my memory? Is there something special about yours? Or have they only been trained differently? Regardless of how special you feel when your mother says that you are, or regardless of how many signs of genius you find in your personality, you’re probably just as average as I am. Although my girlfriends ability to remember our menu is to me still supernatural..

What is talent?

Talent, to me, is a very interesting subject. Over the last couple of weeks I've really opened my eyes to the term "talent" and started to think about what it really means. Or maybe rather the word expertise, are they related? Is there really such a thing as talent? Maybe it's already decided for you what you will prosper in so maybe it's time to give up those dreams of becoming a rock star or golf-pro?

I've just started reading the book Talent is overrated by Geoffrey Colvin and I must point out the very interesting topics discussed within this book.

Tiger Woods is a golden example, many people argue and claim that never before has the world seen such talent and it would be pointless for average Joe to try to accomplish what he has. One thing that people don't know about Tiger is that his father was Earl Woods, a former teacher with a successful history in sports who later became almost obsessed with golf. He was introduced to Golf only a few years before Tiger was born but had already polished his handicap down to a single digit which places him in the top 10% of golf players.

So what's Tigers reality? He's born son of an "expert"-golfer with a teacher background, son to someone who is eager to teach golf to his son. Tiger is the only child in the family (Earl had children from earlier relationships but they were all grown up). Earl gave Tiger his first golf club at the age of 7 months. He placed him in a chair in the garage and let him sit and watch while he practiced his swing for hours on end. Already at age 2 they were both regularly on the golf course practicing and playing together.

The first time that Tiger accomplished something spectacular was at the age of 19. At that point he had been playing golf for 17 years and with a professional teacher since the age of 4.

Was it really superhuman and innate talent that made him the world class golfer he is today? Or was it really all the hours of hard training that he went through? Or was it maybe something else that we've yet to identify?
I don't know, but to explain his accomplishments with "talent" doesn't really seem fair.