Writer, speaker and brain enthusiast Eran Katz has a knack for keeping his conversation simple and to the point.
The best-selling author, described as an entertaining speaker and seminar leader on memory and intelligence, was recently in Thailand to see his books Secret Of Super Memory (1999), Jerome Becomes A Genius: The Jewish Way To Brain Power (2002), Five Gifts For The Mind and The Memory Master Series: The Bamboo Ice Cream Mystery (2016), translated into Thai.
Straight off the bat, Katz, who also holds the Guinness Book of World Records title in memory stunts, got into storytelling mode as we settled down for an afternoon chat.
"People underestimate their brain skills, we only exploit 10% of the capacity we have," remarked the multi-talented Israeli author, when asked to comment on whether poor memory is due to people overloading their brain with too much information.
"In fact, it is more about forming a negative attitude towards misplacing and forgetting where we keep our things. If you forget your keys let's say once a month or twice a month, then you develop this negative attitude that my memory is bad, and that I keep forgetting my keys.
"Surprisingly, our memory is better than we think. Yet, we think it really should be perfect. We are humans, it is natural to forget things occasionally.''
From research and observation, Katz said people can improve their memory in whatever they desire largely because it is a skill. Likening it to picking up a musical instrument or sport, it is all a matter of practice, adding that it is not necessarily talent, which is only one component, but application which gives real results.
"So we can practice our memory to perform better, be it to remember names, languages, to whatever we want," said the writer, who has had his books translated into 17 languages.
"It is a matter of prioritising a particular goal. Many people tell me they are not successful in learning languages. When you reach to the root cause of why this is so, we find they have not completely dedicated their time to reaching their goal. So it is an acquired skill and everyone can do it."
According to the memory maestro, one of the three principals for building good memory is to pay attention. He said that if we forget something, it is more likely that we did not really pay attention to remembering it in the first place.
The brain is such that we can train it to remember where we should keep our important belongings, our wallet and mobile phone as perfect examples, Katz continued. Making it a habitual practice can sharpen one's memory. The second principal is being interested. As an example, he said when students learn for an exam, he tells them to always start with something they are interested in. In a way, he said, it is like oiling your brain in a certain way, facilitating the learning process by giving it something easy to digest first before moving on to more difficult stuff.
The third principal is being organised. Katz said humans have a tendency to remember better in groups. You remember a long list of grocery items when you divide them into categories, he remarked, adding that when you are organised in whatever you do you tend to remember better.
A positive attitude also goes a long way for both children and adults. For students, especially, he encourages them to not feel pressured into being better than their peers.
To drive home his point, Katz said he once asked a group of youngsters what they would prefer -- that all students in their class got As or they get the highest score, a B, compared to the rest of the class that received Cs and Ds. Interestingly, everyone chose the latter.
Pressure to excel over others is often due to high expectations from parents, he continued.
"I tell youngsters that this type of mindset will give them undue stress and anxiety. However, if it happens to be your individual drive, that is great.
"Being number two or number three in the class will generally help you to enjoy your studies more. Paradoxically, you might be number one because you have less pressure than students that aim to be number one."
Katz, who lives in Jerusalem, said he could not stress enough the importance of people learning to enjoy what they do; not only does it have a profound effect on the way they prioritise their life, they enjoy a balanced lifestyle as well.
Apart from a number of other issues in life, he is often asked how one can erase bad memories and knowledge that they do not need; a topic featured in his book Five Gifts From The Mind.
A good memory is valuable for our success at work, he said, while "healthy forgetfulness" is equally valuable for our emotional health, primarily because disappointments, failures and trauma in life hamper people from moving on.
He cautioned that the process has to be gradual because it is dealing with repressed emotional memories. He likened it to a train filled with dynamite which needs to slowly reduce its speed before contents can be unloaded.
"The gradual process starts with forgiveness," remarked Katz. "It could either be to forgive someone who has caused you pain or trauma, or it could be to forgive yourself for something you did to let yourself down. Forgiving is not in fact forgetting. More like remembering without anger.
"Looking at the positive side of an otherwise negative experience can also work in one's favour. As an example, I would like to share what a Jewish psychologist friend of mine once asked his audience, made up largely of Holocaust survivors.
"His question was, 'Did anything positive happen in the Holocaust concentration camps?'. Many in the audience were angry at him for asking this question, but after a while, a woman said, 'Oh, yes, there was this Nazi woman who used to sneak into our camp each night to bring me food'. While there were not many such examples, there were a few positive ones."
