Interesting that expert mnemonists (e.g. world memory champions) don't seem to be able translate that into "real-world" achievement (e.g. top execs, creatives, etc). IME insight production does seem to depend on my long-term memory performance. Not sure how to account for this.
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How do you get to that conclusion? The number of world memory champions is extremely small and that of top level memory athletes not big either.
This small set however does include CEOs, Startup Founders, Award winners in various fields, bestselling authors, lawyers, doctors ..
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It’s a weak hypothesis based on availability heuristic (hence “seem”), definitely not a conclusion! I’d love to be corrected. Are you aware of any publication or resource where I can get a good longitudinal view?
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One tighter framing, thinking specifically of competitive mnemonists: how does the distribution of {entrepreneurial attainment, awards, patents, creative influence} vary b/w this group and other highly competitive cognitive hobbyists (eg chess players, freestylers, crossworders)?
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(And, in what respects can we attribute those differences to causal influence of the hobby, vs. latent personality traits like conscientiousness or competitiveness?)
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My (very uninformed!) intuition is that groups of highly competitive cognitive hobbyists will probably include founders, lawyers, doctors, etc—but of course there are lots of founders, lawyers, doctors, etc, so it’s difficult to tease this apart! I’d love to learn more.
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That is certainly true. As mentioned by many memory athletes in our study were high performers in life as well. That does not say anything about causality. Still, the majority stated to use the mnemonic techniques outside their sport, often on a daily base.