Joshua Foer Analysis

Great Essays
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 …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

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