TED Circles with CN&CO 2020
March 1, 2021

Our Memories – the first TED Circles hosted by CN&CO for 2021

We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. It’s become a popular past time and we, along with our associates and friends, value the thinking that the TED platform brings to the world. The TED Tuesday series is one of our longest running blogs, here’s the latest one.

On the last Thursday of February we hosted our first TED Circles for 2021.

The theme for the month was “Our memories”. A fascinating choice from the TED Circles team and one which may ask you to question what it is that you will remember the last twelve months by.

The talk that we chose to share is titled “Feats of memory anyone can do”

There are people who can quickly memorise lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique — called the memory palace – and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him.

The memory palace is a concept that unpacks how our brain works, how we store memories and tricks that we can use to remember things.

Watching the talk, I found myself asking the question… “Have we become lazy?”. Should we be paying more attention to our ability to strengthen our memories or by externalising our memories are we enabling ourselves to be more efficient in other tasks – technology has made this super easy and at times I battle to think of a world without “search” where we wouldn’t be able to quick type a phrase into google when we can’t remember the specifics.

Carel asked a great questions around Collective memory and it certainly got most of our minds turning as we thought about the past, the present and the future. This also lead to use briefly exploring what the difference is between memory and experience, are they informed by one another?

In the discussion Joan made reference to Adam Curtis and two documentaries, so here they are as they tie into the theme for the month incredibly well.

In preparing to host the session I came across an piece on medium title “Change How You Look at Things = Things You Look at Change”. Our memory and our ability to remember changes over time. It’s influenced by many things – society, space, language, age, engagement – and many others. The concept of a memory palace may at first appear to be rather foreign, but give it a go and see how it can help improve your memory.

If you are keen to join us for future TED Circles, check out the link to book and the dates below. Book your spot HERE.

March 25, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
April 29, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
May 27, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
June 24, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
July 29, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
August 26, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
September 23, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
October 28, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST
November 25, 2021- 4 to 5pm SAST

Book your spot HERE.