The Power of Forgetting (37 page)

In 1939 a novel by Ernest Vincent Wright was published that was called
Gadsby
and whose subtitle says it all:
A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E.”
That’s right: this man wrote an entire book without ever using the letter
e
! Hard to believe. Though self-published and little noticed in its time, the book is a favorite of fans of what’s called
constrained writing
and is a sought-after rarity among some book collectors.

I had never heard of constrained writing until I was doing some research on this unusual tome. Or at least, I never knew that there’s an official term for the literary technique whereby the writer is bound by some condition that
forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. Such constraints are very common in poetry, but they also are what give us many of the devices I’ve talked about in this book—namely, palindromes, acrostics, and anagrams. All of these are prime examples of constrained writing in action.

So I guess you could say that my son and I enjoy the art of constrained conversation. That is, we like to conduct full conversations that abide by certain rules, one of which is just what Mr. Wright did when he penned his book: avoiding the letter
e
. Here’s how one of these exchanges might unfold:

“Josh, how was school today?”

“Not bad, Dad. But my instructor was boring.”

“Josh, I don’t want to say this, but you cannot drop out of school if your instructor is boring.”

“Why not? What kind of law is that?”

“Josh, I know it’s not fair. But that’s how it is.”

Try it sometime! You can make this game as easy or as hard as you like based on the rules you enforce. The one who breaks the rule first loses.

This game is a variation on the same theme as the previous game, as it entails conducting a conversation based on a preset rule or set of rules. For example, you could conduct a conversation like the one below in which each sentence can only be five words long:

“Let’s go to the park.”

“I don’t want to go. The park is so lame.” (Two distinct sentences, each with five words.)

“Josh, I love the park. What are you talking about?”

“Dad, it’s the twenty-first century.”

“Let’s go to the beach.”

The sky’s the limit when it comes to what kinds of rules you want to impose. Just be sure to keep it challenging and, above all, fun.

I’m also a big believer that everyone needs to be famous—for something! All people, kids especially, need a way to show off once in a while. It builds confidence and self-esteem and encourages them to perform in ways that will help them interact successfully with the world for the rest of their lives.

Here are two tricks that you can teach your kids before helping them put on a “magic” show at home in front of family and friends. Trust me, these tricks will impress the most educated folks in the room. Teachers, too, can facilitate such shows in the classroom, just by choosing a student to be the star of the show (or two students, in the case of the Magic Box) and taking them through the how-tos of performing these tricks, either after school or when everyone else is at recess.

You can embellish this activity by devising a makeshift stage in the living room or den and dressing your kid up in wizardly clothes, which you can find in any costume shop. The goal is to make your child, who has some amazing skills to display, the center of attention. Not only will having to memorize the steps in each trick work your child’s brain, but the challenge to perform in front of a live audience and shoulder the stress of being “onstage” will be a learning experience in itself.

I’ll explain both tricks to you as if you were learning
them yourself. Once you’ve got the steps to these tricks down, work with your child to explain them in your own words, coming back to these explanations as necessary. I’ll start with the easier trick of the two.

Lots of simple tricks seem mysterious and inexplicable to those who are not in on the secret. This one is great crowd-pleaser for two people to try on a group of people. Start by putting the numbers 1 through 9 in a three-by-three box, like this:

Ask someone to be your secret partner. This person will already know the trick, because you will teach it to him or her beforehand. When you begin the trick, have your partner leave the room (or turn around) so that when someone else in your audience silently picks a number, your partner won’t know what it is. Using the trick, your partner will be able to guess the number that was chosen. Here’s how it’s done.

•   With your partner looking away or out of the room, ask someone in your audience to hold up a number from 1
to 9, using his or her fingers. This is the secret number. Now ask your partner to turn back around or return to the room.

•   Begin by pointing to the number 1 box and asking your partner, “Is this the number?” But when you touch this first box, make sure you touch the
subsection
of that box as though it were a miniature version of the three-by-three grid. In other words, if you were to break down the number 1 box, it would look like this:

Number 3

Number 4

Number 9

•   The shaded areas indicate where you’d point in the first box to immediately clue your partner in to what the secret number is on the larger grid.

•   Continue pointing from box to box until, when you reach the correct one, your partner says, “Yes, that’s the one!”

Similar to the Magic Box Mind-Reading Trick is the Black Horse Trick. Again, pair up with a secret partner, as you did before. In fact, you can even say, “Now we’re going to perform the same trick—but without touching the number at all!” Just a few words spoken by you will let your secret partner know the correct number. Here’s how it works:

Set up two words in advance that correspond to a set of numbers. Here we use BLACKHORSE, where each letter symbolizes a number from 1 to 10. Note that these words have no repeated letters.

When your partner comes back into the room, say something like, “All right, try to guess this one.” The key is that the first letter of the first word you say will correspond to the correct number—in this case the number 3. A question such as “So, you really think you know it this time?” would signify the number 9! Anyone you play this trick on will certainly be begging you to tell him how you managed to pull it off. Not only does it work every time, but it employs lots of brainy activity. You’re forced to come up with a crafty sentence to convey to your partner what the number is, and you also have to remember the BLACKHORSE code. Just don’t start counting on your fingers or your audience might catch you out. As your mind thumbs through the letters of the word and translates them into the numbers, you have to inwardly juggle information that ultimately exercises those mental muscles.

This is an extremely cool trick, but one that does require focus and concentration. You’ll probably have to take yourself through this a few times before you teach it to others.

I like the Missing Number Trick because it is easy to do and you can do it over the phone. People will believe you are psychic after you do this trick for them. There are several ways to perform it, but I will teach you just one. All you need to be able to do to perform this trick is to follow a few simple steps, add up some one-digit numbers, and know the multiples of 9 up to 36. Here are the steps:

If the person follows all the directions correctly, the sum of all the digits, including the circled number, will have to add up to a multiple of 9 (9, 18, 27, or 36). Here’s an example of the trick using actual numbers:

Say the digits the person reads you already add up to a multiple of 9, like 3 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 8 = 18. The missing number in that case can be either a 0 or a 9, since 18 + 9 = 27. You told the person not to circle any 0’s, so you know the missing number must be a 9.

The key is to memorize directions so you can explain what you’re doing to your audience and do a little mental math. Those are the only requirements for successfully performing this trick.

Productive thinkers rarely rest on their laurels. Once you’ve mastered all of the strategies and exercises in this book, seek out more ways to bend your mind and keep it in tip-top shape. Don’t forget to go to
www.MikeByster.com
for online resources and videos.

Maintaining a sharp, fast mind requires constant attention and work. Just as bodybuilders never stop lifting weights and watching their diets, none of us can let our brains just sit there. The encouraging news is that you don’t have to go far to engage your mind in ways that support and expand its power. I hope I’ve given you plenty of ideas that you can use throughout your daily life. No computer or playing partner is required. All you need is your own thinking brain and its well-groomed skills to turn any everyday experience into an effortless path to a smarter, wittier, brainier, and brighter you.