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Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

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Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#81

Post by toasterlovin »

philwelch wrote: post #25
ssharp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides his physical and mental talents, he's also an incredibly dedicated worker and has also embraced a lot of innovative playing, training and recovery ideas that has helped him extend his peak physical years beyond where they normally are. One of the surprising things I heard about last year was that the newer basketball cameras that record all aspects of play rated him as one of (maybe even the) slowest players…

LeBron also has very healthy body mechanics, which is an underrated part of durability. The difference between more durable and less durable players isn’t only down to conditioning and training and genetics; an NBA player jumps and lands, cuts and stops, and generally subjects his body to the limits of what it can withstand. Constantly and repeatedly doing that in biomechanically vulnerable ways (bracing the knees in…

I wouldn't discount him just being more durable as a result of his build. He's 6'8" and 250lbs, which is on the more muscular side for the NBA.

I'm 6'6" and have been anywhere from 180-320lbs as an adult (currently about 290lbs), with the range being due to adding significant muscle mass as a result of weight lifting. I can tell you that I am much more durable at my current weight than I was at 180lbs. Bumps and falls that woulda hurt a lot in past just aren't a big deal any more.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#82

Post by beautifulfreak »

coleca wrote: post #66

60 Minutes did a story on this condition four years ago or so. They called it "Super Memory". Actress Marilu Henner was one of the people that possess this super recall ability. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeEQ85m79I Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en23bCvp-Fw

They called it superior autobiographical memory.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#83

Post by glass_of_water »

jaggederest wrote: post #4

I have a similar sort of eidetic memory and I do find it often more hassle than help. Most people seem to remember about as much as they need to remember, so remembering more is often not about having extra access to information you need, but rather remembering minutiae that are discarded as irrelevant by others.

Could you elaborate on how you find it to be a hassle? I find it interesting that the imperfection of most people's memory could be a feature.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#84

Post by cloudwalking »

jimbokun wrote: post #72
socrates1998 wrote: post #29

Impressive, no doubt. This type of memory happens more often than people realize to athletes and coaches. Pattern recognition in competitive sports is extremely valuable. Lebron is one of the all time greats because he combines such unique gifts, his memory, his work ethic, his physicality, size and quickness. He is just a freak all the way around. His basketball IQ has some interesting affects on teams he plays thou…

Winning a title in Cleveland is one of the singular greatest achievements in NBA history, and in American sports history. In a lot of ways, it transcends the quantitative metrics we generally use to measure athletes' success. LeBron will not control the Lakers from top to bottom, especially with an even more charismatic leader like Magic around. I think it's generally understood he went to LA in part to kick start hi…

  I think it's generally understood he went to LA in part to kick start his post playing career.
I'm curious about this, do you know of any good reading?

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#85

Post by coliveira »

maxxxxx wrote: post #73
prmph wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that such feats of memory do not necessarily have anything to do with the skill itself: a great F1 driver is a great F1 driver, irrespective of how well he/she remembers races; so why do such feats of recall come along for the ride (pun unintended)?

Driving is only a part of racing. Giving feedback to the team is at least as important so they can set up the car and develop it. I remember reading an interview with a driver who had tested a car together with Ayrton Senna (who became a superstar later). When the team asked him how the car was he gave a few pointers whereas Senna could describe every part of the car in every turn in detail. Guess who is the more val…

There are two points there: one is the capacity to remember what happened. The other one, however, is the ability to convey this information to engineers. I believe people like Senna are superior not as much on recalling information, but on communicating this information to engineers. A driver with less communication abilities would be far less valuable to the team.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#86

Post by jaggederest »

glass_of_water wrote: post #83
jaggederest wrote: post #4

I have a similar sort of eidetic memory and I do find it often more hassle than help. Most people seem to remember about as much as they need to remember, so remembering more is often not about having extra access to information you need, but rather remembering minutiae that are discarded as irrelevant by others.

Could you elaborate on how you find it to be a hassle? I find it interesting that the imperfection of most people's memory could be a feature.

Suddenly being highly distracted by relevant, compelling, irresistible memory cascades at inopportune moments. Remembering every mistake and embarrassement from your entire life, age 4 to 35. There's some evidence that eidetic memory is tied to anxiety disorders and anecdotally I can believe it.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#87

Post by philwelch »

toasterlovin wrote: post #81
philwelch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LeBron also has very healthy body mechanics, which is an underrated part of durability. The difference between more durable and less durable players isn’t only down to conditioning and training and genetics; an NBA player jumps and lands, cuts and stops, and generally subjects his body to the limits of what it can withstand. Constantly and repeatedly doing that in biomechanically vulnerable ways (bracing the knees in…

I wouldn't discount him just being more durable as a result of his build. He's 6'8" and 250lbs, which is on the more muscular side for the NBA. I'm 6'6" and have been anywhere from 180-320lbs as an adult (currently about 290lbs), with the range being due to adding significant muscle mass as a result of weight lifting. I can tell you that I am much more durable at my current weight than I was at 180lbs. Bumps and fall…

LeBron’s size and body composition helps a hell of a lot, but good body mechanics—especially landing mechanics—get more important, not less, as a player gets bigger and stronger, because the amount of landing energy he has to dissipate grows in proportion to those factors.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#88

Post by maxxxxx »

coliveira wrote: post #85
maxxxxx wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driving is only a part of racing. Giving feedback to the team is at least as important so they can set up the car and develop it. I remember reading an interview with a driver who had tested a car together with Ayrton Senna (who became a superstar later). When the team asked him how the car was he gave a few pointers whereas Senna could describe every part of the car in every turn in detail. Guess who is the more val…

There are two points there: one is the capacity to remember what happened. The other one, however, is the ability to convey this information to engineers. I believe people like Senna are superior not as much on recalling information, but on communicating this information to engineers. A driver with less communication abilities would be far less valuable to the team.

I would say the top guys have both. They can process a lot of information and convey it later. Schumacher had the reputation to drive at the limit while still discussing race strategy with this team.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#89

Post by maxxxxx »

pterhx wrote: post #67
prmph wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this ability as well in other fields: it seems those at the very top (chess grandmasters, piano virtuosos, etc) have an incredible ability to remember the details of performances in their field. The question is: is it their existing recall abilities that (in part) helps them to get to the top, or is it the process of becoming that good that greatly enhances their memory?

In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Ericsson had chess grandmasters look chess boards of real games, and they could recreate the board in a pretty short fashion. But when they took chess boards of randomly placed pieces, they could not remember the placement of pieces any better than a random group of people. The idea is that through practice, you develop the ability pattern match and chunk together t…

It's probably like boxing a beginner. They do all kinds of weird stuff you never have seen and don't know how to categorize.

Re: Total Recall: LeBron's mighty mind (2014)

#90

Post by cepth »

maxxxxx wrote: post #89
pterhx wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Ericsson had chess grandmasters look chess boards of real games, and they could recreate the board in a pretty short fashion. But when they took chess boards of randomly placed pieces, they could not remember the placement of pieces any better than a random group of people. The idea is that through practice, you develop the ability pattern match and chunk together t…

It's probably like boxing a beginner. They do all kinds of weird stuff you never have seen and don't know how to categorize.

If you want to see what pterhx was referring to in action, National Geographic did a documentary featuring Susan Polgar a few years back. The relevant clip and timestamp are here: https://youtu.be/LdKHrxcpxrY?t=238.

The difficulty in recalling nonsensical positions is not that it's like "boxing a beginner", it's that the pieces are literally placed in a way that the positions could not have been reached with legal moves.

Analogously, remembering famous quotes or memorable phrases in a certain language is quite easy. If instead, you had to memorize a string of randomly placed words that did not follow established rules of grammar or sentence structure, it'd be a much harder task.

Chunking is context and experience dependent.

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