How to remember people's names

Joshua Foer wrote about his year-long quest to remember everything in his book, Moonwalking With Einstein. Here's his #1 trick.

By Joshua Foer

October 4, 2014

Name Tag, how to remember someone's name

Photo, iStock.

Remembering names is all about figuring ways to connect people's names to their faces. A great trick is to visualize an image that relates to the sound of their name. If you meet a woman named Abby, picture a bee (get it?) stinging her eye. If it's a guy called Bill, imagine him with a duck bill. Alice? Imagine her hair teaming with lice. Barbara? Her neck is wrapped in barbed wire. Those weird images are indelible associations that will hopefully lead your memory back to the person's name next time you meet him or her.

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