Module 5- Part 2: The 20th floor…
Benji
The 20th floor…
Before we get close and personal with the technical stuff, let’s remind ourselves of how this all fits into our wider ‘Skyscraper Theory.’
Recall what we discussed last time?
I mentioned that:
“The first skyscrapers developed were definitely tall when compared to the buildings people were used to at the time.
But they weren’t, y’know, the huge behemoths we see today.
That was due, in large part, to the structural limitations of their construction techniques.”
At the time I went on to talk about the ‘steel skeleton’ breakthroughs, but today I want to revisit that idea—the ‘small’ skyscraper.
See, back in the late 19th century, buildings with ‘10-20’ floors were defined as skyscrapers.
And, call me crazy but…
I reckon that people back then thought:
“These things are freakin’ huge!”
And probably more than a few people that thought:
“Well…surely that’s it? We can’t go any higher than that!”
Fast-forward over 100 years, and we see buildings with more than double that number of floors shooting up left right and center.
What’s changed?
Well…everything.
The materials, the styles, the technology, the locations—but the point for today really isn’t about any ONE factor.
The point is that over time, through innovation and iteration, we discovered that the old definition of ‘20 floors’ was a vast underestimation.
How high can we go?
These days, it’s hard to figure out where the limit is—but one thing is for sure:
People are no longer trying to ‘call it.’
Sure, there has to be some limit, someday—but for now, today, they’re sitting back and enjoying the ride as we keep on building to new heights.
I think it’s the same with the memorized deck.
You learn what it is and you go:
“Oh. Card = position and position = card. I got it!”
And then someone points out that knowing the order of the cards means you can figure out what card someone took
“Oh, neat! I didn’t think of that, but I think I get it now!”
Then you point out how you can figure out the identity of any card by counting how many cards are left in the deck.
“Oh, cool! Wow! Yeah…isn’t that something. Well, I guess I get it now!”
…and so it goes on.
Our attitude instead should be:
“Oh! Wow! Isn’t that something! I wonder what’s next?”
Always pushing. Always searching for another insight. Another principle.
Always something more.
And I believe it’s this constant pushing that is what will help us, as memorized deck users, build our collective skyscrapers to heights that none of us could have dreamed of initially.
Because building to new heights isn’t just about us and our ego.
Once we’ve built our skyscrapers to incredible heights, our spectators are going to benefit from a dazzling view that simply wasn’t possible beforehand.
In other words, the higher up we can build our skyscraper, the better the view we can offer our spectators.
That’s not to say we offer them a ‘different’ view.
After all, no matter how high you go—North is always North, and South is always South.
And in our memorized deck, the square circle of views is always going to be the same.
However, we can improve the quality and impact of those same views when we push to new heights.
Ok.
I think we’re on the same page here.
How about we quit yappin and get into the fun stuff?
First, I’ll talk about the ‘holy grail of card magic’…the Any Card at Any Number. This is a good example of how we can layer principles that we’ve previously discussed with new ideas to take our magic to new levels.
Then, we’ll discuss some truly innovative concepts that we haven’t discussed yet.
(i’ve been saving them for this)
Again, it’s these kinds of concepts, and these magicians, that are truly pushing this art forward.
Let’s get into it…