Entertaining Your Brain?

Spencer Wilson asks: "I'm constantly told that I have an extremely high intelligence. I always feel like I should know so much more, though. Do you, the Slashdot readers, know of any ways to improve ones brain power? Perhaps books, Web sites, etc., that provide questions that involve ways to increase memory, creativity, mental agility, logic reasoning, intelligence, etc. Are there any diets/exercises that really help?"

Comments

Re:Just about anything except television.

[orangesquid]

That's true. I think drugs, drunken violence, wild orgies, mosh pits, and occult study are *all* superior to watching television.

The smartest people will have the fullest and richest of the human experience. Go out and try a little of everything... and, while you're at it, if you find one or two fields that really strike your fancy, indulge yourself in as much knowledge as possible. Try to be slightly controversial, while you're at it... if you pull it off right, you'll be noticed and remembered :)

dont lose it - use it

[Prometheus Bob]

I'm afraid I'm not sure of too many shortcuts for intelligence. If you want to be quicker at math functions, for instance, you're going to have to do a lot of math. Like another poster said, just don't sit idle.

Whoever told you that

[Anonymous Coward]

was obviously wrong. If you had extremely high intelligence, you wouldn't post a story on Slashdot - under what seems to be your real name, for gods' sake - starting "I'm constantly told I have extremely high intelligence . . . "

Seriously, speaking as someone with an IQ in the high genius range: the first thing you have to learn is how NOT to walk around telling everyone how frelling smart you are. They'll figure it out quickly enough on their own, believe me: most geniuses are obvious within a few minutes of meeting them, just from the way they interact with other people.

Other things not to do: DON'T join Mensa. Mensa is a club for losers who have a high IQ and nothing to show for it. Not for no reason is a former Mensa national president an advice columnist for Parade. DON'T talk about chess all the time. It's all right if you're good at it (or Go), but talking about it to everyone you meet will make you look like an A-1 geek, and your chances of spreading those high-intelligence genes around some will drop precipitously.

Grow up. Study. Find something you love and put your whole heart into it. If you really have the brains, you'll exercise them on your own without having to trick things out.

Re:Whoever told you that

[FFFish]

Seriously, speaking as someone with an IQ in the high genius range: the first thing you have to learn is how NOT to walk around telling everyone how frelling smart you are.

Rule One of the Smart Club: You DO NOT Talk About The Smart Club.

Sorry, buddy. You just eliminated yourself from it.

If you were smart.

[mnmn]

Someone with a lot of brainpower would always be itching to put it to use. Neither Linus nor Alan Cox would worry about how to kill time. Richard Feynman probably had to find ways to get his head off Physics to get it some rest, same with Einstein.

If youre wondering how to improve brain power or kill time, somethings wrong. Find a cause, like making so much GPL software, Microsoft gets broke, or start some world domination plans.

Thats all you have to do.

Intelligence and Knowledge are Not the Same Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

I always feel like I should know so much more, though. Do you, the Slashdot readers, know of any ways to improve ones brain power?

You're confusing intelligence and knowledge. Intelligence is pure processing power. Knowledge is how much data you've got stored on your hard drive. If you need to know more, read a book.

Learn!

[frantzdb]

Set your home page to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage instead of Slashdot.

Sign up for classes. Any classes. Cooking, SCUBA, basket weaving, learn a language, learn a new subject, join a choir.

Now is the time. Carpe Diem.

Just like the body: exercise!

[The One and Only]

The mind's just like the body. It gets stronger when you exercise it. Doing math, learning new things, studying philosophy, whatever you want. If you don't code, learn to code. If you do code, learn more languages. Anything like that gets you marketable skills and exercises your mind at the same time is good too. Don't neglect the body though. Eat healthy and exercise your body, as boring as it may seem, and your overall health will be good. A healthy body means a strong mind. Also, remember to get enough sleep. We're all idiots when we're tired enough.

Yes.

[Michael.Forman]

Yes Spencer, I do know of ways to improve "brain power". (You did ask a yes or no question didn't you?)

Thank you for your question, which I assume was actually just a vehicle to let us all know how extremely high you feel your intelligence is (based on what people tell you).

Mod this as flamebait. Thank you.

Michael.

Re:Hmmmm

[aoteoroa]

I'm constantly told that I have an extremely high intelligence

Reminds me of the famous quote by Margaret Thatcher:

"Being a leader is like being a lady, if you have to go around telling people you are one, you aren't."

Learn Stuff

[Apreche]

If you want to be smarter do what I do. Try to learn stuff. Don't just volger around the internet reading shit like slashdot and playing stupid games. Spend that time learning something or spend it somewhere besides the computer/tv/videogames/dvd/etc.

Here are some examples from my life.

Example 1: I heard the words fast fourier transform many times. I realized, hey I don't know what the fuck that is, and I probably should. I searched on google and researched it. Now I know it as well as if I would have taken a college course on it. You know you know something when you can write a program that does it.

Example 2: Hey, this python programming language seems to fit my style. Buy Nutshell book, learn python in a couple weeks.

Example 3: hey, I have a project to do for class. I think I'll use the GTK+ library. Proceed to teach self everything about GTK from the GTK website.

Example 4: Argument about gas prices. I thought the markup was a lot, my roomate correctly knew it was only a few cents markup at the gas station. We went out on the net and not only determined who was right, but learned all about fuel prices.

Example 5: Hey, this Initial D anime is pretty cool, but no way is that drift driving realistic. Proceed to use internet to learn all about cars, drifting, etc. I now also am very fond of F1 racing. Just last week I read the entire rules at formula1.com and simultaneously learned a great deal about how they make the best cars in the world.

Pretty much, if you want to learn just try to. The information is free. Just go out and read what you want to know, and if you're serious about it you'll learn it. Things that you are genuinely interested in knowing are easy to learn because you will pay attention and actually try. If you are having a hard time learning something its probably because you don't actually want to know it, but instead are being forced to learn it. Or you could have a "learning disability".

Read.

Re:Learn Mandarin Chinese

[Wylfing]

This is not quite so much funny as insightful (not to detract from the funniness factor, to be sure). There are two fairly-well-proven means to increasing brain power: languages and music. Music especially has been the subject of many studies lately. Both of these disciplines will dramatically augment your ability to reason.

Re:Just about anything except television.

[kommakazi]

Occult study - unless you're studying "How Can Anyone Be Such A Moron As To Bother With This Crap" - is for losers.
wrong, wrong, wrong...
Just because you study it doesn't mean you have to become a believer in it. You've just demonstrated a case of closed-mindedness, the number one blockage to intelligence. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying you're stupid, I'm just pointing it out to you... I've studied it because I think it can be very interesting, not because I necessarily agree with it. It's all a matter of getting fresh perspectives...even if you don't agree with them at all.

Tutoring

[Justice8096]

...and yet another way to give your brain a workout - try to teach something that you know to an absolute beginner. It is the only way to expose the holes in your knowledge. Just be prepared to learn how little you really know...

Re: Intelligence is predictability

[1iar_parad0x]

My advice is to study math and the sciences.

Intelligence is predictability

"Not many people understand how rare it is to really, really know something."
-Richard Feynman

If I could ACCURATELY predict the stock market, weather patterns, or the lottery -- would you call that intelligence? If I could quickly tell you the final result of any given set of initial conditions -- would you call that intelligence?

Intelligence is predicatability. People may be impressed by philosophers and musicians, however when it comes to raw brainpower, never look past mathematics and the hard sciences. Predicitability is key. Anyone can collect stamps. Anyone can observe. Most people can describe. However ask for an uncanny and accurate prediction and the room becomes silent.

I've found that studying mathematics and science has improved my ability to understand history, the humanities, and art. You learn to quantify things in science. When you study physics you learn what really knowing something means. You learn about the limits of knowing what you can know. You can only quantify so much. The question is how much can we actually quantify?

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."
-Albert Einstein

Reasoning is basic symbolic manipulation

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.
-Bertrand Russell

Reasoning is basic symbolic manipulation. Even Aristotle believed this. Look at the syllogistic form. A tautology is a valid line of reasoning. Admittedly, any attempt to formalize inductive reasoning is as weak as formalizing probability itself.

Intelligence is about encoding mechanisms. When you make a mapping from the real world to a rigourous set of rules or you merely compare sets of rules, you are finding a way to encode one system in terms of another. Thus the application of analytical geometry to our (observed) real space, is an encoding of real world geometry into algebraic equations. Any description in one has a signifigant result in the other.

Teach yourself

You've got to teach yourself. Frankly, even Havard won't make the dumb smart, it will only make them educated. Just having the ability to break down information and understand it on your own is a skill. You've get to be able to solve problems on you're own. Don't just stare at the problem. Play with it. Do something. Even if it's tedious. You'd be suprised at how just hacking away at a piece of it can help you solve a problem. Heck, I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

"Don't let school get in the way of your education."
-Mark Twain (or Ben Franklin or somebody else...)

Give me a man who is mathematically mature and physcially intuitive and I will give you a genius. Genius is merely a social measurement of intelligence. Whose to say if Einstein was smarter than Hilbert. Was Godel smarter than Russell? Frankly, most of these parlor discussions are nothing more than pure bovine fecal matter. Don't obsess about how intelligent other people think you are. Frankly, if you're really smart, you will get two responses, comraderie or fear. Intelligent people will seek your company. Insecure people will tell you that you are foolish or ignorant only because they fear you actually know more. Intelligence is part performance and part stubborn confidence that you can figure something out by shear intellectual will. Of course, proving that you are a genius or even a genius in a world of geniuses is tough. However, I will leave that exercise to the reader.