Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Drinking, lots of drinking.
SuDZ
'm constantly told that I have an extremely high intelligence
Quit hanging out with your mom.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
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.
"I'm constantly told that I have an extremely high intelligence.
Yeah, I only hang around with dumb people that make me look smart too.
SuDZ
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.
Wikipedia is always in need of good contributors. Give it a try.
When in doubt, go to the library. - Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Hey, who are you to challenge the submitter? He is constantly being told that has an extremely high IQ. How many times have *you* been told that?
...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...
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.
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....