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Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#41

Post by muzani »

lapcat wrote: post #28
muzani wrote: post #22

One thing I've noticed is that it takes a certain energy threshold to do something. At 30s, first, your internal energy level have dropped. You might also be more senior at work and stuck with higher responsibilities and longer hours, or occupied at home - caretaking parents, young children. Einstein didn't make as many groundbreaking discoveries in his latter years; some attributed this to being tied down with more…

> Einstein didn't make as many groundbreaking discoveries in his latter years; some attributed this to being tied down with more draining work. There's only so much that one person can do in a lifetime. Humans are not infinite wells of creativity. Or let's put it this way: which post-Einstein groundbreaking discoveries do you think he should have made? Why does he personally have to discover everything in physics? Wh…

Actually, I might have been mistaken on this. Einstein got in most of his contributions by 56 and didn't plateau much earlier as initially calculated.

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#42

Post by rramadass »

bheadmaster wrote: post #39

As a run-of-the-mill mathematician and programmer, what I've found the most helpful is studying philosophy. During my teens I went through an existential crisis, and the dread I've felt every day drove me to start reading philosophy books. I found Nietzsche, and while his books were extremely hard to read (took me years to actually go through them), I feel that it's shaped my mind in a universal way, giving me abilit…

You might find James Tartaglia's Philosophy in a Meaningless Life A System of Nihilism, Consciousness and Reality interesting. Free pdf available at : https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/philosophy-in-a-m...

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#43

Post by theaussiestew »

austin-cheney wrote: post #40

All the research indicates you are as smart as you are born according to measures of intelligence in psychology. You can boost your intelligence up to 10 IQ points with intense practice but that is extremely temporary. What you can do is instead learn to enhance your personality as such results yield long term benefits (sometimes permanent). For example conscientiousness is negatively correlated with intelligence but…

While the research does point to general intelligence being largely fixed I find this to not be true in my own personal experience. I find that this kind of fixed belief, plus other beliefs like “I’m not good at this, or I’m not good at that” actually drag down performance. Of course, if we’re 4“11’ then we’ll never play in the NBA, but I mean beliefs like “I’m not good at math” or “My IQ is only so and so, therefore my intellectual ceiling is this”. I truly believe that we can increase our intelligence by 1 to 2 sigma (15-30 IQ points) if we make an effort to train not only our physical heath, but also emotional health, mental health and finally spiritual health. For me, it was realising that so much of my brain power was tied up in unresolved moments of the past, poor diet and exercise. With those out of the way, as well as some meditative exercises, I feel so much clearer than I was in the past.

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#44

Post by atomicnature »

Continuously taking on more challenges; if you don't push the boundary of your capabilities, one stagnates.

Incrementally increasing risk appetite as a mental exercise

Ensuring "skin in the game" (when there's something to lose, I tend to be more "awake")

Focus on personal conduct (rather than merely absorbing "information"; right practice makes me better, not just the knowledge of what to practice)

Becoming accountable, pledging results, and putting 100% efforts

Also, for inspiration, pick some "extreme" fields to study: mountaineering, Olympic level training, etc

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#46

Post by throw_away1525 »

Something no one has mentioned yet: stop drinking alcohol to the greatest extent possible. A lot of us in our 30s are into craft beer, good wine, expensive Scotch etc... try abstaining for a full quarter (3 months) and see how you feel after. Even if your consumption was within government health guidelines (<14 drinks per week for men, less for women, and government drinks are small) you will probably be amazed at the difference. I couldn't believe how much having a beer or two after work every day was affecting my sleep and then everything else.

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#48

Post by dev_0 »

bumbledraven wrote: post #19

Much of philosopher Elliot Temple’s work is about how to think better. That’s a big topic which includes, among many other things: - becoming aware of and fixing mistakes ( https://www.elliottemple.com/essays/life-overreaching-correc... ) - identifying and working with bottlenecks ( https://criticalfallibilism.com/most-factors-arent-borderlin... ) - managing your error rate for faster progress ( https://fallibleideas…

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Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#49

Post by dev_0 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #39

As a run-of-the-mill mathematician and programmer, what I've found the most helpful is studying philosophy. During my teens I went through an existential crisis, and the dread I've felt every day drove me to start reading philosophy books. I found Nietzsche, and while his books were extremely hard to read (took me years to actually go through them), I feel that it's shaped my mind in a universal way, giving me abilit…

Does Jordan Peterson helps?

Re: Ask HN: How do you become smarter?

#50

Post by sys32768 »

throw_away1525 wrote: post #46

Something no one has mentioned yet: stop drinking alcohol to the greatest extent possible. A lot of us in our 30s are into craft beer, good wine, expensive Scotch etc... try abstaining for a full quarter (3 months) and see how you feel after. Even if your consumption was within government health guidelines (<14 drinks per week for men, less for women, and government drinks are small) you will probably be amazed at th…

I'm 50+ and my brain cannot handle alcohol like it used to. When I finally stopped for three weeks, I was flabbergasted and overjoyed how much better my brain worked in terms of memory recall, word association, and vocabulary.
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