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Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#61

Post by whenwillitstop »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #9

One of the most consistent ways research has demonstrated to increase connectivity in the brain is to learn new physical skills. Controlling the body in space appears to be particularly good at stimulating the growth of new synapses (and possibly new neurons as well, though the research is not conclusive here outside the hippocampus). Yoga is a good start. Modern dance, breakdancing, capoeira and gymnastics are all e…

Why arent athletes the most intelligent then? Generally in society there is considered a negative correletion between people that exercise/play a ton of sports and intelligence. Whether this is true or not is up to debate, but stereotypes exist for a reason...

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#62

Post by wepple »

cylinder wrote: post #56
jasonellis wrote: post #36

Here is my Cliff's Notes version of the article's list: 5 Ways to Increase Your Cognitive Potential: 1) Seek Novelty. Openness to new activities correlates with IQ, because those individuals are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn, and new experiences. 2) Challenge Yourself. Brain games like Sudoku don't work to increase cognitive potential if you keep playing them. Yo…

I already do all these things and can report that none of them are compatible with most corporate jobs. Creative critical thinking and novelty seeking especially disturb management.

who said any of this has anything to do with a corporate job? do it in the morning, the weekend; then use the benefits of increased cognitive potential at work?

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#63

Post by mcguire »

forgetsusername wrote: post #47
ome6a wrote: post #43

Well, I can tell you this... I did tests long time ago and since the test I got many contacts around since my IQ is extremely high. I don't socialize with people I had only few people with who I have spended some longer time and I have noticed since the begining of our friendship untill now their way of thinking extremely changed. Sometimes I even don't like this... I feel like a battery which is charging others for…

> since my IQ is extremely high Just like everyone else on the internet.

False!

Source: When I was in high school, I got a look at my permanent record. I had a measured IQ of 150 in the 4th grade and 138 in the 6th.

Extending the plot out to infinity, I should be well into the negative numbers now.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#64

Post by whenwillitstop »

marxidad wrote: post #39
whenwillitstop wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean legal cocaine?

Legal amphetamine.

My apologies, didn't realize there was a difference between two drugs that both flood your receptors with dopamine in almost the exact same brain regions.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#65

Post by wepple »

1024core wrote: post #50

My problem is that whenever I encounter something that requires serious brain power, I start feeling sleepy. Anyone else feel this way?

if I'm not excited/motivated by it; yes. if I am excited about it, I'll dive in and only get distracted by the sun coming up having forgotten to sleep.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#66

Post by atemerev »

marxidad wrote: post #39
whenwillitstop wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean legal cocaine?

Legal amphetamine.

Incidentally, the response of somebody with ADD to Adderall is completely different compared to response of a normal person to amphetamines. It is more like "relaxed concentration" than stimulation.

Therapeutic dose of Adderall is way smaller than "recreational" doses of amphetamine. It has to be carefully calibrated by therapist. Higher doses will lead to headaches and, paradoxically, tiredness and drowsiness — not stimulation.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#67

Post by agarden »

First of all, let me explain what I mean when I say the word "intelligence". ...I'm talking about increasing your fluid intelligence, or your capacity to learn new information, retain it, then use that new knowledge as a foundation to solve the next problem, or learn the next new skill, and so on.

And when you define intelligence this way, it turns out that the best way to increase your intelligence is to practice learning new things.

But what if you defined intelligence as depth of insight instead? It would seem that were one to define it that way, dropping new skills as soon as the novelty wears off would be counterproductive.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#68

Post by grandalf »

FuNe wrote: post #29

" Efficiency is not your friend when it comes to cognitive growth. In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are engaging in. You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do " Then working in IT (…

> being in a constant state of noob-ness

This is pretty much euphoric for me. The best thing is to overcome obstacles by finally realizing how to reason about something new.

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#69

Post by rbobby »

jasonellis wrote: post #36

Here is my Cliff's Notes version of the article's list: 5 Ways to Increase Your Cognitive Potential: 1) Seek Novelty. Openness to new activities correlates with IQ, because those individuals are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn, and new experiences. 2) Challenge Yourself. Brain games like Sudoku don't work to increase cognitive potential if you keep playing them. Yo…

Sounds too hard. Isn't there just a pill?

Re: Ways to maximize your cognitive potential

#70

Post by ideonexus »

whenwillitstop wrote: post #61
CuriouslyC wrote: post #9

One of the most consistent ways research has demonstrated to increase connectivity in the brain is to learn new physical skills. Controlling the body in space appears to be particularly good at stimulating the growth of new synapses (and possibly new neurons as well, though the research is not conclusive here outside the hippocampus). Yoga is a good start. Modern dance, breakdancing, capoeira and gymnastics are all e…

Why arent athletes the most intelligent then? Generally in society there is considered a negative correletion between people that exercise/play a ton of sports and intelligence. Whether this is true or not is up to debate, but stereotypes exist for a reason...

Athletes score very highly on specific measures of intelligence:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/apr/16-the-brain-athletes-a...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligenc...

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