Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you lift weights, will it only improve your ability to lift weights? ;)
The brain is not a muscle, as tempting as the analogy may be.
More like a collection of footpaths that become more accessible with use.
You can increase your intelligence
101–110 of 120 posts
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#102Most of us on HN have enough intelligence. Other qualities (focus, dedication, ambition, sociability) will have much greater impact on our success in life.
That oddly motivates me! Thanks!
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#103Intelligence is just a fancy name to "determination"
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Focus! Here I am wasting time/procrastinating. There certain days, that no matter what I do, consistent concentration is impossible.
In my opinion, the urge to procrastinate is just our brain telling us that the kind and amount of effort we're demanding from it is not natural. People aren't meant to spend 40+ hours a week sitting behind a desk and concentrating on stuff they have little connection with. Marx wrote about that (the alienation of workers) 150 years ago.
There are many reasons for the urge of procrastination. A good article mentioning them (including approaches to fight it): http://lesswrong.com/lw/3w3/how_to_beat_procrastination/
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#105all well and good, for a lot of people i know the more immediate concerns are the basic trilogies of diet/exercise/rest, and learning the tiger parent things your whole life (math, programming, foreign languages, musical instruments). These things work because they require sustained effort/concentration, adn dealing with frustration and plateaus
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/216086-Mental-muscle-six-w...
(the 6 things above: bright light, tDCS, food, exercise, playing music, meditation
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, because some people might not have it and the training will be useless.
So don't try?
I can say that I've tried, and have a real problem with similar exercises.. that said, I don't learn the same way a lot of other seem to. I am pretty good at getting a couple dozen things into my head at once, but my mind tends to wander beyond that point and I will lose focus.
In some ways this works to my advantage, in general an application or system I am working on can fit mostly in what I am actively thinking of at a given time.. the down side is I will then lose track of time, and side thoughts... it will be 7-8-9 at night, and I'll stop because I need to use the restroom, realize how late it is and that I'm hungry.
On the flip side, I rarely misplace things, I have a photographic memory, not eidetic... In general if I write something and see it at the same time, I'll remember.. if I only see it, it depends, and if I only hear it, I'll likely forget.
I do most of the things mentioned in the article regularly though... I've managed to cope pretty well with my advantages and disadvantages.
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my opinion, the urge to procrastinate is just our brain telling us that the kind and amount of effort we're demanding from it is not natural. People aren't meant to spend 40+ hours a week sitting behind a desk and concentrating on stuff they have little connection with. Marx wrote about that (the alienation of workers) 150 years ago.
As someone who has spent entire months not doing work, just doing things like studying Japanese, watching TV shows and playing chess online... I have to disagree. I think the source of my motivation problem is having the feeling that what I do 'Does Not Matter.' Some months I can't shake this feeling and get absolutely nothing done. Other months I feel like I can take over the world - and end up making the progress o…
You're not saying _why_ you want to implement those ideas in the first place.
Since your motivation doesn't seem to be intristic (if it was, you would've just found time and energy for at least some progress), you're most likely treating is a vehicle for something else: improving programming skills, padding resume, possibly basing a startup on the idea. In such case, you need to make yourself do things you're not really interested in doing (it's not always a bad thing, there's a ton of such things in everyone's life such as doing taxes etc.). Lots of motivation books on that subject exist, but from what I've noticed, it all boils down to imagining the fruits of your labor when it's done and also imagining negative consequences of not doing it.
For programming/startup ideas procrastination, my theory is that the sub-conscious part of the brain has already done the calculations for you, and the expected value just isn't that great - ie. you're likely to work hard for months and the most likely outcome is going to be a better job (ie. more work, probably also unengaging...). So maybe, it's just your subconscious telling you you need an idea which engages you before you start executing :)
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hear, hear. I'm getting kinda desperate in my non existing pursuit of being able to focus / getting things done. I am considering meditation but I'm not sure there's actual evidence that it actually makes it easier to focus.
If meditation does not make it easier for you to focus, you will be unable to progress with your meditation. It's that simple - increasing your focus is integral to progress in meditation practice. Meditation consists of two main "directions": Concentration practice and contemplation practices. Most schools of meditation has one of these as their main focus, but contemplation practice includes certain levels of conce…
While I'm familiar with everything you described from previous experience I have to say that was masterfully described. I've found that meditation has so much cultural and 'religious' sounding baggage attached to it that people who would benefit most dismiss it out of hand. Your post cut through that.
When I started meditation I thought it would give me some sort of mental superpowers (Tibetan Buddhist IMO are quick to sell you on those). However in my experience the benefit is more like developing resilience against all the drama and bullshit that life or your own mind throws at you. A potential downside is that I notice more clearly how other around me are swept up into unnecessary frustration or anger. Of course it would be overstating to say I'm a competent meditator, but on some days I consider meditation the most valuable thing I do for myself.
I'm motivated now to try the guided meditation your linked above. Thanks!
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#109This may seem very good and useful at first sight but it actually doesn't mean anything. The classical stance is that intelligence it's something fixed and can't be improved, so the smart guy will outsmart the average guy. Now they say that intelligence can actually improve so it's possible for the average guy to outsmart the smart guy. Well, not at all. If intelligence can improve this means that the average guy can…
"The point" is that, with work, intelligence can allegedly be improved. Your comparison is false as the not-smart guy who works hard will almost always outperform the smart guy who doesn't work hard. The smart guy who works hard is something to be feared (or followed). HN is full of people who were told they were smart and then stopped trying. That is why they are on websites like HN rather than, you know, actually achieving anything.
Re: You can increase your intelligence
#110Every day, I train my memory by memorizing a pack of cards. I started because I had lousy memory and I wanted to improve it. I have been going at it for a few weeks now, memorizing and shuffling a deck of cards (twice a day). I can now memorize a deck of cards in just a little over 3 minutes (I started at a painful 19 minutes). Have I noticed am improvement in my memory? Yes, and much much more. What I've come to rea…
Ooh, anecdote time! As an experiment, many years ago I memorized the first book of paradise lost: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/inde... ...at the start, two or four lines a day. At the end? Two or four lines a day. Nothing improved. But I did memorize the whole goddamned thing.
Did you use a method like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci ?