Cached from Thread Reader:
- “Any man who bears the ability of a polymath shall not be interfered by specialty, he needs discipline to manage his behaviors and nurture his creativity.” ― Shawn Lukas
- Read staggering amounts, regularly returning to the classics both fiction and non-fiction.
- Multi subject. Read some chemistry along-side some marketing strategy. Some Cubism along- side some leadership coaching. Be amazed at how synergy comes into play, ideas spark and smartness is boosted.
- Write your own notes of your daily learnings aiming for super concise summaries. In that way you must squeeze and reveal the essence of a subject.
- Stay active during the day. That’s not just ‘go to the gym’. Stay active; you’ll notice the ideas owing so much more quickly and easily.
- Reduce TV watching drastically. Talk, write, cook, listen to music, walk, shoot ball, hold hands... instead.
- Find a mentor. He/she inspires. He/she can spend some time with you. He/she will challenge you.
- "A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” ― Oliver Wendell Holmes.
- Develop other parts of the brain. Reading loads? Take up art. Writing loads? Take up the guitar.
- Write your personal manifesto. What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What are your resolutions without needing a New Year.
- Ask deeper questions and thus build your knowledge base upon which your best thinking-and intelligence-is dependent.
- Play with scale. Go smaller; consider the minutiae; go bigger: consider the landscape.
- Change your environment and notice how the dulled, ‘not smart’ feeling will leave you.
- Write a list of what you believe to be fundamentally true. And now ask what if everyone of those ‘facts’ were in fact malleable...?
- Sit quietly on a winter’s beach for 1h with a blanket wrapped around you and watch the waves crashing. And now through boredom, through ‘oh why?’, through meditative experiences will arise one or two epiphanies.
- Sort out your music by mood and use it to change your mood; make sure there is ‘I feel pretty damn smart’ category. Keep it to yourself; humility allows smartness.
- Start travelling again.
- Admit that you make mistakes, errors and crazy decisions. But you are learning. And fast.
- Go back to the primary source of your data more often. Read the wikipedia article. But then, note and certainly read some of the sources quoted.
- Every 45 minutes stop, stretch and ask: what is truly important at this point?
- Create a virtual advisory team: assemble your heroes from all elds, alive, dead, imaginary and when you want inspiration, ask: what would they do?
- Stop the relentless interrupts to your quality thinking.
- Go back-packing: climb high, breathe deep and take no photos. Just be there.
- Crack algebra once and for all.
- Read the history of the Periodic Table.
- Review your week and itemise what could be improved for next week. Focus on when you were smart.
- Focus on some of the other elements of intelligence apart from numeric/linguistic e.g. spatial (go shoot ball), musical (borrow a keyboard and learn some basics) and artistic (sketch with some charcoal).
- Learn Chess and/or Go for mental stretch. And hopscotch for mind-body co-ordination.
- Sleep until rested. Do not press snooze. Get up and stretch into activity. Fatigue causes stupidity.
- Work in intense pulses of application, say 90 minutes. Then take a proper break.
- Develop your thinking: treat it as a skill.
- Observe your thinking to re ne it and get more bang per buck.
- Use proactive thinking: what do I need to anticipate?
- Use critical thinking: what do I need to do better?
- Use lateral thinking: what do I need to do differently?
- Take any major conspiracy theory and explain why it is false/accurate in 100 words.
- Re-invent your working environment so that (1) distractions are minimised (2) the vital few are prioritised and visible (3) the trivial many look after themselves.
- Look after your brain. Keep it oxygenated by stretching and breathing deep into the lungs. Keep it hydrated with pure water. Avoid it getting over-heated with fresh air.
- Start a personal development fund: put 2% of your income towards courses, books, coaching. Spend the money. Some people spend more on their car than they do on their brain.
- Study the masters in as many fields as possible. You can’t have Einstein’s brain but you can be curious about his routine. Were their things he did which boosted his intelligence? Can you copy those?
- Produce stuff. Make stuff. Get it out there.
- A qualification means knowledge; it does not necessarily mean wisdom. Apply your learning every day.
- Much school, college and work is about social conditioning. Your true, deep and on-going smartness comes when you question the most fundamental of assumptions. For your health. For your business. For your life. For your very best work.
- Like an artist, build a portfolio of your best work. Regularly review and update it and allow yourself to be reminded of what you can do.
- Notice the foods that wipe you out, especially at work, especially in the afternoon. Eliminate them. 100% totally. Keep them for chill out days.
- Set up a learning team. Three people, 1h/ month, every month. Bring along ten minutes of materials to teach the other two. You get smarter by teaching and in return you learn two new subjects.
- Struggle with the problem. Don’t give up. Clarify the problem. Research the problem. Then allow the problem to incubate for a while before returning to it. When you get that breakthrough you will have become smarter.
- Write lists. Simply write down 10 ideas related to a topics. Like doing pushup, the more you practice ideation, the better you’ll get at it.
- Memorise more. Key numbers. Key passwords.
- Just know that you are smarter than you were and you can be smarter still.
- Practise representing data in 2 by 2 matrices and graphs to get to the point.
- Learn a meditative practice. A simple breathing meditation will do.
- Don’t believe the majority of what you have been told about your intelligence.
- Work at a different speed.
- Switch off your phone in queues and watch, observe and think.
- Get that MBA off your CV and into action.
- Use walking to overcome mental blocks.
- Flick through your notebooks seeking inspiration.
- Think less about qualifications and more about accelerating your real experience.
- Eradicate any limiting mind-sets such as age. Age is not a chronological fact; it is a psychological choice.
- Become so free, you can become super-smart.
- Regularly review to reinforce and capture detail which boosts smartness and decision- making. Review the conversation, the meeting and the day.
- Learn a new word every day and boost your vocabulary to allow ner points of expression
- Become your own guru, your own thought- leader. Push to the edges of your subject be it building walls, chess or ne art and express your own unique views.
- As you read non-fiction ask provocative questions. What do they mean? How can that be true? How quickly could I use that?
- Stare into the night sky and immerse yourself in the immensity of possibility.
- Write down five stupid things you do. Go cold turkey and stop doing them now.
- Sing in the shower and come out refreshed in every sense.
- Represent ideas visually on a whiteboard or with felt pen and paper to access a different part of the brain.
- Learn to juggle.
- Study your route on the map. Memorise the essential parts of the journey; use SatNav as a back up.
- Work on the problem/issue in a different location. Busy (but not packed) coffee shops invariably seem to increase smartness and creativity.
- "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Represent the idea/problem/concept in photographs on your phone.
- Work in the kitchen whilst cooking.
- Sharpen ten pencils. Now write on the issue until all need re-sharpening.
- Try different note-taking styles: cartoon/mind-map/bullet/narrative.
- "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” ― Stephen Hawking.
- Never accept ‘OK’ work from yourself.
- Write a book: the demands will stretch you to your smartness limits.
- Start a blog and post on a regular basis: force yourself to commit to something which will have the scrutiny of everyone including your greatest enemies.
- Discover where and when and with whom and at what time you do your greatest work.
- Learn the fine art of debating.
- Write a plan now to become more intelligent. Procrastination is so tomorrow.