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Ways to maximize your cognitive potential
- dom2 10y ago> 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. Mastery may be too strong of a word here but the intention is definitely clear. It seems to me that certain activities are more suited to naturally force novelty on someone. Musicianship comes to mind, as when one finishes learning a piece, they can advance to a more challenging one, which would be considered 'novel'.
- jobvandervoort 10y agoThe 5 ways listed are: 1. Seek Novelty 2. Challenge Yourself 3. Think Creatively 4. Do Things The Hard Way 5. Network
- johnloeber 10y agoThey appear to have mistaken "increase your capacity to do cool stuff" for "increase your intelligence."
- zump 10y agohow is one supposed to network when you work in a 9-5 job in a company no one gives a shit about.
- dllthomas 10y agoMake use of the 5-9?
- FuNe 10y agoAdmit it. You don't have kids - right?
- relearn 10y agoHaving kids does not exclude you from having a social life. Even one night a week to go to a local meetup would be great for improving one's network.
- dllthomas 10y agoThat was not included as a constraint. That said, I do have a kid, and while he definitely represents a huge draw on my time and attention, I still manage to make and maintain technical connections outside of work. Depending on circumstances, "we have kids of a similar age and both work in tech" is an easy instant connection.
- lloyd-christmas 10y ago9-5? Damn, you have a lot of free time.
- AstralStorm 10y agoYou meant non-job time, right? There are other inevitable time sinks.
- lloyd-christmas 10y agoEveryone has time sinks. Just about everyone over the age of 22 works at least 8 hours. 9-5 are lighter hours than anyone I know excluding those who are shift workers. I don't know anyone with a white-collar job that gets off before 6, and many start before 8. I work some of the lightest hours of people I know at 9-6:30. We all find time to network.
- ambicapter 10y agoSo what kind of networking do you do? Go to company happy hour? Freelance? "Connecting" to people on LinkedIn?
- lloyd-christmas 10y agoNew grads/young professionals track me down regularly asking for "career advice" (a job). People my age/older email me about potential job opportunities. Coffee with either of them is pretty effortless given that both of them will typically come to you. Meetups[0] after work usually start at 7. I probably get to about 3 or 4 a month which is plenty to build a superficial network outside of my immediate friends and family. I don't have children. Even if I did though, trading 2 nights a month my significant other for personal/career networking isn't all that unreasonable. A friend of mine runs a meetup and he has 3 kids. I sleep 7 hours, I'm at work/commuting 11 hours. That leaves me with 30 hours on weekdays to divide however I please (obviously there are other basic sunk costs like basic hygiene and eating). I've found that once I quantify the time I have in life, it's a lot easier to notice when it's available and be productive with it. I'm really not even one of those super motivated people. I just like to be conscientious of my free time. [0] http://www.meetup.com/ http://www.meetup.com/
- jasonellis 10y agoThe article says you can network via social media or in person. The goal is to know more people so you may be exposed to more collective experiences, viewpoints, and intelligence. It's mostly about increasing the size of your filter bubble.
- vacri 10y agoMaybe look for other work? Try other angles on life?
- trentmb 10y agoFollow people on twitter, etc.
- Jtsummers 10y agoWhat do you want to do? Tech related? Find a meet-up or hacker space or make one. Something more physical like a sport or physical activity? Join a rec league, find a cycling group, join a gym, find groups that go hiking/climbing. Community involvement? Attend city council meetings, find out who's active and talk to them and find out what they do and where.
- BatFastard 10y agoHost lunch and learns at your office. Go to a public speaking club before work or after. Join some meetups. No one at any of those care about what company you work at.
- ferbivore 10y agoOh, so it's just the feel-good BS everyone is already aware of. Thank you for saving me the time.
- robbiep 10y agoI thought dual n-back had been discredited as a method of increasing cognitive performance. I know there must be some experts on here - would you care to comment?
- slig 10y agoSee this very thorough article on gwern's [1] website: https://www.gwern.net/DNB%20meta-analysis https://www.gwern.net/DNB%20meta-analysis [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gwern https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gwern
- robbiep 10y agoAwesome, thanks. So N-back is not likely a useful method. Therefore this article misconstrues the scientific evidence regarding training.
- drited 10y agoThe article was written in 2011 before many of the follow up studies questioning Jaeggi's initial findings were published. While I think the evidence available today had muddied the water relative to what people thought after Jaeggi was first published, not all avenues have been covered (e.g. do people in knowledge I industries who are more motivated to increase iq try harder and as a result achieve better results). In my opinion, if you can spare the time, there's little to be lost from trying n back training. If it does work for you, the upside is tremendous. Anecdotally I tried it and came up with novel solutions to problems I hadn't previously cracked within a few months of training.
- azakai 10y agoAside from that, the article is full of plenty of dubious claims. For example, > In order to [generate novel ideas], you need both right and left hemispheres working in conjunction with each other. The simplistic idea of the hemispheres being different types of thinking, or that originality requires them "working together", is not supported. In fact very interesting things happen when the two hemispheres are separated, but it isn't something to do with the topic of the article. > 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 Of course efficiency is not your friend if your goal is apparent growth and increased activity in the brain. But that's not the goal. The goal is to be effective. An effective brain is using less resources because it needs less. A chess master can consider fewer moves than a novice, for example. Unless we had evidence that any brain growth is good for general intelligence in some way. We don't. Taxi drivers have growth in areas responsible for mapping and spatial location, for example, but no evidence suggests that makes them better at anything else. In any case, the advice provided is badly justified, but still valid. The 5 principles are just common sense - which is why the author can find people like Einstein suggesting them many decades ago.
- panglott 10y agoIt is one thing to improve the IQ of rapidly-growing children who have developmental disorders, and quite another to improve the fluid intelligence of adults. Brain training games don't boost IQ http://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/11993078/brain-training-games-dont-boost-iq http://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/11993078/brain-training-games-d...
- bjz_ 10y agoThe author does mention this under '2. Challenge Yourself': > I'm going to shatter some of that stuff you've previously heard about brain training games. Here goes: They don't work. Individual brain training games don't make you smarter—they make you more proficient at the brain training games.
- koolba 10y agoSince when has Scientific American resorted to listicles?
- emodendroket 10y agoVery few publications haven't at this point.
- stephengillie 10y agoSince when has HN let fluff on the front page? The article presents dubious claims with tenuous support. There's not even a mention of how many people were studied in the linked abstracts. Yet so many here are taking the article as fact.
- FuNe 10y agoIt's not that bad. Juice is in the details. Give it a chance.
- CuriouslyC 10y agoOne 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 excellent if you're slightly more athletic. Beyond that, practicing thinking in different ways really helps your brain develop. One thing that most people neglect is geometric/mechanical intelligence. Get some 3D puzzles, and once you get really good at them, start building simple machines. If you never got good at math, trying to pick up some advanced mathematics can be a good exercise as well.
- whiteandnerdy 10y agoTo what extent is that connectivity valuable beyond physical exercise? Is there good evidence that this does more than improve coordination and proprioception? (Obviously coordination and proprioception are valuable, but people who value them likely don't need convincing of the merits of exercise!)
- CuriouslyC 10y agoI think that _initially_ this new neural growth can be co-opted into general mental flexibility, particularly for things like mathematics and visual reasoning. In a sense, varied movement makes you more aware/perceptive of space. However, I think over time if you don't try to utilize your increased spatial awareness to solve spatial problems, eventually those new neurons will prune their synaptic connections to make the network as efficient as possible. Thus, I believe that pairing novel mental and physical training is the best bet for improving overall intellectual abilities.
- basseq 10y agoShort answer: yes, physical exercise has been scientifically proven to improve cognition (working memory, attention, and other factors). In addition to physical exercise, the two other things the author neglects to mention (though it might not be as relevant for her population, comprised of children) are diet and stress relief.
- tatool 10y agoAs the article is pretty old I suggest looking at a more recent discussion of the topic: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7592_supp/full/531S10a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7592_supp/full/53...
- atemerev 10y agoI can relate to that. I am not super-intelligent, I have ADD, and generally consider myself to be lazy and distraction-prone. However, for some reasons unknown, I have excellent working memory, which allows me to perform feats. Multi-choice exams? Can prepare for anything in few hours. Learn Scala (and another 5-6 programming languages) in a few months? Easy! I don't use password managers, as I remember all my long passwords. And credit card numbers. And phone numbers. This multiplies my intelligence quite significantly. If only I could be consistently productive...
- phreeza 10y agoThe things you describe are long term memory, not working memory, I believe.
- atemerev 10y agoI forget things I don't use as fast as the next person (perhaps faster). The only difference is the speed of acquisition.
- mjlm 10y agoMinor point: What you describe isn't usually called working memory. Working memory is what you can "keep in mind" at any one point. It lasts for a few seconds and then has to be refreshed, e.g. by repeatedly saying a phone number to yourself in your head. Working memory is more or less synonymous with short-term memory. What you describe is long-term memory (everything beyond a few seconds is considered long-term). Edit: Too slow. Some more justification: Very broadly, one hypothesis is that working/short term memory is stored in the currently present activity patterns of neurons, which fade/decorelate after a few secodns. Anything longer is thought to be stored in the weights of the synapses between neurons (there are alternative theories but I like this one).
- slig 10y agoHave you tried any meds to ADD?
- 10y ago
- FuNe 10y ago" 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 (aka being in a constant state of noob-ness) is making you ever smarter.
- singham 10y agoI didn't know that all these new Javascript frameworks were making me smart.
- SNvD7vEJ 10y agoSo that's why webdevs are so smart!
- unusximmortalis 10y agoNot necessarily smart but trained. Yes, many times I thought about the problems I am solving, and new things I learn from the last 20 something years since I am in love with IT world. There are times when the problems repeat but many times problems are different so my approach and solution is different. Also new tech waves keep me trained cause I want to stay up to date and I want to learn what the new tech is solving or improving.
- savanaly 10y agoYou joke, but honestly all the web devs that learn a new framework annually will be pretty good at picking up new frameworks after five or ten years. Of course, most of the people who fret about the state of the javascript ecosystem are doing it needlessly from the sidelines and don't themselves ever learn any of the new stuff.
- dualogy 10y ago> will be pretty good at picking up new frameworks after five or ten years ..or however long until the concept in question becomes irrelevant..
- jasonellis 10y agoHere 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. You play them, learn how the game works, then move onto a new challenge. 3) Think Creatively. This doesn't mean "thinking with the right side of your brain." It means using both halves of your brain to make remote associations between ideas and switching back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking (cognitive flexibility) to generate original ideas appropriate to the activity you are doing. Like thinking both inside and outside the box when trying to solve a problem. 4) Do Things the Hard Way. GPS as an example. You may use GPS because you have a poor sense of direction. Using GPS will make it worse because you aren't giving your brain a chance to learn and build its ability to navigate. Same thing with auto-correct/spell check. You can't spell anymore because you rely on software to fix your mistakes. 5) Network. Whether on social media or in person, this gives you exposure to different ideas and environments that you otherwise wouldn't be exposed to. It allows you opportunities to practice the previous 4 objectives. Knowing more people gives you the chance to tap into more collective knowledge and experience.
- cylinder 10y agoI 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.
- mcguire 10y agoHypotheses concerning intelligence from this article: 1. It is correlated with short term memory. 2. It is anti-correlated with experience. "Efficiency is not your friend." 3. Technology affecting cognition (think of a map or a calculator) acts as a crutch to reduce the required intelligence for an activity. Just like physical technology. 4. Intelligence is correlated with social skills.
- SNvD7vEJ 10y agoSo plowing through many different games on e.g. Steam, and just playing each game for a short period (not trying to excel or improve your scores) before moving on to the next game, could somewhat satisfy #1 and #2 (novely + challenge)?
- yvdriess 10y agoMastering or thoroughly understand the system before moving on is implied :) It might also be important to play differently challenging games (#1), e.g. DotA2 + Europa Universalis 4 + CS:GO will give you a much wider spectrum of brain training than going through the japanese RPG catalog. That said, constantly seeking novelty is not good for your grit score, which seems to be a better predictor for 'success' than intelligence.
- glfharris 10y agoDepends on how much actual cognition is involved, after playing many games it could easily just become repetition. Also could come at the expense of some of the others, like networking.
- ome6a 10y agoWell, 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 nothing.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>since my IQ is extremely high Just like everyone else on the internet.
- mcguire 10y agoFalse! 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.
- majewsky 10y agoUsing two data points to fit a curve is indeed not very intelligent. ;)
- mcguire 10y agoI'm using the assumption that intelligence is a linear relationship to the quantity of intellectual phlogiston in the skull.
- internaut 10y agoSuppose an environment e.g. stimuli/education was difficulty adjusted as you went up a grade so you were always on the very bleeding edge of your cognitive abilities. You'd throw out the entire education system in order to do that, but would it mean that children would have higher IQ as adults? tldr; if by modern standards we were cruel to children could we maintain high IQ levels? I'm reminded of Dr Spock as a child in the 'education pits' in that new Star Trek movie ;-)
- 1024core 10y agoMy problem is that whenever I encounter something that requires serious brain power, I start feeling sleepy. Anyone else feel this way?
- cableshaft 10y agoAre you sleeping well? When I don't, things that require brainpower tend to make me feel sleepy. Maybe you have some form of apnea and you don't realize it. Could also be something like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
- 1024core 10y agoThis may be it. I don't think I'm sleeping that well.
- wepple 10y agoif 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.
- mcguire 10y agoHmm. Well, you are a special snowflake, aren't you? Hey, guys, can we change the way the world works for zump here? They've got problems that no one else has ever had, ever.
- dang 10y agoPersonal attacks are not allowed on Hacker News. Please don't be nasty here. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12008350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12008350 and marked it off-topic.
- agarden 10y agoFirst 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.
- trentmb 10y ago> Novel Activity—>triggers dopamine—>creates a higher motivational state—>which fuels engagement Is there anyone else that doesn't get this reaction? I usually just feel tired and then ennui sets in.
- adrusi 10y agoThat's called depression.
- Jtsummers 10y agoPerhaps the activity just doesn't interest you or doesn't suit you? I've been repeatedly frustrated by efforts to learn new languages, and usually let my attempts fade off. Without a clear motivation for learning the language other than to learn it it's hard to maintain the effort. (This has changed recently with my attempt to relearn Spanish, I was almost fluent 18 years ago and now have a good reason to regain and maintain it.) So what sort of novel activities have left you feeling tired?
- ___eponymous___ 10y agoI used to be the same way - it eventually turned out I had ADHD-PI. Now that I take d-methamphetamine that's no longer a problem, fortunately.
- dc2 10y ago> While Einstein was not a neuroscientist, he sure knew what he was talking about in regards to the human capacity to achieve. This line gets to me because it paints a neuroscientist in an unqualified light. This kind of implicit trust breeds pseudoscience through inflated egos.
- adaptiveprism 10y agoA quote from Eiiinshteen? Oh and look at the author it's Andreeeaa Kuszewskiliowitz.
- neovive 10y agoThis fits well for anyone working in web development. The quote: "You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do" explains how I feel whenever I'm starting out with new frameworks, languages and tools. The webdev world is in a constant state of flux. This year is a great example for me, as I'm in the process of learning: ES6, Typescript, Angular2, RxJS and Webpack--I'm always in a state of "slight discomfort". I just have to avoid using "Google" and "StackOverflow" to parallel the author's experience of travelling in Boston without GPS, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
- basseq 10y agoBy the way, this is why Lumosity is generally regarded as "crap" by the scientific community (and why they were fined $2M for deceptive advertising[1]). Any "improvement" you see in playing Lumosity's games isn't improvement in mental acuity, but efficiencies in repetition (#2). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845068
- tumbas 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8i1Ddj1Sw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8i1Ddj1Sw8
- hyperpallium 10y ago> once the "training" stopped, they went right back to their previously low cognitive levels... not to create a lasting change. This article criticizes previous methods for lacking enduring effect, but does not claim enduring improvement for any of the promoted methods (including for the boy with PDD-NOS, and dual n-back) nor revisit the issue. On the contrary, it later claims that on-going training is required. This is not "lasting change". This article is written enthusiastically rather than scientifically. It reminds me of "In Search of Excellence", that had sensible, intuitively appealing advice, but whose supporting data turned out to be fabricated. Also, quoting Einstein is a red flag. He wasn't a polymath (unless you count several areas of theoretical physics as wide learning). Still, it's interesting, and what more can you expect from popsci Scientific American?
- taurath 10y agoAs someone who previously fit the diagnostic criteria for PDD-NOS as a child and no longer does - I wonder how much of the described effect comes from a potential, sparsely documented trait of HF autism spectrum disorders that starts a person at a lower cognitive level but has more potential than others to overcome such a handicap? I'd love to see more study in this - at age 15 (whilst heavily medicated) I had the social skills of a 9 year old, generally because of the lag of having to find processes that worked for me where neurotypical kids had a naturally good environment to learn these things. Since striking out and finding my own path I've grown leaps and bounds and many people I respect as having good social skills and emotional intelligence call me charismatic. My hypothesis is that autistic kids /require/ a rational framework with which to work in dynamic situations, but while young do not have enough well-developed/healthy cognitive maps or experience to achieve a workable one until later. Couple that with low expectations and special treatment - necessary to stave off active pain but eventually turning into a crutch - had I stayed on medication/done what the doctors/teachers/parent said I have no doubt I would probably be on some sort of disability or at the very least not have the skillsets that have given me success today. All that said, I'm certainly a firm believer of being able to grow cognitively at any age. There's just a hell of a lot of inertia that is very easy to get into - habits die very very hard and require a lot of effort to overcome. When you don't have the ability to do a hard reset and move away, get out of the space you're in it gets harder.
- tokenadult 10y agoShould have "2011" in the title, as there has been new research on the article topic since then, and this article isn't the last word on the topic.