I think that how smart you are is influenced a lot by inner psychological traits, specifically: 1) How rewarding and enjoyful you find learning new things. I d

I think that how smart you are is influenced a lot by inner psychological traits, specifically: 1) How rewarding and enjoyful you find learning new things. I don't mean learning pi to one 1000 digits, but higher level concepts like learning macroeconomics. 2) Generally enjoying thinking. 3) Being a perfectionist. For example, when I see some corner case problem in one of my "theories" of something (usually related to computers, economics or philosophy), it really bothers me (i.e. it has nothing to do with being smart, it's personality trait). So perhaps if you try to nurture these traits, it could make you smarter, but that's just a speculation :) More practical advice: read quora.com. There is a lot of really high-quality, interesting and thought-provoking content there, written by some incredibly smart people.