How to be smarter?

[tvm77]

Hire a smart person to write better posts

 

[todman2112]

Knowledge is the key to anything.

 

[deedee1whoa]

Read more, think of some strategies, play some "smart" games etc.
Good luck!

 

[WPRipper]

Tie your head to a rope, secure rope to balcony. Jump off balcony, climb up rope. Repeat. - Remake after googlemonster

 

[Godziwa]

Tie your head to a rope, secure rope to balcony. Jump off balcony, climb up rope. Repeat. - Remake after googlemonster

Did you just promote suicide as an answer to being smarter?

 

[MoneyIsTheGod]

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!

Reading books makes you smarter. There is no doubt in my mind about that. In college I was forced to read my ass off. And anytime a professor told me to do something I went above & beyond what 98% of my peers were willing to do.

Like I had to write a paper about Freud once. I needed just 15 references for the paper. I wound up reading so much about Freud, not just his work but what other people had to say about his theories, and I read read read for 4 weeks straight all about Freud.

My brain became like a Freud encyclopedia.

Then I spent 5-6 days writing a very persuasive 18 page essay with more than 40 references and handed it to my professor.

2 days later our professor was handing back our papers, stops at my desk and asks out loud, "did you write this paper?" I said "yes". She said, "are you sure this is your writing"? I said "every word of it". She smiles, takes a deep breath and says something like, "I've been teaching this class for almost 40 years now, and this is the single best paper any student has ever written on Freud". She went on and on to praise my style of writing and single me out. Telling me, "you have a very bright future as a writer Robert", meanwhile everyone in the class is staring at me and I'm slowly sinking down in my seat hoping she'll shut up about my paper.

But that's a day I'll never forget in college. I realized even if you're not that smart, if you read A LOT about a topic, and really go above and beyond what most people are willing to do.... all that information just stays in your head like a sponge. Not just the information but all the different styles of persuasion that great writers use. And when it comes time to write... another side of "you" takes over and you can write the most incredible prose anyone's ever read.

I had similar things happen in my creative writing course. My teacher would ask permission to read a lot of my papers out loud. Then the class would face my direction and start applauding. I'd sit there just thinking "what the fuck? why am I being singled out again? am I possibly not as dumb as I always thought"? LOL. The point is, I got a lot of feedback from professors in college who told me I was a very talented writer. And I mostly thank books for that.

So I can say for a fact, reading a lot of good literature and books, without a doubt will make a person smarter. It will also make you a much better writer.

My brother has raised all 3 of his kids to be book-a-holics. I have no idea how he got kids that young to read so much but every time I see them they are ALL reading a new book. They're not playing around on their tablets or playing video games... these are kids who actually ENJOY reading. And his oldest son who's now 15, the kids a fucking genius. He's smarter at 15 than I probably am now at 32. And I know every one of those kids are gonna go to an IV league school and graduate with honors.

So again, reading is the most fundamental thing you can do to keep your brain sharp, to expand your horizon, expand your vocabulary, gain deeper, more relevant insights on life, to write better... it even helps you learn quicker. Cause the more you read the more you understand the more you CAN read and faster you can learn.

Some people say "reading can't give you street sense or common sense" but that's also wrong. Read enough books about psychopaths and criminals and you can sure as hell learn a lot about common sense or street sense. You might not learn how to talk like thugs. Like how a homicide detective can automatically mirror the way a criminal talks to gain rapport, trust and extract information about crimes. But generally speaking, you can learn A LOT through books. As long as they are GREAT BOOKS from GREAT WRITERS. Like Glenn Greenwald. The man is incredibly smart. He reads his ass off. His social skills are great. And his writing is some of the best journalism in the world. He writes with this righteous, controlled fury and has more independent persuasion than 99.8% of the population. Some of the articles he's done for guardian, the guardian, etc are absolute masterpieces.

Which goes without saying, don't just read books. Read work from some of the highest ranked journalists in the world. These people are incredibly persuasive writers. They can trigger catastrophic & worldwide political shit storms in less than 2-3,000 words. Had Snowden contacted some shitty, no-name journalist nobody would give 2 fucks what the NSA is doing right now.

There's a saying, "the pen is more mighty than the sword". But there should be another saying like, "books pack more power than bombs". A great example of this, the Bible or Koran. If we had people around the world chopping each others heads off over different interpretations of shakespeare, which is essentially happening right now just in a slightly different context.... the world might realize how powerful literature really is. We might also realize how dangerous certain forms of literature can be. But noone's ready for that debate yet. We don't allow it on forums. It's not allowed in many social contexts. Which is understandable considering how primitive an age we're still living in. FFS, 200,000 years ago we learned how to stand on 2 legs. But only 50 years ago race equality became a serious topic. We are really not much more than a bunch of bald apes with fancy toys most of us don't even know how to use yet.

-BB

Is the internet not new kind of books for you? It sure is for me. And sometimes it's even better than books because it saves time.

 

[x3agle]

one of the best replies I've seen around BHW.

 

[SuperRake]

at BreakNBrix
Thanks for posting that
Of all replies I've read in this forum(Except Topic Starters on Journeys) This might be the one of the longest post. Usually, when I'm seeing a long post probably I would skip it or just skim

 

[Lannister10]

In my opinion, You can be knowledgeable by reading books, can't be smarter.

 

[lincolnave]

Be Happy, that will increase your performance in every aspect. Google "Science of Happiness" there is a great course fro UC Berkley (in USA) that will help.

Best Wishes.

 

[RuthSam]

Don't waste your time on threads like these!

 

[Godziwa]

@ BnB, I assume you would recommend non-fiction books?

 

[dannyslimited]

I surround myself with people better off then me. Point in case. It's a ever evolving lesson. How did they get to where they are? I study them and feed off what I learn. It's a life skill that has served me well.

 

[BreaknBrix]

@ BnB, I assume you would recommend non-fiction books?

Yes I would. Out of all the books on my shelf I'd say more than 95% are non-fiction.

Here are just a few I've read -

Sperm Wars
Psycho-Cybernetics
Blink
The Game
4 Hour Work Week
Think & Grow Rich
The Unfair Advantage - Sell With NLP
Cashvertising
Scientific Advertising
Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion
Tested Advertising Methods
Hand Writing Analysis
Pathways To Personal Growth (academic)
Current Directions in Social Psychology (academic)
Comedy Writing Secrets
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
White Privilege
Silent Power (short but great read)
The Art of Conversation (a bit boring early on gets much better at the end)
The Art of War (a must for any business man)
The Art of Seduction
Breakthrough Advertising (classic)
Any book by Robert Cialdini
The Dictionary Of Cliches - Did not actually read this book but I use it A LOT for reference & it's great.
The Stress Management Sourcebook (old book but very well written)
Analytic Case Formulation
Introduction To Psychoanalysis - Freud
The Ego and The Id - Freud
Civilization and its Discontents - Freud
Beyond The Pleasure Principle - Freud
Freuds 16 papers on sexuality
The End Of Faith - Harris
The Moral Landscape
Free Will (awesome book)
The Theory of Everything
The Universe in a Nutshell
With Liberty & Justice For Some
All Marketers Are Liars
Rich Dad Poor Dad (audio book on yt)
How To Get Things Done (LOVED this book)

phew.... I'll be here all night but those are some of my favorites.

I've also read a lot of books on sound engineering, real estate, investing and some very crazy books in prison like The Bible, The Koran & Satans Bible. I actually liked Satans Bible more than the first 2. Not cause I'm evil but Satans Bible makes some very logical arguments about topics that will bend your mind. Then there was "Serial Killer Writings by G J Schaefer". It's another very evil book and I did a lot of skim reading but certain parts of the book give you an inside glimpse of psychopaths that you'll never read in any mainstream books.

My interest in psychopaths isn't just based on murder. But there is another side to psychopaths that society rarely notices. I've mentioned it in others threads but CEO's have more psychopaths as a profession than any other profession in the world.

And many people don't realize that psychopaths are both the worlds most valuable group of people, but also the most destructive. They can build hugely successful business empires, employ hundreds of thousands of people.... and they can also go on murdering sprees chopping peoples heads off. But I've always found that dichotomy very appealing.

In fact, I once wrote a paper for school titled, "Everyones A Psychopath" and I find it strange that till this day I still believe that.

Like Harvard did a 10 year study on implicit racism and this study proved that EVERYONE is racist. It's not a question of "if" but "how much". You can be 2% racist, 38%, 80%.... but very few people score under 2% and NOBODY can pass the test.

I believe the same thing applies to psychopathy. Everyone is a psychopath. It's not a question of if but a matter of degree. We all have the ability to employ selective empathy anytime we want. To value humans over cows. Or dogs over pigs. We all categorize, judge and compartmentalize same way serial killers do. It's just a matter of degree.

I basically argued that psychopathy is a manifestation of our survival instinct - not a mechanism of disorder and chaos.

The people who go out killing others. They are just on the further end of the spectrum. And many of them suffer from a lot more than just psychopathy. Like anger issues, control, ego problems, bad upbringings, prefrontal lobe anomalies etc.


-BB

 

[dannyslimited]

Thank you BB. You've got a great gift.

 

[Capo Dei Capi]

You can change your diet, do some mental exercises and take nootropics to increase your intelligence.

https://www.bulletproofexec.com/upgrade-your-brain/

 

[sully1975]

What no Bowen Dynamic Family Theory? They cram it up your ass in any addictions based psychology tracks.
With all the Freud, you must dislike Jung and all the Heresies that sprouted off from him like personality typology, which is technically a tool of management. I view it more like a card counting of people.
No audiobooks? I used to download anything nonfiction too and put it in a cheap ass mp3 player and walk around or instead use it for driving. Kindle or books for toilet time or waiting in doctor's appointments.

Remember psychopaths have a diminished sense of smell. So do the fart test.

 

[Avid Learner]

Is the internet not new kind of books for you? It sure is for me. And sometimes it's even better than books because it saves time.

In many ways it is. But, with such low barriers to entry, anyone can say anything on the internet, so you now have to do the vetting rather than the publishers.

Still, encyclopedias have virtually disappeared, and thanks to Wikipedia, Google, etc, we have answers at our fingertips for most of the world's knowledge.

Universities might be greatly diminished with the advent of online courses, and higher level of education will be accessible to a great many who, today, can not afford it.

 

[SilverJanuary]

Think & Grow Rich

Ah, I'm currently listening to the AudioBook version of this. Can't wait to get through this one.

 

[Zwielicht]

True that brother. Reminds me that I need to get my kids to start reading way more. Need to find some resources on how to do this. Isn't going to be easy weening them off of the TV and ipads.

I've been trying to wean my 7 year old sister off of her tablet multiple times over the past few years now. Before I weaned her off of her tablet the first time when she was 3 1/2 years old, her behaviour was abysmal; she would kick, spit, and become vulgar because she couldn't watch "StampyLonghead". I was successful at weaning her off of the tablet by offering her incentives & incentives at different milestones (the first week, she would get a toy, the first month, she would get a bigger toy, and so on and so forth) and I was planning to reintroduce the tablet to her with YouTube blocked so that she could use it as a source of learning rather than for watching pointless videos Minecraft videos on YouTube, but then her grandparents bought her a new tablet and she was back to her old ways.

If you can tackle one problem at a time (I suggest weaning them off of the television before the tablet first since it's easier), you can easily get rid of that habitat.