Becoming more intelligent

[IndomitableSam]

Do some reading about librarians. You don't have to take courses, just learn about who we really are and what we really do. We're not smarter than everyone else... we just know where to look to find the answers (even is all we know is who to ask when you don't have a clue yourself where to start). It's all applied knowledge. We learn all the time because our job is to find answers, not know answers. So if you know where to look - even just where to start looking - that's more than enough. Just to even want to know more is enough.

As for myself, personally... I do a lot of quick learning. Basically if I hear or see something I find interesting, I'll look it up and find out what it is and what it's about. And then something related will catch my interest and I'll follow that.

My best example would be I saw a blurb in a book about the oldest tree in the world - Methuselah (spelling?), so I looked it up. And then I just started following the Wikipedia bread crumbs to longest living plants, animals, tree colonies, looking up the histories of different old trees which led to quick jaunts into the history of the places where they are, learning more about Bow Whales, which leads to learning about old whale hunting cultures (as the whales can be hundreds of years old)... and so on and so forth.

 

[Rowan93]

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study. Anyway, the book where I got this was called "Frames of Mind" by Howard Gardner. It not only covers the idea that there are many elements to intelligence, but also explains how to develop each of them. If you have a kindle or and iPad it should be downloadable. Otherwise, you could find it in a book store.

If there are different kinds of intelligence, it's still completely possible for one person to be smarter on every single axis of intelligence than some other person. In fact, you'd expect a lot of the things that effect one kind of intelligence would also effect other kinds of intelligence, (like, having good enough nutrition that your brain develops properly) so one kind of intelligence should correlate with another, so people being smarter than other people should be quite common actually.

 

[sageoftruth]

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study. Anyway, the book where I got this was called "Frames of Mind" by Howard Gardner. It not only covers the idea that there are many elements to intelligence, but also explains how to develop each of them. If you have a kindle or and iPad it should be downloadable. Otherwise, you could find it in a book store.

If there are different kinds of intelligence, it's still completely possible for one person to be smarter on every single axis of intelligence than some other person. In fact, you'd expect a lot of the things that effect one kind of intelligence would also effect other kinds of intelligence, (like, having good enough nutrition that your brain develops properly) so one kind of intelligence should correlate with another, so people being smarter than other people should be quite common actually.

I'll need to read up on it a bit more before I can say for sure if that's correct. Considering that emotional intelligence and executive function are are elements of it, that would certainly rule out all the cases involving awkward savants or absentminded professors.

 

[bemusement]

Ask her how she thinks things out (thought process) then try to emulate it.

 

[Soundwave]

Have you been to khanacademy.org ? It's like a self-education site that's completely free and junk. It's the only way I'm able to stay afloat in the math courses I've been taking.

 

[Rowan93]

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study. Anyway, the book where I got this was called "Frames of Mind" by Howard Gardner. It not only covers the idea that there are many elements to intelligence, but also explains how to develop each of them. If you have a kindle or and iPad it should be downloadable. Otherwise, you could find it in a book store.

If there are different kinds of intelligence, it's still completely possible for one person to be smarter on every single axis of intelligence than some other person. In fact, you'd expect a lot of the things that effect one kind of intelligence would also effect other kinds of intelligence, (like, having good enough nutrition that your brain develops properly) so one kind of intelligence should correlate with another, so people being smarter than other people should be quite common actually.

I'll need to read up on it a bit more before I can say for sure if that's correct. Considering that emotional intelligence and executive function are are elements of it, that would certainly rule out all the cases involving awkward savants or absentminded professors.

That's just a stereotype of people with very high IQs. It might be partly true, but high-IQ people are a very small fraction of the population. What if you instead compared a group of people with IQs around 115 and a group of people with IQs around 85?

 

[krazykidd]

So, you want to get smarter ( and healthier ) to impress a girl you are dating. Sorry to break it to you, but you are destined to fail. You are doing it for the wrong reasons, you're going to get fed up and give up eventually.

A person doesn't just set out to be intelligent, they have to want to learn about things, and have an interest in them.

 

[Saelune]

Im a history nerd, so for enjoyment I read up on history. I also am a DnD nerd... and created my own setting based on the real world, so I often look up different historical cultures to create more authentic places.

 

[WoW Killer]

If you want to stretch those logic muscles, check out Tarski's World [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarski's_World]. Takes me back to my University days; fun times.

A lot of people think of logic as one of those fundamentals that you're either good or bad at, but in reality you can get better at it through practice.

Captcha: deep thought. Ha, indeed.

 

[sageoftruth]

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study. Anyway, the book where I got this was called "Frames of Mind" by Howard Gardner. It not only covers the idea that there are many elements to intelligence, but also explains how to develop each of them. If you have a kindle or and iPad it should be downloadable. Otherwise, you could find it in a book store.

If there are different kinds of intelligence, it's still completely possible for one person to be smarter on every single axis of intelligence than some other person. In fact, you'd expect a lot of the things that effect one kind of intelligence would also effect other kinds of intelligence, (like, having good enough nutrition that your brain develops properly) so one kind of intelligence should correlate with another, so people being smarter than other people should be quite common actually.

I'll need to read up on it a bit more before I can say for sure if that's correct. Considering that emotional intelligence and executive function are are elements of it, that would certainly rule out all the cases involving awkward savants or absentminded professors.

That's just a stereotype of people with very high IQs. It might be partly true, but high-IQ people are a very small fraction of the population. What if you instead compared a group of people with IQs around 115 and a group of people with IQs around 85?

Good point. I'll still need to look into the actual material, or I'll just be blowing smoke, but I'll try to get back to you on it.

 

[Ieyke]

Hang on to that girl.
Anyone who inspires you to better yourself is a good person to keep around, and having that person be a woman you want to date only magnifies the effect drastically.
Being impressed by your partner is pretty much the ideal situation.


Becoming more intelligent is.....difficult bordering if not impossible....for now.

It's important to understand the difference between intelligence and knowledge.
Knowledge is what you know, intelligence is sort of the horsepower you have to process what you know.

Eating right and exercising can markedly improve cognitive function. The more of the right stuff you do for your body the less energy your body has to expend counteracting the bad stuff, and therefore the more energy you have to spare for thinking. Exercise, likewise, makes your body more efficient, and it gets more oxygen blasting through your system and makes your brain move quicker.

All of that stuff doesn't necessarily improve your actual intelligence per se, so much as they make you function toward the higher end of your base intelligence range while you maintain those practices.

Honestly, the only thing that might make you genuinely more intelligent is just straight-up "practice". The more you use your brain, and the harder you make it work, the better it gets at it.

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Where knowledge is concerned, just DEVOUR science news and follow through on learning about anything you find interesting.

Watch a lot of stuff like:
DNews - https://www.youtube.com/user/DNewsChannel/videos
VSauce - https://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce/videos
Shots Of Awe - https://www.youtube.com/user/ShotsOfAwe/videos
Nature Hates You - https://www.youtube.com/user/NatureHates/videos

But don't just mindlessly watch a video and stop. When something you see makes you wonder about something, or you find something to be interesting, or something is mentioned that you don't know, GO LOOK IT UP.
Wikipedia is an AMAZING resource.

I'll watch an Assasssin's Creed 4 promo all about Edward Kenway's ship....and then 4 hours later I'll realize I just read every Wikipedia page about every type of ship, cannon, and every famous pirate that existed during the Golden Age Of Piracy. Suddenly I have a much clearer idea of that time and place in history, all because I went beyond a simple commercial and utilized the powers of The Internets.

I can't tell you how much stuff I've learned that way.

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If you use Facebook, follow I Fucking Love Science. She posts all manner of crazy new science news all day every day. You will learn new crazy stuff CONSTANTLY.

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They're not so much informative, but check out Boston Dynamics and Festo if you're interested in robots....and then go learn about them.
https://www.youtube.com/user/BostonDynamics/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/FestoHQ/videos

Check out the EyeBorg Documentary for CliffNotes on the world of bionic prosthetics (and remember that that video is already a few years old now).
http://youtu.be/IshL18Lh64I

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Other stuff I find awesome:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/253590/skynet_espionage_begins_unmanned_drone_creates_3d_models.html
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/134672-harvard-cracks-dna-storage-crams-700-terabytes-of-data-into-a-single-gram
http://www.vice-motherboard-test.appspot.com/blog/heads-up-hoverboarders-here-comes-quantum-levitation--2
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114297-Scientists-Unveil-Worlds-Lightest-Material
http://www.cracked.com/article_19952_the-6-most-mind-blowing-animal-senses_p2.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2119343/King-Wasps-Indonesia-Two-half-inch-monster-jaws-longer-legs.html
http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/microalgae-lamp-absorbs-150-200-times-more-co2-tree-video.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/scientists-create-new-ear_n_2728612.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
http://mashable.com/2013/05/24/3d-printed-ear-princeton/
http://engineering.columbia.edu/even-defects-graphene-strongest-material-world
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113593-Paleontologist-Discovers-Giant-Kraken-Lair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna

More than perhaps anything else you do, reflect upon everything you learn, how it related to what you already knew, and how it relates to other things you've discovered.
Eventually you start to build up a vast view of what's out there, and you start to see trends and patterns in what's going on.

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Go forth and conquer!

 

[Someone Depressing]

In the times of yonger (High school) I was terrible at maths. I passed my final amths exam by 1 mark. Seriously. And even then, I just tell people that I skipped maths class by way of truancy or they'd expect me to answer questions.

I'm somewhat comptetent at maths, and getting equations right makes me feel like a badass.

Learning Japanese also gave me a much broader understanding of how language in general works; especially a language like Japanese, which is designed to be quickly spoken, clear, and hard to learn, so that probably made me a much smarter person.

I also read. A lot. That also probably has a part.

 

[Ieyke]

So, you want to get smarter ( and healthier ) to impress a girl you are dating. Sorry to break it to you, but you are destined to fail. You are doing it for the wrong reasons, you're going to get fed up and give up eventually.

A person doesn't just set out to be intelligent, they have to want to learn about things, and have an interest in them.

That's not how the OP reads.
It reads as though she is impressive to him, and she's inspiring him to better himself.
That's pretty much one of the single best and most powerful motivations anyone can have.

 

[Ieyke]

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study.

Nonsense.

Some people are OBVIOUSLY smarter than others.
Don't confuse being smart(intelligent) with being knowledgeable.

Knowledge is the information you have learned.
Intelligence is your ability to apply the knowledge.

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Fox News is a perfect example of idiots who are swimming in data.
It doesn't matter WHAT they know, because they're utterly incompetent at applying it and understanding what it actually means.
On the other hand, there might be a brilliant hobo out there somewhere who only knows basic stuff but can apply that simple knowledge to produce amazing insights.

 

[cerebus23]

Youtube is a haven for science math and documentary stuff, any given day i can find and watch hours of "smart" stuff if i choose to.

See a bunch of links posted above, vsauce is excellent, spacerip has a ton of good videos but think they do their own thing off utube anymore, pbs idea channel has some great stuff, start viewing a few and you will see tons of math science related stuff.

Just opening your mind to the fact that the world, universe is full of more things than you can possibly imagine goes a long way to understanding how limited our intelligence is. And therefore you can equate even the smartest people on earth as blithering idiots when you stack it up against all the things we do not know or cannot understand about the universe we inhabit.

 

[kurokotetsu]

So, you want to get smarter ( and healthier ) to impress a girl you are dating. Sorry to break it to you, but you are destined to fail. You are doing it for the wrong reasons, you're going to get fed up and give up eventually.

A person doesn't just set out to be intelligent, they have to want to learn about things, and have an interest in them.

That's not how the OP reads.
It reads as though she is impressive to him, and she's inspiring him to better himself.
That's pretty much one of the single best and most powerful motivations anyone can have.

For the adquisition of knowledge, I would argue against that kind of motivation and probably agree with krazykid. For the pursuit of knowledge, love for the pursuit should be the primary motivator, because if it is for someone else, as soon as that motivator is gone, the motivation to better your understanding (or physical condition) is gone. Therefore it can be argued that it is not a good reason to do.

One useful thing I learned about intelligence is that there are many ways to be intelligent. Kind of renders obsolete the statement that one person is smarter than another, unless they're talking about a certain field of study.

Nonsense.

Some people are OBVIOUSLY smarter than others.
Don't confuse being smart(intelligent) with being knowledgeable.

Knowledge is the information you have learned.
Intelligence is your ability to apply the knowledge.

.
Fox News is a perfect example of idiots who are swimming in data.
It doesn't matter WHAT they know, because they're utterly incompetent at applying it and understanding what it actually means.
On the other hand, there might be a brilliant hobo out there somewhere who only knows basic stuff but can apply that simple knowledge to produce amazing insights.

Sagepftruth was probably not talking about that, but about Howard Gardner's thesis, that there is no single intelligence in humans, but several. There are logical and verbal, what we assosiciate with "standard" intelligence. But there are also social interpersonal intelligence (your ability to relate to others, which is you could argue cheerleaders or popular high school kids have much more developed than the socially awkward know-it.all) or kinesthetic (the ability to move and the ability to manipulate) or spatial (sense of direction and comprehension of your surroundings). So, according to the theory, an QB in American Football has probably great spatial and kinesthetic intelligence, even when we doesn't have the best logical or verbal skills (according to stereotype), meaning that he is smart, just a different kind of smart than what you would normally understand as smart. Of course there are several critiscisms of this theory, but I doubt that there is a confussion between knowledgeable and intelligent.

 

[WoW Killer]

I wouldn't say it's all that clear between knowledge and intelligence. Just like you can get better at a physical activity with exercise, you can improve your cognitive skills with practice. If you take up swimming you'll be able to hold your breath longer. Likewise you can perform memory exercises to improve your memory. Take up any kind of puzzle regularly (e.g. Sudoku) and you'll get better at it over time.

What does a cognitive technique or 'trick' fall under? There are many trick methods or shorthands to working out common arithmetical questions. You may know, for instance, a quick way to multiply a number by eleven. There's a shorter method for squaring a number in your head(*). Knowing such a technique is knowledge, obviously, but does it not also fall under the category of intelligence? Said techniques can be applied in many different ways, just like those lungs you've been training through swimming will help you ride a bike. To me, it all falls under cognition. Regardless, I don't believe there's any true way of testing innate cognitive abilities that don't give an advantage to those who have practiced a particular area (e.g. memory, logic).

Spoiler: (*)

Use (x + y)[sup]2[/sup] = x[sup]2[/sup] + y[sup]2[/sup] + 2xy and choose x and y for ease of mental calculation. For instance, take 17 = 10 + 7, therefore

17[sup]2[/sup] = 10[sup]2[/sup] + 7[sup]2[/sup] + 2*10*7 = 100 + 49 + 140 = 289.

Taking 18 = 10 + 8, you have

18[sup]2[/sup] = 10[sup]2[/sup] + 8[sup]2[/sup] + 2*8*10 = 100 + 64 + 160 = 324.

65 = 60 + 5, so 65[sup]2[/sup] = 3600 + 25 + 600 = 4225.

318[sup]2[/sup] = 90000 + 324 + 10800 = 101124.

Now do some in your head, and feel really clever.

 

[Ieyke]

Sagepftruth was probably not talking about that, but about Howard Gardner's thesis, that there is no single intelligence in humans, but several. There are logical and verbal, what we assosiciate with "standard" intelligence. But there are also social interpersonal intelligence (your ability to relate to others, which is you could argue cheerleaders or popular high school kids have much more developed than the socially awkward know-it.all) or kinesthetic (the ability to move and the ability to manipulate) or spatial (sense of direction and comprehension of your surroundings). So, according to the theory, an QB in American Football has probably great spatial and kinesthetic intelligence, even when we doesn't have the best logical or verbal skills (according to stereotype), meaning that he is smart, just a different kind of smart than what you would normally understand as smart. Of course there are several critiscisms of this theory, but I doubt that there is a confussion between knowledgeable and intelligent.

It's a stretch to rename introversion/extroversion and coordination types of intelligence. And even then, some people are clearly smarter than others, if you were to call those things types of intelligence.

 

[axlryder]

I wouldn't say it's all that clear between knowledge and intelligence. Just like you can get better at a physical activity with exercise, you can improve your cognitive skills with practice. If you take up swimming you'll be able to hold your breath longer. Likewise you can perform memory exercises to improve your memory. Take up any kind of puzzle regularly (e.g. Sudoku) and you'll get better at it over time.

What does a cognitive technique or 'trick' fall under? There are many trick methods or shorthands to working out common arithmetical questions. You may know, for instance, a quick way to multiply a number by eleven. There's a shorter method for squaring a number in your head(*). Knowing such a technique is knowledge, obviously, but does it not also fall under the category of intelligence? Said techniques can be applied in many different ways, just like those lungs you've been training through swimming will help you ride a bike. To me, it all falls under cognition. Regardless, I don't believe there's any true way of testing innate cognitive abilities that don't give an advantage to those who have practiced a particular area (e.g. memory, logic).

Spoiler: (*)

Use (x + y)[sup]2[/sup] = x[sup]2[/sup] + y[sup]2[/sup] + 2xy and choose x and y for ease of mental calculation. For instance, take 17 = 10 + 7, therefore

17[sup]2[/sup] = 10[sup]2[/sup] + 7[sup]2[/sup] + 2*10*7 = 100 + 49 + 140 = 289.

Taking 18 = 10 + 8, you have

18[sup]2[/sup] = 10[sup]2[/sup] + 8[sup]2[/sup] + 2*8*10 = 100 + 64 + 160 = 324.

65 = 60 + 5, so 65[sup]2[/sup] = 3600 + 25 + 600 = 4225.

318[sup]2[/sup] = 90000 + 324 + 10800 = 101124.

Now do some in your head, and feel really clever.

Yeah, there are a few mathematical shortcuts I've figured out over the years, like working out percentages and remembering 20 digit strings of numbers. It does feel a bit like a mental parlor trick, but I had to learn to apply those techniques on the fly, so it must count for something. That said, having worked in high-end retail, I've also just gotten good at subtracting and adding large numbers (usually in the 5-6 digit range) or keeping track of several figures in my head at once. No shortcuts, my brain just does it because I've practiced.

To me, there is effectively very little difference between someone who is innately intelligent and someone who has worked their ass off to be able to do the same things as said innately intelligent person. Yes, the upper ceiling of what I'll be able to do in many categories may never reach the same level as theirs, but that would still put me well and above most other "normal" people. Just like a smaller framed person who has worked out frequently and can bench 250 pounds as a result.

 

[kurokotetsu]

It's a stretch to rename introversion/extroversion and coordination types of intelligence. And even then, some people are clearly smarter than others, if you were to call those things types of intelligence.

That is what the thesis says, and it is pretty predominant in certain circles (form what I've seen, it is very common in educational circles). There is also musical, intrapersonal, naturalistic and existential, intelligences. Also it is more than being an extrovert or introvert. A manipulative person can be pretty ontrovert, but understand otehr peoples feelings at a moment (certain characteristics of a psycopath), meaning he has good social intelligence even when being not a very sociable person.

The merits of this theory are probably not in the scope of the topic, but it was probably invoked to make OP not feel bad about himself. Even if he isn't that good at logical intelligence than his girlfriend, he is probably smarter in other areas (muscial, kinesthetic, social...) than his girlfirend and therefore he shouldn't feel less than intelligent than her, as he has developed different intelligences.